| Student Memory Interview: Question 64: What was the nature
of the first spontaneous comments about the objects? |
Conclusion: Out of 123 initial spontaneous comments from 24 students,
references to the design and technology of the objects were paramount (53 comments). This
finding demonstrates the large extent to which loans support educational attainment in
Design & Technology.
Summary of Findings:
These findings are based on interviews with 24 primary students in Y3-Y6: 12 higher
ability and 12 lower ability; 12 females and 12 males. The students were interviewed 7 -
10 months after their use of these loans in the classroom.
- · The most popular aspects of the objects that were covered in every single group was
the design and technology of the object, and the related colours and materials used.
- · This was followed closely by a description of other physical details, abstract
concepts (i.e. the Egyptians wanted to believe in an after life) and what significant
others did in connection with the loans.
Chart illustrating the aspects of the loan that school groups referred to
during their initial spontaneous comments:
| School Group: |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Total |
| 1.Design and Technology |
4 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
17 |
| 2.D&T: Material of object |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
12 |
| 3.D&T: Colours in object |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
12 |
| 4.D&T: Details (physical) |
4 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
12 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 5. Abstract concepts |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
9 |
| 6. What others did/said |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
8 |
| 7. Size of object |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
| 8. Shape of object |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
| 9. Topic they covered |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
| 10. Activity they did |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 11. Reminded them of |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
| 12. Process made with |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
| 13. Age of object |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
| 14. Texture of object |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
| 15. What was imagined |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 16. Visit to museum |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| 17. Preference of objects |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| 18. Place of origin |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| 19. Weight of object |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 20. Sound of object |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
| Student Memory Interview: Question 64: Individual Student
Descriptions |
Loan list:
HH11 Victorians 0922
HH251 Schools 1132/1222
HH302 Victorian doll 0933
HH130 Schools in the past
1. Student B1: Male: Low Ability: Y5
My object was an iron - I remember that now. It was black and charcoal. My
friend Jamie was looking at something which looked like a doorbell.
2. Student B2: Male: High Ability: Y4
We had objects for the Egyptians too - the topic after the Victorians. We had
a bell that they used to ring for people to keep time. Everyone (in the class) kept on
ringing it. There was a jug made out of clay. The iron was really heavy and didn't have a
wire.
3. Student B3: Female: Low Ability: Y4
We had stone things from Egypt after the Victorians. We had to touch a clog and we
filled in a sheet about what you could do with it, what it looked like, and what it is.
4. Student B4: Female: High Ability: Y5
Me and Daniel had to study a Victorian clog too - there were 2 clogs. There was a
really fragile purse that was just sewn. We had to keep it in the bag it was in. The
Egyptian objects were stone carvings of the Pharaoh and a bowl broken into tiny pieces.
Further comments unrelated to main object descriptions:
Student B3: Female: Low Ability: Y4
I remember the big stone with the Egyptian writing carved on it the most. It was in
glass. The wood had Egyptian writing on it like the mummy cases.
Student B4: Female: High Ability: Y5
The one that stands out the most from the Egyptian objects was a little carving of
stone in the shape of tomb Pharaohs - but plain not painted. It stood about 11 - 12 cms
high. There was a piece of wood with something like hieroglyphs on it. I was amazed at how
long they had survived for.
Loan list:
H225 The seaside holiday 1134
H229A Edwardian bathing costumes 1134
NZ68C Barn owl 1422
NZ69A Little owl 1432
1. Student C1: Male: Low Ability: Y3
We were drawing. I saw a binoculars and a spade.
(of sunglasses) But they didn't have the nose bit there (shows me with hands).
There was a bucket which had pictures on the side. The colours were blue and yellow
because of sand and sky…and some people making sand castles.
The teacher said the students came from the seaside.
Do you mean the ones that everyone said was alive?
2. Student C2: Male: High Ability: Y3
The seaside in the olden days… We drew the things on the table. There
were loads of different things that were used at the seaside and we had to see what it did
and find out if it was old or not and how old it was. So we had this glass buoys and we
felt this was very old because nowadays there isn't any glass buoys. They make them more
out of plastic or maybe foamy.
I think I remember these sunglasses. They had a green lens and they didn't have something
the same as they I have nowadays, I think it was something to do with the nose.
The bucket wasn't plastic so we knew it was quite old because plastic is modern and only
discovered quite a few years ago now. The bucket had pictures of people on it. And they
had people going to buy ice creams. And me and another student got these suits and we had
to dress up in them as if we were in the olden days and they had blue and white stripes
and it was a bathing costume. We were just pretending, pretending we were from the olden
days at the seaside.
Do you remember those boxes with those plastic owls in and everyone pretended they were
Snowy that was in that book? Everybody kept saying "Look, that bird's alive, it's in
a cage!" But everyone knew they were just joking.
3. Student C3: Female: Low ability: Y3
There were clothes.
(About Edwardian materials) All they had was animal fur.
