The study involved eight ninth-grade students from schools situated within a large, urban
division who were participating in a STEM residential camp located on a college campus.
Participation in the camp was voluntary and competitive. Participants were high-achieving
students within their schools. Six of the eight participants were identified as gifted by their
school system, and all were enrolled in advanced classes. Three students were male and five
were female. Four students were African American, three were Caucasian, and one was Latino.
The Build-A-Buoy Challenge began with students choosing their partners. Partnered groups
were then randomly assigned into either the treatment (n=2) or comparison groups (n=2) based
on their group number. The test tank sessions were outside of the classroom in which students
were designing and building. This helped us make the test tank sessions private in order to
ensure that the students were unaware of their placement in the control or treatment group.
Data collection included test tank videos of each group, observations, and semi-structured
interviews. We videoed each test tank session and took photographs of each buoy iteration. One
of the researchers also took observational field notes of each test tank session. Although
learning almost certainly took place in the classroom while students went through the process
of building and then modifying their designs, we focused only on their products, which
involved their time at the test tank. This focus on product came from the lack of an accepted
definition of or way to measure creative process (Amabile 1996) as well as our desire to capture
the test tank sessions in as much detail as possible. The semi-structured interviews consisted of
several pre-defined questions as well as questions taken from observations of each group.
Two researchers were present at the test tank. During treatment group test tank sessions, one
of the researchers asked inquiry-based questions based on what happened to each buoy. These
questions were designed to encourage students to think and talk with their partners and cue
them to issues related to their design. The comparison group test tank sessions went very
differently. Both researchers stood in proximity to the tank, smiled, and even chatted a bit
about the buoys in general. However, we did not ask the comparison groups inquiry-based
questions, show students the Weebles, or encourage their discussion.