Chapter Graphic
: Trend Task: Pet Mouse
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Approach: Independent Level: Year 4 and year 8
Focus:   Generating possible design solutions 
Resources: Toy mouse, instruction card, ruler, eraser, answer booklet
5.6MB

Questions/instructions:

In this activity you are going to design something for catching a pet mouse.
Imagine that a pet mouse got out of its cage. You want to catch it, but you don’t want to hurt it. Your task is to design something that will catch the mouse but not hurt it. You will have an instruction card that tells you what to do.
Give each student a toy mouse, instruction card, ruler and eraser.
Before you start, have a look at the instruction card while I read it through.
Read the instruction card.
You can start drawing your plan now. Remember, your plan should show your own ideas, so work on your own and show your own ideas.
Hand out answer booklets to each student.

Pet Mouse Instruction Card
The pet mouse got out of his cage. You want to catch it but you don't want to hurt it. Design something that will catch the mouse but not hurt it
1. Think about what your mouse catcher will look like and how it will work
2. Think about the materials you will need for your muse catcher.
3. Draw some different views of your mouse catcher
4. Label your drawing s to show how the mouse catcher works and what it is made of.
5. On your drawings, explain how your mouse catcher is designed so that it will not hurt the pet mouse.



% responses
2004 ('00)
y4
y8
How many views are provided?
two or more
34 (27)
60 (61)
one
66 (73)
40 (39)
How clearly has the student communicated the way the mouse catcher is supposed to work?
very clearly
12 (1)
26 (50)
quite clearly
24 (19)
34 (26)
a little
42 (37)
29 (20)
not at all
22 (43)
11 (4)
How fully have the materials been identified?
very fully
13 (7)
28 (42)
quite fully
34 (20)
28 (28)
a little
42 (36)
33 (11)
not at all
11 (37)
11 (19)
How clearly has the student managed to meet the requirement that the catcher will not hurt the mouse, and explained this?
clearly met and clearly explained
3 (0)
18 (12)
clearly met but not explained
13 (2)
26 (25)
possibly met plus supporting arguments
11 (4)
7 (2)
possibly met but not explained
45 (25)
36 (54)
requirement clearly not met
28 (69)
13 (7)
Rate the likelihood that the device will catch the mouse effectively:
very likely
4 (2)
15 (1)
moderately likely
30 (11)
29 (16)
unlikely
66 (87)
56 (83)
Total score:
12–14
2 (0)
16 (5)
9–11
12 (6)
25 (25)
6–8
33 (11)
27 (28)
3–5
41 (40)
27 (36)
0–2
12 (43)
5 (6)
Commentary
About 35 percent of year 4 students and 60 percent of year 8 students provided more than one view, communicated how the device was supposed to work reasonably clearly and identified most of the required material. Fewer succeeded in meeting the design criteria. There was a small improvement, both for year 4 and year 8 students, between 2000 and 2004.
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