Table 7 Exemplary student quotes demonstrating situational interest trends

Student team C, (males/lower-level class)

Student 1: I wanted to solve the problem of the drought… we are starting to learn about filtering gray water.

Student 2: I wanted to do something else, but I decided I wanted to help solve the drought problem too.

Student 1: In our final project the gray water goes out with a straw with pressure to water the plants, so you do not waste it and you do not need another water source to water the plants. The best part was figuring it all out. Even though we wanted to do something different, we are proud of it. We might use it, we do not know. We have not done the final yet.

Student 2: It’s almost a success, we just need to finish it.

Student D, (male/higher-level class)

What we're trying to do is to make these prosthetics move as you grow. Say you were born without an arm. We're trying to make it so that it will grow with you. We will split it in half so you can adjust the size. So, you don't have to get it replaced every five years, which is very expensive for people. And the average prosthetic cost about 25,000 dollars. So, it's very expensive. I've always been really interested in this. So, I tried to look up problems of people with prosthetics. So, I chose this.

This is supposed to be the final product of the middle arm, but apparently I have to make it over again…I don't know. They say that I can't use it. I took a cylinder shape that's already downloaded into the maker box. They said I need to do it again because I need to make it. It needs to be wider, too. I don't know if it needs to be wider because we will be adding a rotor that makes it bend. I don't know if it needs to be wider, I need to talk to people on that… I'm just trying to make everything perfect right now, so I don't have to make it again.