Paper Towel Testing

Jennifer, Kim, Aniekan

Clinical Interviews

Clinical Interview 1, Clinical Interview 2, Clinical Interview 3

Clinical Interview 1- Sarah, age 10

1. Let’s say I have a package of Oreos and a package of generic chocolate sandwich cookies.What’s the difference between a name brand and a generic item?

Name brands are more popular, but name brands cost more

2. Do you know how to compare the cost of the packages?

Subtracting or division; the Name Brand is more expensive

3. Okay, let’s get more specific.Do you know how to find the cost of an individual cookie?

Divide the price by the number of cookies

4. All right, so if I told you to find the unit price- to divide the cost per package by the number of cookies, can you write that as an equation to solve?

First, student multiplied 15 x 3 to find the total number of cookies to get 45 (by the lattice way).Students sets up 45/2.78, and did it on the calculator- answer is 16.18 for name brand.

With correction, student divides 2.00/45= .04 cents for generic.Then, student does 2.78/45= .06 cents for name brand.

5. If I go to the store, where can I find the unit price for an item?

On the package.Right below the product.

6. Sometimes advertisers use coupons to get you to buy their products.How does a coupon affect an item’s unit price?

Takes money off overall price, takes it off the 2.78 or 2.00

7. Let’s talk about paper towels now.What makes you want to buy a certain brand of paper towel?

Advertisements- stronger, yet softer; ads seen on television, magazines, comic books, computer

8. How do advertisers try to get you to buy their product?

Stretching the truth- saying theirs is better than others, comparison

9. Do you ever see advertising for generic products?

            No, never see a commercial for HEB brand because that’s their brand.  Generic is not as popular.  Name                     brand can be in different company’s commercials.
 

10. To wrap up our interview, tell me which package of the cookies is the better buy.

    Generic, because it cost is cheaper- overall cost, easier to find, won’t sell out, cheaper cost per cookie

Overall, Sarah showed a strong understanding of the math skills needed to complete this lesson.  She was able to compare the cost of the packages easily, and figure out the unit price with some assistance.  She handled the calculator easily, and needed the level of help that I would expect from this age.  She was knowledgeable about advertising, coupons, and name-brand vs. generic.  I would expect her to be in the high end of the class, so I understand that more assistance may be needed for other students.

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Clinical Interview 2- Charles, age 11
What brand of paper towel do you use? Brawny

Why do you think that brand is best? Because it costs the most at the grocery store and I see it on TV.

Would you buy a paper towel that was not name brand? No.

Why not? Because it will not be as good as the name brand paper towels.

How could you find out for certain that brand is best? They tell you on the TV commercials

What are the definitions of wet strength and absorbency? Wet strength is how strong the paper towel is when it is wet and absorbency is how much water the paper towel will pick up.

Are these good definitions? Yes.

Why? I don’t know.

I asked Charles about the kind of paper towel he used and not only did he know which one his household used but he seemed to understand that principle of advertising, product placement and cost. Charles said that he uses Brawny because it is the brand he sees most on television, and since he sees it on television he associated it with being the better paper towel. Charles also exhibited a general knowledge of the terms wet strength and absorbency, based off his own knowledge but he could not give a specific reason as to why he thought his definitions were good definitions. Most children that know certain thing can not exactly tell you why or how they know these things, Charles was no exception

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Clinical Interview 3- Darby, age 9

1. Students may think that everyone tested the same way they did. Some students may not see small inconsistencies in testing (like dropping a gram weight onto the paper towel or placing the gram weight into the paper towel) as an inconsistency.

Would it make a difference how the weights were placed in the wet paper towel?

Yes, if a group was throwing their gram weights into a wet paper towel, the wet paper towel would tear faster than another group that was placing their weights into the paper towel.

2. Students may not understand that in an investigation it matters that you keep all variables except one the same. In this instance, the variable is the paper towel.

If one group placed their weights in the paper towel and one group threw their weights in the paper towel, it would make the data wrong. But if the groups all did the same thing, then it wouldn’t hurt the data.

3. Do you know what the term variable means?

No, but if you didn’t keep the amounts of water the same, that one paper towel could tear more quickly than the other.

4. Be sure the students understand the scoring system of the test. One is the lowest score and is an indicator of poor performance of the towel on the test and four is the highest score and indicates the best performance on the test.

How would you assign the brand points for strength and absorbency out of 4 points? Which would be the highest score and which would be the lowest score?

I would score the best testing paper towel a 4 and I would give the lowest testing paper towel a 1, because for is a higher number.

5. If there were discrepancies in results of the testing, what would you do?

I would have the groups re-test that specific brand on the test. 

My analysis of this student shows me that although students have an understanding of the concepts of variable, the vocabulary may not be connected in their minds. The vocabulary needs to be learned along with the activity and the more concrete the activity the easier it may be for the student to connect the two. Also, an understanding of a rating system would be helpful to allow students to make an accurate assessment of the different brands of paper towels.

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