Drawing and photographing an observation

Source A: an original imagined statement by a teacher about recording a classroom microscope observation.

I would like students to make a drawing before deciding that a photograph has completed the record. Drawing asks them to choose a line, decide which parts belong together and identify the feature they want someone else to notice. A careful diagram can make an important relationship clearer than an image containing more detail without explanation.

This is not a request for an attractive picture. A beautifully shaded page can still leave the observation unexplained. I want students to say what they have represented, what they have left uncertain and how their labels help a reader understand it.

A photograph may be useful alongside the drawing. The comparison can reveal something the student overlooked or represented too confidently. My concern is with a record treated as finished merely because a button has been pressed. The thinking should remain visible in the choices around the image.

Source B: an original imagined student comment about the same classroom activity.

I find a photograph useful because I can return to what I saw after the lesson ends. My drawing may leave out a feature before I realise I need to think about it. Having an image to examine again gives another opportunity to ask what that feature was and whether my first account made sense.

Taking the picture does not answer those questions automatically. I still need to explain where the interesting part is and distinguish something I can identify from a detail about which I am uncertain. An unlabeled image can be as difficult for another person to understand as an unclear sketch.

I would rather be asked to compare what the drawing and photograph make available than told that one method always shows more care. Selecting a useful view, adding an explanation and revising a first impression can require attention in either. The point is to make the observation available for further thought.

Compare the views in Sources A and B about the benefits of drawings and photographs when recording an observation.