
Purpose
To learn how closely observing animals, processes, and events can lead scientists to act ethically based on identifying patterns, measuring evidence, and gathering data.
Context
This lesson is based on the book Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World, by Sy Montgomery. The book is one of the winners of the 2013 SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books. SB&F, Science Books & Films, is a project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The class will read it as a group, taking turns reading. Or the class could be helped by guest readers, if needed, from upper-school buddies, visiting parents, or you. They will then revisit the story individually or in small groups through access to multiple copies of the book, which will help them expand their notes in the student sheet, and integrate those into written essays.
The book traces the life of Temple Grandin, the famous female animal behavior scientist who always knew she was "different": she had autism. The book probes autism, animal welfare, and adolescent identity issues perhaps more than it robustly interrogates science—and that's a strength, because in the person of Temple Grandin, the book highlights three human traits students will find engaging that help define the nature of science: incredible powers of observation and visual perception; indefatigable commitment to problem solving based on evidence; and a drive to organize information and draw conclusions to implement change. In Temple's case, that organizational scheme is visual: She thinks in pictures. The book pays special attention to the hot-button adolescent issue of "being different vs. fitting in."
Read MorePlanning Ahead
To orient yourself to Temple Grandin and her work, consult Temple Grandin. Pay special attention to the bold-faced questions to find quick, direct summaries on her thoughts about a given topic. This gives you the gist of her clear, direct style of thinking and speaking.
To get a sense of her trademark cowboy shirts, see the short video interview Temple Grandin and Her Cowboy Shirts.
There are five handouts: 1. A student sheet to help guide students through the videos; 2. A student sheet for notetaking and essay writing; 3. A teacher sheet to guide chapter discussions; 4. A teacher sheet to help evaluate essays; 5. A student sheet of a cowboy shirt template to print and hand out for designing a shirt and taking notes on the back.
Motivation
To introduce the class to both Temple Grandin's personal presence, mannerisms and mindset, have them use their Meet Temple Grandin student esheet to guide their viewing of the short video, Temple Grandin and Her Cowboy Shirts.
Students should follow that video with a more in depth look at Temple's professional style and traits—and to see her science in action—by watching the first 5 minutes, 15 seconds (5:15) of a 10-minute video, produced by the Glass Walls Project of the American Meat Institute called Video Tour of Beef Plant Featuring Temple Grandin. It looks at the humane killing of cattle for meat. Have students use the esheet to guide their viewing.
Sensitivity Alert: Note that the entire 10-minute video does show the animal being killed (no blood or squeals, but life is lost) and then processed humanely, in a way Temple designed, approves of, and is proud of. Decide if this is right for the personal history of your students (recent death in the family?), emotional maturity level in general, and the learning mood you are trying to create in the classroom.
Read MoreDevelopment
The class will experience this book two ways: First, as a read-aloud, listening and discussing as a group. Second, through individual research time with the book and computer access to research materials so they can complete the Temple Grandin student sheet essays that require a synthetic integration of the big ideas in the book. Emphasize the deliberate use of two methods of accessing information: ears as a group vs. eyes individually. Ask them to reflect on a personal learning style: Do they like listening and talking as a group better or prefer working alone, writing? How might Temple Grandin respond?
There are five steps to this lesson: I. Prep; II. Read Aloud; III. Discuss; IV. Style Show and Personal Reflection; and V. Essay Writing.
Step I: Prep
1. Print out the Temple Grandin student sheet and hand one to each student. Explain this is for notes during discussion, which they will reference when assigned essays as material to expand and interconnect.
2.Print out the Temple Grandin Cowboy Shirt template and hand one to each student. On the front, they will use their design minds to make their own cowboy shirt design, with markers or collage materials. On the back, they will listen for one or two key ideas—Temple Truths—and write them down. For example, the prologue could be a Temple Truth. Though it is attributed to Plato, if it rings true to a student, it is a Temple Truth: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
Step II. Read Aloud
1. Begin the read aloud, one to two chapters/day in which students actively listen to the story while they also design with markers or collage their own cowboy shirt on the front of the template you handed out, jotting notes and truths on the back. The reader role may be filled by the teacher, upper-school buddies, visiting parents or grandparents, or students in the class.
2. Project the Google page with the Temple Grandin and Her Cowboy Shirts results for all to see as you read so students may be inspired by it, drawn more deeply into it as they come to understand Temple Grandin.
Step III. Discussion
1. At the end of each chapter, use the Temple Grandin teacher sheet to access discussion questions for each chapter. Students have three roles in the discussion: active participant; taking notes on the discussion that will help them build an inventory of ideas to use when they are assigned integrative essays to write; and thinking about design and repeating patterns on their cowboy shirts.
