Interviews with Community or Family Members

Part of the Projects at Home Collection

Interview someone online via video about their lives, their family, their work, or a time in history, and write up the interview with a photo or drawing of them.

To get started with this project, check out these models:

Tips

You can interview people in person, on the phone, or on a video call. Take notes, or record their words on your phone or computer.
Choose a main purpose for your interview. Do you want to learn about their personal life and family, or the work they do, or about an event, time, or place in history that they remember?
Prepare questions ahead of time, but don’t stick to those questions if new ideas come up. Listen carefully, and follow up on answers that are interesting. Be ready to let go of your prepared questions to ask more about the stories you are hearing.
From all that you heard, choose the most important and interesting facts and stories to share in a piece you create to share with others. You may want to include a photograph, drawing, or artifacts to illustrate your interview.

Working on Projects at Home is different than working in school.
We do not give you lessons or directions.
We give you models of each project to look at carefully, and then you decide how to adopt the project for your interests, skills, materials, time, and any new ideas you have.
Your project does not have to look like the models—it can be inspired by the models.
If you are proud of what you created, we encourage you to share it online with the hashtag: #ProjectsAtHome.