We closed our inquiry into how people play by analyzing data we received from our new first grade friends at GEMS World Academy in Singapore. We sent Ms. Ryan's class three of the survey questions we designed and had already asked the kids in both our class and Mr. Ferbrache's 1st grade class here at GEMS Chicago. We wondered:
- Do you like to play with blocks?
- Do you use your imagination when you play?
- Do you prefer to play inside or outside?
The mathematicians here first figured out how many children are in Ms. Ryan's class in Singapore. Here Takafumi and Caleb compare their cube towers they crafted to represent the number of children. You can see the tally marks they're working from on the table below.
After discerning there are 22 students in Ms. Ryan's class, we started to analyze the data by comparing the Singapore students' response to the two Chicago class' responses to the same survey questions. Here are some of the gleanings:
- All kids in all three classes said yes to playing with imagination. The children surmised that kids everywhere around the world must use imagination "because you don't need to have any stuff to play pretend" and "sometimes it's more fun to play with your imagination that with things."
- There were fewer kids that like playing with blocks in the Singapore classroom compared to the two Chicago classrooms. Kids wondered "maybe they don't have blocks in our classroom like we do" and "maybe they don't have many buildings there to get ideas for playing with blocks." In response to the latter, I helped the students search online for photos of Singapore and they realized "it looks a lot like Chicago with really tall buildings!"
- Lastly, the kids saw a discrepancy with the inside/outside question; many more children in Singapore said they preferred playing inside. It was more of an even split with Chicago first graders. Many of our students speculated that there might be a different, more harsh climate in Singapore that made kids prefer playing indoors. It was then that I read Ms. Ryan's email regarding the countless Indonesian fires that are burning out of control. We again looked online and saw how the smoke was blowing east and totally covering Singapore. (Below Charlie points out how Singapore is shrouded in smoke.) Our kids quickly realized how dangerous it would be for our new friends to play outdoors. We made plans to write to them in thanks and to express our concern.
