Draw a Scientist

Education, science, and methodology day!

There's this activity that's pretty common, which made me really happy when I first saw it.  It's called the Draw-a-Scientist Test.  Basically, a class of kids is asked to describe a scientist and draw a picture.  They all draw white guys with wild white hair, wearing a lab coat, holding some kind of bubbling chemical in a beaker.  The class then goes on a field trip to Fermilab, and when they come back, they adjust their description and picture.  All of a sudden, scientists are normal people in jeans, in front of computers.  There are women and people of color thrown into the mix.  Check these out.


So neat!  Warms my little science heart!

But wait.

A group of researchers looked as these results and probably noticed that eighth graders drew the same picture of a scientist in a lab coat when asked to draw a scientist, even if they took the field trip to Fermilab as seventh graders and supposedly learned that scientists are just like you and me.  That, or they noticed that the pictures of scientists drawn after the field trip basically reiterate the theme of the trip, which was repeated over and over: scientists are normal people!

So they asked the kids instead to "Do a drawing which tells what you know about scientists and their work."  All of a sudden, the drawings looked a whole lot like the drawings that were produced after the field trip.  Turns out that when kids hear "Draw a scientist" they assume you're asking "Draw the most stereotypical scientist you can.  The one your teacher is looking for you to draw right now."

So this speaks to the fact that kids (and people in general) will often assume there is a correct answer and are good at judging the answer you want them to give.  You want them to draw an antisocial chemist with questionable hygiene?  Here you go!  You want them to draw the guy they met on the field trip with a speech bubble stating the point of the trip?  You got it!