The camera wasn't like ours. It was square. And you had to look on the front bit - look
like that and you could see out there (mimes). It was all squary and all rectangulary. And
when you felt it was all hard.
(My prompt: Do you remember the sunglasses) Sunglasses, yeah. They were green.
They didn't have those black things there to hold them on. The thing there was plastic but
the nose part was metal. There was a case which was all rusty. You slipped it off and
opened it and there was another case in the middle.
4. Student C4: Female: High Ability: Y3
There was a glass buoy.
(About differences between Edwardian and contemporary swimming costumes) In those days
they didn't have lots of materials.
The owl was brown with bits of white on the feathers. On TV there were these people who
knew all about owls because they have one. I found out they can only move their eyes up
and down that's why they go all the way round with their head. I looked at the eyes. We
were talking about the owl.
I remember the bucket and spade. It was a big spade that went up to there (showed me with
her hand). It was metal.
There was a camera. We looked in it. I could see in front of me what was beside me.
Oh, there was a case to put the camera in - it was brown. It was leather and sort of
furry.
(Of the sunglasses) Oh Yeah, and they were very precious. Mrs Yates said "Don't break
them!" and we all looked through them and we don't not normally find glasses like
that but my Mum's got sunglasses so sometimes you can.
Loan list:
HH238A The 1930s 1132
HH240A Costume of the 1930s 1224
HH97A WWII 1121
HH314 Evacuees: Boy 1233
1. Student G1: Male: Low Ability: Y6
You (museum) brought in badges for us to identify, gas masks, ration book,
some clothes, some games. We had that helmet as well and a whole box of stuff - like that
big brown wooden box. Yeah, Student G2 and Another Student were packing it away when it
had to go back. That was like that music box because I kept fiddling with it in English. I
accidentally turned it on. It went de de de de. The leather box was uncommon because they
usually had cardboard boxes. The gas mask we had had a smashed face.
2. Student G2: Male: High Ability: Y6
The things were in suitcases - one was brown. There were cloth maps. A crate.
I think there was another gas mask. And they had a leather box for it as well.
3. Student G3: Female: Low Ability: Y6
There was a gas mask, the powdered thing - yes, powdered milk; that cloth that goes
over the milk to keep it fresh with beads on it - I've forgotten what it's called.
(In response to another student's mention of a diary) Anne Frank.
(Of hand grenade) Yeah, we broke it apart and all that and looked at it inside and smelled
it.
Oh, we had some flags which had the German sign on it.
(Of puzzle) Yeah, it was in a big frame and we weren't allowed to touch.
4. Student G4: Female: High Ability: Y6
Powdered milk…a ration book.
We had a diary of someone a diary of someone. Someone who wrote the diary and I think it
was a spy.
Oh, we had a book that identified someone.
I think it was a bomb we had - a hand grenade.
We had a puzzle I think, a jigsaw puzzle.
Further comments unrelated to main object descriptions:
Student G1: Male: Low Ability: Y6
Can I change my object? Can I do that wooden pen set? There was a pen, a
pencil, like in a wooden case that you can see through the top because I was studying
about that. It was a WWII thing - it came in a crate, actually - 1930s.
(Of the buttons) One was Welsh. I remember when we saw it, it said Princess of Wales on
the back. There was a one about Wales. One from Belgium or something like that. That was
it - Birmingham - what was I thinking of! (What parts of the army were they from?)Air
Force… the Royal Navy.
Student G2: Male: High Ability: Y6
One (of the buttons) was from the Princess of Wales (Charlotte?). (The Welsh
button) It had a dragon on it. The dragon one had 3 letters on it. They were made in
Birmingham. There was one with the letters that were on the helmet. I think one of the
letters was G.
Loan list:
AH13 Egyptian mummy case lid 0832
AH41 Egyptian jewellery 0913
AH58 Mummified cat
1. Student H1: Male: Low ability: Y5
(in reference to the sarcophagus lid) They put a golden face what they had to
put over their real face.
2. Student H2: Male: High ability: Y5
Egypt was the topic. The mummified cat, the wooden person sort of thing and the
necklaces.
3. Student H3: Female: Low Ability: Y5
There was these necklaces and bracelets as well.
4. Student H4: Female: High Ability: Y5
It was History, the Egyptians. There was this cat. This thing of Tutankhamun - it was
like wood. Did they put it on their faces? (Me: Only?)…when they were dead.
Further comments unrelated to main object descriptions:
Student H1: Male: Low Ability: Y5
The jewellery was rusty… circles as well. I think there was something
carved out of it.
Student H2: Male: High Ability: Y5
The jewellery looked very, very old. The beads were in triangles like teeth.
One of our friends brought in a picture of Tutankhamun on their own paper.
The wooden lid looked like a dog sitting like that (mimes). It had lots of missing pieces
of wood so we knew it was old. The lid was about this size (shows with hands).It was a lot
darker brown than the cat. It was like stained wood. It was smooth with lots of cracks.
Student H3: Female: Low Ability: Y5
They wanted to believe in the after life and they had a lot of cats and they didn't
really want to bury them. They wanted to keep them and mummify them.
