To think a scientific diagram should not be coloured in?

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

I was taught at school that diagrams in science are only ever done in pencil. They should be labelled with ruled lines and again in pencil.
Ds' teacher (year3) gives out extra stars ( their reward system) for neatly coloured in diagrams. For example last week's science hwk was to draw and label a diagram of a flowering plant, showing roots, leaves, stem and flowers. Ds did a neat pencil diagram just of the plant and labelled the bits. When we .got to school another child who had drawn a plant, coloured it and coloured the sky and grass was being complimented on the fantastic effort she had put into her work.
Obviously this is a very minor problem and I wouldn't dream of saying anything to the teacher but I am right aren't i?

No I don't think you are right: colour makes things clearer and I am afraid that what you and I were taught in school on this, and many other subjects, has been superseded by new (and very likely improved) thinking!

I think the expectations may change as they progress through school. Calling a 7 year olds drawing a scientific diagram seems a bit ridiculous tbh.

Ah gosh! Surely no backgrounds though? So should ds have coloured the leaves and flowers?

Well most of my scientific textbooks have lots of coloured-in diagrams so I think yabu. Having said that I would rate correct labelling more important than neat colouring. Mind you I am a university tutor and not a Y3 teacher!

Surely that is a botanical drawing and those are coloured aren't they...?

I was taught scientific diagrams such as equipment for experiments should be in pencil.
I think biological drawings varied a bit, and we did use colour for some if it would help to clarify things. I agree that there shouldn't be backgrounds and things though - it is a diagram to aid teaching/learning not a work of art!

Coloured in- fine.

Background, grass, sky, random dog, house with smoke coming out of chimney- not fine.

I have an anatomy and physiology colouring book. it helps me to remember stuff .

She is year 3. part of what the teacher is doing is rewarding the fact that the girl who did the fancy colouring put time and effort into it rather than just rushing. The teacher is fostering an interest in learning and helping children to find satisfaction in doing the job well.

I am not of course saying that your dd didn't do it well or make an effort. Just saying that all kinds of different attempts and levels of work will be rewarded at this age. clarification of what is appropriate will come later as their work matures.

Thank you all. Will suggest to ds that he colours in biological diagrams in future.
Yes agree re praise. Clearly the little girl had tried hard with her homework. It just irritated me that ds had also tried hard but because his wasn't coloured in no comment was made. ( of course the teacher may well have commented on ds' later)

I wouldn't mind the colouring in of certain PARTS of the diagram, to be able to differentiate it. So there, YABU.

However, the rest of it, you are correct. So the labeling, clarity, use of pencil (although I allow pen for the labels - but not the drawing) are all what I would do.

And as for the colouring in of the background, YA Definitely NBU!!

You're overthinking year 3 homework.

Definitely overthinking. Am bored. No job til September and the house is clean so nothing to do til after lunch.

Maybe query it with the teacher - say that you were having a discussion about this as you were always taught that it was wrong to colour in scientific diagrams and that you would be told off if you had coloured things in.

But you realise that things might have moved on a bit and you wondered what the current status quo is; does s/he want things coloured in or not, and to what extent if they do need to be coloured in...

Ha ha zipzap - I was just about to list some of the things I was taught at school which are no longer considered correct at all, let alone the 'done thing'. When you get to secondary school, often asking kids not to colour in their diagrams is just because it's easier to see if they have completed the task fully or not when marking rather than to conform to scientific standards.

For primary school children, encouraging them to learn and take an interest is the most important thing, so if colouring in and bringing the subject to life helps then so much the better I would say!

Also, judging the standards based on a comment overheard about someone else's child is probably going to drive you mad. For all you know, this is the first complete piece of homework the other child has submitted, so the teacher was praising them for their effort because they wanted to encourage more engagement.

It's not that much a crazy modern idea to colour in your plants!