River Cutters

Kathryn Mueller and Halie Marek

Clinical Interview 1: Formation of Rivers
Interviewer: Kathryn Mueller

Information to be discovered:

How an eighth grader thinks rivers and lakes are formed.

Expected answer from interviewee and why:

I expect Marshall to believe rivers are formed because of large amounts of rainfall. He will probably think the overabundance of water falling from clouds will cause erosion and, over time, rivers will form in the eroded spaces. I think Marshall will know something about erosion because they recently learned the term in science, but I don’t think he will have a deep understanding of the term because he has a difficult time understanding text if he is unfamiliar with the vocabulary or concepts.

How to avoid steering interviewee in the direction of expectations:

I can avoid asking him particular questions about rainfall and erosion, and just let him explain to me without asking any questions how he thinks rivers are formed, from beginning to end.

Opening question: “Tell me how rivers are formed.”

Questions to introduce the main ideas:

Where does the water come from?
How do rivers form from this water source?

Probes for specific information:
How does the river determine which way it will flow?
What happens after a river is formed and the rain keeps falling?

Possible follow-up questions:
Can you tell me how erosion occurs?
What happens when toxic waste is introduced into a river system?
Do rivers ever change the direction in which they flow?

Actual interview questions:

“How are rivers formed?”
                        Marshall started off his answer with a simple word: “erosion.” I probed his thinking further and asked him how the erosion occurred. Immediately I realized Marshall, though familiar with a vocabulary term associated with river formation, had no basic knowledge of how river formation occurs.

Marshall responded by telling me a long story about earthquakes. I was not quite ready for this type of response, so it took me off guard. He explained that when earthquakes happen, the plates underneath the earth cause the ground to split open and form a hole “with a ditch.” Then, when it starts to rain, the rain fills up the hole created by the earthquake and eventually “erodes” the walls of the hole, causing them to break the walls and form rivers!

I then asked Marshall how the river determines which way it will flow. Marshall explained that, depending on the way the wind is blowing, the river will either flow one on the other way. I asked Marshall where he learned what he knows about rivers, and he responded that he learned about erosion from science class, but a visit to Natural Bridge Caverns had solidified his knowledge in the holes filling up, eroding away and getting deeper and longer, and eventually forming rivers.

Clinical Interview 2: River Valley Formations
Interviewer: Halie Marek

            I interviewed James, a seventh grade student, on how he believes river valleys are formed. Some of his responses to my questions were somewhat correct. However, some were completely off from the correct answer. Therefore, I feel that students in sixth grade might need some background information before conducting these experiments.

“Where does water from the rivers come from?”

“When the rain from the sky rains and goes into the ground and makes a river, and a river is made when a lot of water goes in one place.”

• James has the basic understanding of when it rains the water will accumulate and make a river. This was an easy opening question in order to get an idea of James’s prior knowledge.

“Where does the water flow to?”

“It flows to the ocean and once it gets there it stays.”

• James had a surface understanding of the water process, however, he did not completely understand the “in between” steps of the process. A discussion of the steps of the precipitation process would be beneficial prior to the experiment.

“What are the land forms that hold water called?”

“Landforms that hold water are called rivers, oceans, and lakes. I had to tell him the answer that river valleys hold river water.

• I feel that the question I constructed was not very clear on my part. This might be a reason that James had problems directly answering the question.

“How do river valleys form?”

“When water flows through the land this is how the valleys are formed.”

This was my main question that the interview was centered around. This answer is correct. However, there is more to it than that but he was able to get the general idea.  He also said, “Earthquakes can make these cracks in the earth and water can go into them and make a river valley.”

“How does the shape of the land effect the formation of river valleys?”

 “If there is already a hole, the water will then fill it up.”

He proceeded by using the earthquake as another answer to this question.

• This answer needed a little bit prior knowledge in order to correctly answer it. He did not understand the concept completely which was show from the previous questions.

“How does age effect the formation?”

“I don’t think that age will effect it”, but he then thought about it a little bit more and said “Well, I  think it will make it wider and deeper the older it is.”

• James did not understand that age does effect the formation of river valleys. Although, after he thought about it for a minute he figured out that age will effect  it in some way or another.

“How long do you think it will take for a river valley to form?”

“It would take 700,000 years for the river valley to form. Unless an earthquake comes and then the little crack has to get very very big.”

• James did not have a good understanding of the concept of time. He believed that it took an entirely long time to form a river valley. Maybe a brief description of the way time affects nature would be beneficial to the experiment.

 “How does the speed of the water effect the formation of the river valley.”

 “If the water sits there and doesn’t move then it will be evaporated so nothing will be made.” “ If it is fast then it will make the edges sharp on the sides of the river valley, because the water will shape it.”

• James had a pretty good understanding of how water shapes the land. He also used a little knowledge of what happens to water when it is stagnant.

            Therefore, this young boy, James, has some misconceptions about how river valleys are formed. However, he also was correct on some answers as well. Therefore, he would benefit from participating in the river cutters experiment.