Children's Science Interview - Case Study Example

Children’s Science Interview Introduction Science is part of our daily life and is learned in everyday life experience. Children need to start learning concepts in science as early as possible, before even they begin schooling. It is, therefore, advisable that children as young as three and four years be taught science activities that help them understanding the world around them in terms of how things work. Studies on children and science also reveal that children find science to be fun when they are actively involved. This paper seeks to assess understanding of two different children of a science concept. In achieving this, the paper will undoubtedly design an interview protocol to assess the children’s understanding of concept and set a rubric to evaluate the child’s level of understanding. I will then conduct the interview, summarize the child’s understanding of the concept and finally evaluate the child’s understanding of the concept using the rubric. Rubric for Evaluation of Understanding of the Concept Level of Understanding Criteria for evaluating the child’s Understanding of the Living things Expert Evidences of a well-developed scientific understanding of the concept that is flexible and adjusts to various application and difficult concept (Mackean, 2009) Proficient Possession of accurate scientific understanding of the concept (Spencer, 2007). Ability to use the concept in most contexts Competent Prove a developed understanding of a concept but may have some inaccuracies (Madgwick, 2009) Apprentice Proven limited knowledge and possesses a superficial understanding of the concept (Farndon, 2004) Novice Total lack of knowledge or possesses inaccurate ideas about the concept (Mackean, 2013) Interview Protocol 1. Define biology, what boundary will define biology? 2. How would you define life? 3. State five different examples of life and justify why they exhibit life. 4. What is the smallest unit of life? 5. Can you categorize soil as a living thing? Why or why not? 6. Can you categorize air as a living thing? Why or why not? 7. Which body part makes living things most alive? Why? The Interview Interviewer: Define biology, what boundary will define biology? Child 1: Biology is a branch of natural science concerned with a study of life. Its boundary is for this reason defined by any study concerned with structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution and taxonomy of living things. Interviewer: Okay impressive, how would you define life? Child: Um…um…Um… That is tricky. Anyway I would define life as anything around us which breathes, grows and moves, that is, from the sky to the grass. Interviewer: Okay, State five different examples of life and justify why they exhibit life. Child 1: First, I will say plants because without them we will not get the oxygen to breathe. Second is animals, because they make up the food chain (She smiled and flashed her thumbs up here because she was proud of herself for remembering this). The third example of life is the sun because human beings need it to grow and not to be down, I mean moody (She smiles to show that she understands what she is saying). Lastly, water is another example of life because everybody needs water to live and not die thirsty. Interviewer: Very good. What is the smallest unit of life? Child 1: Um…um…um… (Closing her eyes like in deep thoughts) I read about this the other day, I know this… Interviewer: I know you do… (Like three minutes passed and never recalled despite closing and opening her eyes to look around the room and looking directly at the cell poster on the wall) Interviewer: Can you categorize soil as a living thing? Why or why not? Child 1: (With a much-assuring voice). Yes, because a farmer can make it grow. Interviewer: oh ok, on the other hand, can you categorize air as a living thing? Why or why not? Child 1: Um... (About one-minute silence)… I am going to say no… Interviewer: why do you think so? Child 1: (She shrugs) Interviewer: Okay, let us go back a little bit to that point where we defined life. How do you define life? What makes something alive or not to you? Child 1: something is alive if it grows and survives. Interviewer: Okay, so you will say air is alive? Child 1: No, because it doesn’t grow. Interviewer: Ok, going back to the examples of life you gave one of them was the human body. What part of the human body makes you most alive and why? Child 1: I think that will be my heart because it makes everything to move. Further it is possible to live without ones brain, can’t you? A person can be brain dead. Interviewer: Your answer means that once your heart gives out then you are dead? Child 1: Yes, because you still can live… Interviewer: Without brain but not without a heart? Child 1: You can live more without a brain then a heart Interviewer: Very nice, Thank you for participating. Analysis The most surprising part of the interview came after the interview when the interviewed child started arguing about her answers with her friends. I invited four friends to come after school but interviewed just one. After the interview, the children started discussing how the