Step IV. Style Show and Personal Reflection
At the end of the discussion, invite students up to talk about design and how they approached their cowboy shirt. Then allow individual reading or small group work so students have time to elaborate on their notes on the student sheet by referencing the book or researching on the computer.
Step V. Essay Writing
Here students bring ideas together by using their notes to integrate themes from their reading, reflection, and discussion. You may access the Temple Grandin Answer Key for ideas about the essays.
(OPTIONAL: Sharing and Peer Teaching)
At the end of the book in one to two weeks, the class can make a sampler called "The Shirts and Sayings of Temple Grandin," composed of their cowboy shirt templates showing a design on one side and a Temple Truth saying on the back. They can hang them clotheline-style in the cafeteria to have a public display or spark schoolwide discussion.
To take it a step further, they can hold a 3D style show of cowboy shirt design, and invite other grades to view it so the students have another opportunity for peer teaching. A 3D style show entails transferring one favorite design from the cowboy shirt template to a paper grocery bag that has been cut to fit a student as if it were a vest: snipped vertically up one side, a hole for the head cut in the bottom, and two arm holes cut in the side. Now it's a sleeveless cowboy shirt "base." Students can transfer their sampler designs with markers or collage to this large version. When they wear it, it's 3D. And when other kids watch them, it's a style—and idea—show.
Assessment
To test for understanding of how the big ideas of autism, visual thinking, and animal welfare are linked to the nature of science, form a summarizing circle called here the Wheel of Knowledge. Divide the class in half. One group forms a circle with their backs to the center of the circle, facing outward. The second group forms a circle facing their friends' fronts, wiith their backs facing away from the center. You should stand in the center and give prompts (see the 10 prompts below). Each student pair must discuss responses to the prompts among themselves for one minute (or for a length you decide). After each discussion, the wheel turns "one student" to the right on both wheels (so they move in opposite direcitons) and new partners and pairings occur. You listen for content and, at the end of a 10-minute review cycle, ask students to sit down in the circle while you review the strong points you heard in disucssions and correct misunderstandings and errors. To strengthen understanding, you may assign individual or paired reading/reviews from the book copies, and then repeat the Wheel of Knowledge.
PROMPTS:
- Describe scenes from Temple Grandin's first five years of childhood, answering questions like: What did her parents think of her? How did she act? How old was she when she learned to talk? What games did she play?
- What does it mean to "think visually"? Or to think in pictures? Give an example from your own life. For example, Temple Grandin sees a specific church if people mention that word. Do you? What does it look like? How does that affect the way you understand and learn?
- Who are Temple's best friends? How would she describe friendship?
- What do you think suits her to science so well?
- What is autism? How is it caused? Name two traits of autistic people, and discuss how varied the condition may be. In what ways does TG think differently?
- In what way are autistic people disabled? In what way are they super-abled?
- What were Temple's experiences in school like? Why did she switch schools? If you were to design a school for Temple, with the same care she designed a system for animals, what would it be like?
- Name some of the things TG built or designed. Why do you think she chose those projects? Why do they comfort her?
- How did TG's fascination with the squeeze machine help her succeed in college? What did it lead her to study, and what kind of friendships did it help her make?
- What kinds of evidence convinced big meat-packing companies that her designs were good for animals and good for business? What is scientific about TG's work with animals?
Extensions
Extend the learning about the nature of science and science as a profession by guiding students through the Science NetLinks lesson: Jean Craighead George: Unsentimental Naturalist.
Next, focus on these quesitons to compare and contrast Jean Craighead George's life in science with that of Temple Grandin's. Besides the book, a good summary site for TG is Temple Grandin on her struggles and 'yak yaks' from NBC News.
- When and where was she born?
- How old is she now?
- How did her family fuel her interest in science and the natural world?
- What did she study in college?
- What subjects was she good at in school that help her in her work now? Give examples.
- Name two personality traits of each woman that suits them to the work they do.
- What did Temple Grandin struggle with? What challenges did Jean Craighead George face?
- Do you consider either woman disabled? Why or why not?
There are many paths to original, innovative ideas. Temple Grandin's condition of autism has helped her focus her highly visual imagination to improve the lives of food animals. The author, Sy Montgomery, also has a "different mind"—if you consider living with a 750-pound hog for a pet "different."
Have your students work with partners to role play the characters of researcher and author—both with "different minds"—and then perform a one-minute skit, pretending they are on a Web cast of a researcher and author who have written a highly unusual book together. Students should develop: 1. a topic, 2. a method of research, 3. a way to convey clearly with their body their different mind and abilities, 4. a way to describe with words their unusual abilities, skills, location, or conditions it takes to do their research, and 5. a report on the results of their research/work. If time permits, students may change roles as author and researcher, using all that they have learned about Temple Grandin and Sy Montgomery as the starting point from which to create highly original characters with different minds.