Secret Formulas

Bailey Heick & Gloria Chavez

Clinical Interview 1:
Student Misconceptions: Session 8 Concepts

      To get an idea of what the students’ misconceptions may be before prior to implementing the lesson, an interview can help pre-assess the child’s prior knowledge, if any, relating to the concept that will be covered. According to Gomez-Zwiep (2008), misconceptions include other knowledge that may help in understanding science concepts. The child interviewed is a 7-year-old girl in second grade. This aligned well with the GEMS Guide unit, Secret Formulas. Specifically, session 8 of the unit covers the concept of properties and attributes, cause and effect, ingredients, and freezing among others. In interviewing the child, I wanted to see what she may know or not know about any of these areas by eliciting responses to open-ended questions. To begin the interview and having the child relate to the topic, I asked her about ice cream and her favorite flavors.  

1. What are your favorite flavors of ice cream?
   Chocolate, strawberry, cookies-n-cream, and cookie dough ice cream.
2. What can you tell me about ice cream?
   It is smooth, cold and melts in your hand, and it tastes good. I like the one with the hard cookie chunks. 
3. You said ice cream melts in your hand. Tell me more about that.
   Your hands are warmer. Ice cream melts when you are licking it. It becomes runny, but is frozen in the freezer. 
4. I see. How does ice cream freeze in there?
   The freezer is really cold and makes ice and freezes stuff.  
5. You said it is really cold in the freezer and it melts in your hands or mouth. Tell more about the temperatures.
   I think it is lower when it is hot and higher when it is cold---No wait, it is the other way. It is lower when it is cold and higher when it is hot, but I don’t know what the numbers are. Your tongue is warm so it melts.
6. Ok. You said ice cream is frozen in the freezer. For how long?
   It takes a while to freeze. Something like 2 days. 
7. How is ice cream made?
   With flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, and ice. It has to have ingredients like when you cook and mix cake, like sugar and salt. Wait, no just sugar. Salt would be gross. Ice cream is sweet. I think it might have milk because sometimes there are pictures of cows on it and I saw a commercial about it once. I’m not really sure how it is made.

       The interview showed she had some knowledge about the properties and attributes, though it was not asked in those terms. She was able to describe ice cream, recalling her senses. She was also close to describing the ingredients, though her misconception was that ice was used in the ice cream. According the GEMS Guide, this is the most common misconception. She was also able to connect temperature to freezing and being cold versus hot, though not familiar with actual temperature degrees. Her connections still showed some idea of cause and effect. This interview allowed for a basis on how to approach some concepts in the session. Using inquiry strategies, these activities “specifically confront the misconception by presenting unexpected results not previously considered by the learner” (Gomez-Zwiep (2008). The hands-on activities and explorations will definitely help her understand them better.

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       This interview was conducted with a 2nd grade girl. The interview was used to determine if she had any misconceptions about toothpaste, its ingredients, and what cleans your teeth the best. I did not expect the child to know what the ingredients in toothpaste were or which one would clean the best. Throughout the interview I tried to ask open ended questions and did not respond with "yes or no that is correct", I simply said "I see" or "Ok." 

1. What are ingredients?
   Stuff you mix together to make something like a cake
2. Are there ingredients in toothpaste?
   No
3. Why not?
   Because you can't eat toothpaste and ingredients make something you can eat.
   
4. Are there ingredients in shampoo?
   No, like I said if you can't eat it then it does not have ingredients.
5. Why do you think we use toothpaste?
   So you have something to put on your toothbrush and it makes your breath smell better. I think it also helps clean your teeth.
6. I see when you brush your teeth, what cleans them?
   The toothbrush and maybe the toothpaste.
7. Ok so enough about toothpaste for now, what do you use when you want to clean something?
   Water or my mom uses pine sol or soap.
   
8. Do you think there is soap in toothpaste?
   No, that would make it taste gross.

    After conducting the interview I found she did not know that ingredients were used to make inedible items such as toothpaste or shampoo. She was unsure about why we used toothpaste; she only said she thought it helps clean your teeth. She did know soap is used to clean things. She did not think soap was in toothpaste, although it is found in some. It is used in the gems guide toothpaste. The student needs further instruction and experiences with ingredients.