“The Incredible Shrinking Shot”An article from Popular Science magazine

Format Looking at the format of the article may help you get

the main idea before you even start reading. What is the headline of the article? (the title) What information might that give you about the

article? What are the subheadings of each section? What information might those give you about the

article? What magazine is this article from? (look at the

bottom) What month and year was it published? Why would the date the article was published be

important to know?

Pictures Look at the pictures. Read the captions. What is something you learned from the

pictures and captions?

Read the article Let’s start with the lead (the part under

the heading that begins “The design…”).

What does this section talk about? What is important in this section?

Did you know the needle was invented in France over a hundred and fifty years ago?

Who wrote this article?

SHORT-Skin Deep Read the next section under the

subheading SHORT-SKIN DEEP. What is the main idea in this section? What did the Fluzone Intradermal

microinjector needle change about the traditional needle?

What’s nice about this invention besides being less painful?

SHORTER-Low-pressure Plunger Read this section. This design for a needle was taken from

nature-a mosquito to be exact. Why is copying the way a mosquito

draws blood a good idea? What is unique about the way a mosquito takes blood?

SHORTEST-Prickly Patch Read the last section. The researchers at Georgia Institute of

Technology and Emory University developed a special kind of needle. What was so unique about this needle?

They compared this needle to a Band-Aid. What is a good thing about this type of

needle, especially in poor countries/conditions?

Sum it up! After reading the article, which needle

would you want to use? Why?

Turn your paper over and answer the questions.