Interviewing...
I had my first interview with two 8th grade students today using my tool. Below are some questions and things that came out of that 45 minute interview/task exploration. This post is just based on my notes from the observation, I have not started transcribing yet.
- They quickly found the triangle and circle but had difficulty finding the parabola and ellipse. After some time working on the first task of finding conic sections from the clay model they created, we had a short discussion about all conic sections and I set up the next task (design an interesting space that someone could occupy using the pre-printed conic section pieces and the 3D pen).
- I wish I had videotaped the students completing the tasks instead of audio-taped. The students were talking about the shapes they were using without identifying them. Although I took as many notes about their decisions as I could, I feel like having the video tape to refer back to would be really helpful.
- Because I only had one 3D pen, I asked them to collaborate on the design task. I’m not sure if I lost anything by doing this.
- They thought deeply about the design but decided they would create something better next time.
- I plan to go back to interview/present this task again. I’m deciding whether i want to explore what the students meant by “better” and see what other design they may come up with after thinking about design (and learning how to use the 3D pen) or if I want to see what a new set of students will complete the task from beginning to end.
