Both qualitative and quantitative data was gathered during the needs assessment conducted during the second quarter of the school year. During the quantitate phase of the needs assessment, a student survey was administered to all nineteen students in my second-grade classroom (see Appendix A-Student Survey). The survey was given during a normal instructional block in the classroom. Student’s responses were closely correlated between the questions about liking a STEAM challenge (represented by the blue line) and getting upset when they make a mistake (represented by the orange line). This leads me to think that students who fell negatively about STEAM challenges are uncomfortable with the process of making mistakes in the design and redesign parts of the challenge.
As well, there was a parallel between the results of students who enjoy STEAM challenges and those students who feel that they know how to help themselves during a STEAM challenge. From this I can infer that students are least comfortable when the expectations are less clear.
During the qualitative needs assessment, interviews were conducted with five of the second-grade students. These interviews were conducted during snack time in the regular classroom setting. I conducted the interviews personally (see Appendix B – Interview Questions). Two themes emerged and I transposed the interviews. The first theme, completion of task, showed that students were excited to complete STEAM challenges. One student stated, “STEAM is my favorite part of school because we get to build and play.” The idea of play, excitement and fun came across in almost all student interviews. Another student stated, “It (STEAM challenge) is when we get to do stuff we want to try by ourselves, like we can try building things from our imagination.” A second theme, encountering frustrations, shows students feel frustration when STEAM challenges didn’t go as planned. This indicated a lack of perseverance among students. One students stated, “It is annoying when you have an idea, and it doesn’t work. It is like you can see it in your brain, but it doesn’t work the way you want.” It was common for students to use negative words such as annoying, don’t like, frustrating, when discussing the redesign process of STEAM challenges. Another student said, “I know I can’t give up, but sometimes I get rock brain when things don’t work.” This student is referring to a social curriculum, which correlates rock brain to getting stuck.