Qualitative Quest Coloring Page

About this page

Detail Dog turns reporter on this page, holding a microphone up to a flutter of butterflies and asking how they feel. It is a gentle introduction to qualitative research, the kind of science that collects feelings, stories, and descriptions instead of numbers. Some questions cannot be answered with a ruler, and listening carefully is a research skill all its own. This page pairs with the measuring scene that follows it in Chapter 4, showing kids that asking and counting are two different ways of finding things out, and good researchers use both. Detail Dog, ever the careful observer, is all ears.

The research skill

Detail Dog holds a microphone up to smiling butterflies and a flower, and their answers appear as heart and smiley speech bubbles. The skill is asking open questions, the kind that invite a story instead of a yes or no. "Do you like flowers?" gets one word. "What is your favorite part of visiting a flower?" gets an answer worth writing down. Chapter 4 introduces interviews as a research tool, and good interviewers listen more than they talk. Journalists, social scientists, and students writing reports all rely on this.

Try it at home

Let your child interview a family member or a stuffed animal with a pretend microphone, like a wooden spoon.

1. Together, think of one yes-or-no question and one open question.
2. Ask both, and notice which answer is longer.
3. You write down the open answer, word for word.
4. Your child draws a speech bubble with a heart or a smiley face to show how the person felt.

Read the notes back together at the end, just as Detail Dog might.

Talk about it while you color

• If you could interview any animal, which one would you pick and what would you ask?
• What do you think the butterflies are telling Detail Dog?
• How are you feeling right now, and what is making you feel that way?