The wooden thing looked like it was Tutankhamun's coffin. There were lots of different
shapes and sizes (points to her face).
Student H4: Female: High Ability: Y5
(Of the stones used in the necklace) They were turquoise and blue.
( Of the sarcophagus) But it was just the head bit. It did have carving on it - it had
like those bits on the beard and everything. The beard has lots of different patterns. The
nose was a bit lumpy.
Loan list:
H150B Mail coach
H151A Stephenson's Rocket
H235A Travelling artefacts
H182A Spirit of St. Louis plane
1. Student L1: Male: Low Ability: Y6
It feels like yesterday. (The aeroplane) That was one of the first ones. The person
who flew it was something Louis. That little, the one that was, the little cart thing that
was in Victorian thing - it was a horse and cart. (In reference to the smaller objects) A
Victorian candleholder and there were loads more things that I can't remember…(of
toy) it had a man on it.
2. Student L2: Male: High Ability: Y6
It doesn't feel like 7 months. The aeroplane I liked. And the HMS Rocket - it was a
train. S. Louis or something. I liked the HMS Rocket. The Rocket wasn't actually a rocket
though it was a train. It was a horse carriage and it had the royalty mark on it. There
were a few objects little objects and they were wrapped up and we had to guess what they
were. They were wrapped up in tissue paper. There was a pig…yeah, a Victorian
candleholder. And there was a toy that they used in Victorian times by the teacher which
we had to guess what they were: a Victorian candleholder and a toy that they used in
Victorian times - yes, there was a horse with a man on it..
3. Student L3: Female: Low Ability: Y6
An aeroplane. I think it was a picture of a big like…(model) - it had
big wheels and it had one seat at the front. It looked like a big tractor. It had big
wheels. It was really high up. It was like a steam train.
4. Student L4: Female: High Ability: Y6
A Post box, is it - something that said VR. There was a cart thing - with big big
wheels on it and it had a little chair on the roof - was it a post thing? I liked the
aeroplane best. The aeroplane had lots of details. It was really interesting. There was
something special about this lady called something or other - I can't remember now. Did
you send a train?
Further comments:
Student L1: Male: Low Ability: Y6
I remember Student L4 asked, "Are you ever going to come back?"; and you
said, "I don't know". And she asked "What museum do you come from?"
and you said the one in town. You said it was free. I came with my family and my brother
and Student L2. I liked the Touch computer and the noughts and crosses.
The teacher asked us if we thought horsepower was used?. Me and Student L2 jumped up at
the same time and said "Yes!".
The lanterns on the carriage were black. It looked like they were on. When it was RW it
was in red. I remember Student L2 said he wished it was all yellow - they have all the
colours except my favourite - mine and Student L4's favourites were there.
I told my Mum about what I learned that day. She was like tell me more. I never stopped
until about 5 o'clock.
Student L2: Male: High Ability: Y6
I used to go when my aunts came to show them the computer room and that. Now I have to
go (to the museum) because my Dad's got an exhibition there.
The teacher asked us about the wheels: "Why is a circle not a square?". And then
we revised about the history of wheels and how they got bigger and smaller. Then I asked
"Who invented the wheel?" and he said he didn't know.
(Of the lights) It made them fluorescent.
A week after we saw the box I brought my family in to the Box Room and asked to see the
Rocket. I told them what I knew about it.
Loan list:
H201A Tram 1112
HH238 The 1930s 1132
HH240 Costume of 1930s 1224
HH313 Evacuees: Girl 1233
1. Student M1: Male: Low Ability: Y6
There was a fox's skin…and shoes. There was a suitcase. There were some
dresses. There was a cloche hat. And another one of those…Mr Smith wears one on
sports day… a sun hat..
2. Student M2: Male: High Ability: Y6
Tram…There was some clothes. There was some like spoons and objects.
There was some tassels. Oh yeah, there was thing that hang over the door, there was one of
those with writing on it, I think..
3. Student M3: Female: Low Ability: Y6
There were like a fox to put around your neck. And there was some shoes and gloves,
wasn't there? And there was a cap as well. There was this funny…I can't remember what
it's called, it's white - a ladies' handkerchief.
4. Student M4: Female: High Ability: Y6
We got a lot of clothes. We got a model tram. And there were some suitcases with
articles… and some gloves. I think there was some evacuation photographs.
Further comments unrelated to main object descriptions:
Student M1: Male: Low Ability: Y6
(Of the tram) There was a spiral staircase in the middle and at the back. And I think
it said on the side of the tram is said "Trams Limited".
Student M2: Male: High Ability: Y6
I remember about the arm, it came up to the elbow. I can imagine if someone was
wearing it, it would come out a bit and the actual dress wouldn't actually touch them. And
also, the waist, the dress came out and the dress came down. It was tight around here and
then the dress came round. And then there was this shape (shows scallops with fingers)
going all the way up the dress like tubes. It was like half tubes (going down the dress).
|
