Moons of Jupiter

Marian Black & Mathew Jobson

Clinical Interviews

Clinical Interview 1, Clinical Interview 2

Clinical Interview 1: 

I interviewed Audrie and James, both 5th graders and Kimon, Art, Layla, and Lyanna, 4th graders to determine what sort of knowledge they held pertaining to our moon Luna and other moons in our solar system with an emphasis upon the Galilean Moons of Jupiter. All students were interviewed while I subbed for Mr. Puga, a art teacher at Science Hall Elementary. I was a little surprised by some of the responses I received because I assumed that the children, being older, would have a firmer grasp of facts related to my questions. Instead many of the interviewee's opinions were based mostly on imagination-which made for very interesting interviews. I asked questions that were open ended instead of yes/no type questions to give them the chance to come up with original explanations. I also asked the students to draw pictures and to label details to better illustrate their thinking process. Now I will review all the interviews. I will put my questions in italics.

1st Interview: Audrie, 5th grade

What is the moon?
A star.
Does the moon have a purpose?
Light. The moon makes light.
How do you think the moon makes this light?
Because everything else is dark at night.
Do other planets have moons?
Yes, but I am not sure if aliens exist.
Are other planet's moons like our moon or are they unlike?
They are a little bit alike.
How are they alike?
They are grey, but maybe different shapes-ours is a circle and theirs are oval.

2nd Interview: James, 5th grade

What is the moon?
An asteroid or something- a rock
Does the moon have a purpose?
Yes, Light.
How do you think the moon makes this light?
I don't know
Do other planets have moons? Are they like ours or different?
Same

3rd Interview: Kimon, 4th grade

What is the moon?
It is a giant ball of light-sometimes there is a full moon, sometimes there is a half moon, sometimes there is a crescent moon and a quarter moon.
What causes the phases do you think?
Things in space.
Does the moon have a purpose?
The moon causes the waves in the ocean because the moon has no gravity
What is the moon like?
There are holes on the moon.
Do other planets have moons? Are they like ours or different?
Jupiter has 68, Saturn has about 18 and they are not all like our moon-there is a moon shaped like a potato.

4th Interview: Art, 4th grade

What is the moon?
I don't know.
Have you ever looked up at the moon and thought about it?
No.
Do other planets have moons? Are they like ours or different?
Yes, but they are not all like ours. Some planets have two.

5th Interview: Layla, 4th grade

What is the moon?
The moon is something like the sun and is made up of asteroids so it lights up.
Does the moon have a purpose?
Ocean's waves are made out of it gravity from the moon.
Do other planets have moons? Are they like ours or different?
Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Saturn has the most I think.

6th Interview: Lyanna, 4th grade

Does the moon have a purpose?
Every time we get a full moon, it turns back to a half moon-every night it gets bigger.
Why Does it get bigger every night?
because there is going to be a new moon.
What is a new moon?
Not sure.
Do other planets have moons?
No.
What is the moon?
Stars are connected to the moon and the moon has an asteroid at its center. The sun and the moon are stars.

Through the course of the interviews I conducted, I gained some very valuable insight into the cognitive process of 4th/5th grade students. First of all, I noticed the students were excited to be interviewed and wanted to share with me their opinions. The students were happy to hear that I was going to be asking them questions about the moon and space-a topic that they were very interested in. Even though the students for the most part did not know actual facts, they were able to create seemingly logical and creative explanations to answer my questions. Art was the only student who told me that they had never looked up into the sky and wondered what the moon was. All of the students suspected that the purpose for the moon had something to do with the light that it produced. Several of the students even knew about the ocean tides relation to the pull of the moon's gravity.
While conducting the interview, I asked the students to draw for me what they were talking about. The drawings helped the interviewees better illustrate their explanations and added depth to otherwise superficial observations. Several students were willing to draw pictures for my interview but my favorite was drawn by 5th grader Audrie. As she told me about how some other planets have moons, she began drawing a seemingly ordinary moon shape. So when I came back to collect the finished drawing I noticed many strange colors and asked her about them. She directed my attention to the key on the side of the paper which indicated the different colors and their meanings. This moon possessed a large region of grass, a region of water, a region of dirt and a region of worms.

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Clinical Interview 2:

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