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Bio Tool #16 · All year · Advisory and Biology · SOL BIO.1

Which Paw? Sixteen Scientists and the Four Paws

Courage, Honesty, Impact and Purpose are the Four Paws at Battlefield High School. Sixteen real scientists each showed one of them at a documented moment, with something to lose. Read a story, pick the paw, bet on your reasoning, and argue about it.

Every account was checked against at least two sources. Most of these people could fairly sit under more than one paw, and that is the point of the game: a strong argument can move a card.

Mode
Cards
How to run a round (about 25 minutes, no preparation)
  1. Deal. Pick the number of teams and press Deal. Each team gets one scientist.
  2. Read. Tap the face. Two minutes, out loud or silently.
  3. Place it. The team picks the paw the moment shows. With a single-paw deck, the question is whether the card belongs there or should move.Name the line in the story that decides it.
  4. Bet 1, 2 or 3 on how well anyone on the team can defend it.
  5. Call a seat. The advisor calls one seat number. That person explains, with no help from the team.
  6. Reveal. Press Reveal for the placement and the best case for a second paw. Any other team can call Move it!, take 30 seconds to argue for a different paw, and the room votes.
  7. Score the reasoning with the ladder below, then close with the talk question.
LevelWhat the called seat did
0Could not explain. The team loses its bet.
1Named a paw.
2Pointed to the moment in the story that shows it.
3Used the paw’s question (“Did I leave it better?”) and answered an objection.
4Transfer: said where the same choice shows up in their own life today.

Points are the level times the bet. A level 4 earns a Paw Print: a Pawsitive card or a QR nomination. Points go to the reasoning, so a team can disagree with the placement and still score high.

The board

Press Deal to give each team a scientist.

All sixteen, and the paw each one is placed under

Talk about it

  1. Where did you see one of the Four Paws at Battlefield this week?
  2. Which card was hardest to place? What made it hard?
  3. Pick one scientist. What would the same choice look like in a hallway, on a team, or at a job?
  1. Which card did your class move, and what evidence won the vote?
  2. Arnold and Goodall each reported something that hurt their own story. Why does science depend on people doing that?
  3. What does one of the paws look like in a lab, or in the field you want to work in?

Image credits

All portraits are public domain or openly licensed, from Wikimedia Commons, cropped to a square and resized. No likeness here was drawn or generated.