Capturing children's perspectives in STEM education research with a throwable padded microphone

Introduction
STEM education research is often reliant on top-down delivery, limiting children’s opportunities to share opinions and experiences. Research within schools, capturing genuine responses, can be challenging because of power imbalances and group dynamics. This research applies a novel approach to child-centred participatory research by using a throwable microphone that can be tailored to the needs of the group.

Goals and Methods 
This research investigates children’s (9-10 years old) understanding of, and the relationship to, role models within STEM. This project involved eleven focus groups, across five UK primary schools, each comprising of 5-6 children per group (n=62) lasting 30-40 minutes per session. Open-ended interactive discussions took place, during which a throwable microphone captured natural developments in the dialogue on the topic, facilitated and moderated by the researcher. This setup allowed children to lead the free-flowing discussions because they could select who spoke next by throwing the microphone to them, which fostered democratic engagement in the task. Recordings were anonymised and thematically analysed using abductive methods for recurring themes and trends using NVivo, employing a phronetic iterative approach by the researcher.

Results 
Initial findings suggest using a throwable microphone increased engagement from students, including quieter nature children, allowing richer, more in-depth dialogue within the sessions to be captured. Throwing the microphone encouraged playfulness and a low-pressure approach to taking turns, encouraging children's autonomy in shaping the discussion flow. This approach encouraged an opportunity for overlapping explanations of STEM role models with emphasis on kindness, determination and real-life examples.

Conclusions
This novel approach offers a practical method for collecting children’s perspectives within educational/outreach settings. It allows children to have spontaneous involvement while allowing them to own the activity. This interactive activity is particularly useful for participatory research, which may have advantages for broader studies within STEM education research and other fields.