interviewed friend answered each question. I realized that their focus was specifically on the last two questions: is air alive and what part of the body makes a human being alive? They started discussing molecules and molecular interactions in air that could create life or prevent life depending on the quality of air. In addition, they considered the importance of the brain in the human body and discussed the implications of being brain dead, but still alive. After some discussion, the girls decided on an analogy they stated as the brain is the coach, and the heart is the player. Both students are basketball players so it helped them to process the information by relating to basketball. In other words, the coach gives direction but the players are still responsible for the execution of the play. Another important consideration is the relationship of grades with ease and accuracy. The interviewed child is receiving a B in my class. The child knew the concepts but had more difficulty with the exact definition. Throughout the interview, I realized that the child talked about topics demonstrating knowledge of content standards but had difficulty pinpointing her ideas. The student did not give exact definitions and answers quickly. The comfort level of tackling the question was also evident throughout the interview. Apart from discussing characteristics of life, I noticed that the student still created a superficial definition of life. For example, she summarized life as something that moves and grows and breathes, but she did not consider reproduction and that they are made of cells and more technical aspects of the definition of life. The student also had trouble with her definition when I started asking them about specific questions regarding living/non-living parts. Although it was interesting how she had a greater connection between her definition and her explanation of why a heart is the most critical organ for life plus her definition of biology. I also noticed when citing examples of life that she mostly centered on a more general categories of life such as plants, animals, humans and overlooked specific aspects of living things. I would be interested to see if a younger student would name specific living things than focus on broad categories. I suspect the broad categories come from the fact the student did not have deep knowledge of the concept. The questions used for the interview were direct and narrow for easier understanding. I tried to predict what the student would say and create appropriate follow-up questions but the questions still had short answers. I need to reflect on how to write my questions to solicit longer responses with more detail to demonstrate feeling. Evaluation of the Child’s understanding From the rubric, the child’s level of understanding from the interview is apprentice. The criteria for achieving this from the rubric are evidence of proven limited knowledge and possesses a superficial understanding of the concept. Throughout the interview, I noticed that despite discussing the characteristics of life, the student still created a superficial definition of life. For example, she summarized life as something that moves and grows and breathes, but she did not consider reproduction and that they are made of cells and more technical aspects of the definition of life. I further realized that the child talked about topics demonstrating knowledge of content standards but had difficulty pinpointing her ideas. She did not give exact definitions and answers quickly and, therefore, the level of understanding is best said to be an apprentice. Basis for Categorizing the Child’s Level Understanding at each Level in the Rubric. As indicated in the rubric different levels of understanding required a specific requirement as deduced from the student’s response to the questions. For expert level, I was looking for a well-developed scientific understanding of the concept that is flexible and adjusts to various application and difficult concept (madgwick, 2009). A proficient level of understanding was measured by accurate scientific understanding of the concept and ability to use the concept in most contexts by the student during the interview (Farndon, 2004). Competent level of understanding was defined only by developed understanding of a concept while giving room for a few inaccuracies. However, a case, where the student proven limited knowledge and possesses a superficial understanding of the concept, the level of understanding, in this case, was defined as apprentice (Daniels & Beaumont, 2012). Last but not least novice level of understanding was characterized by total lack of knowledge or exhibition inaccurate ideas about the concept by the student. References Daniels, D., & Beaumont, L. (2012). Understanding children: An interview and observation guide for educators. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Farndon, J. (2004). Living things. San Diego: Blackbirch Press. Mackean, D. (2013). Introduction to biology (5th ed.). London: J. Murray. Madgwick, W. (2009). Living things. Austin, Tex.: Raintree Steck-Vaughn. Spencer, H. (2007). The principles of biology. London: William and Norgate. Read More