Research | CU-iMSE



-------------------------------------------- *i n v e s t i g a t o r s :* Keith Evan Green (PI) Design & Mech. Eng., Cornell Danielle Herro Education, Clemson Christina Gardner-McCune School of Computing, U. FL Arash Soleimani PDBE PhD student lead Akshit Bhandari ECE Senior Undergrad Student -------------------------------------------- *p a r t n e r s :* Northside Elementary School Seneca, South Carolina Pickens County Schools South Carolina Fisher STEAM Middle School Greenville, South Carolina ------------------------------------------- *a d v i s o r y b o a r d:* Edith Ackermann MIT Media Lab Erica Halverson University of Wisconsin-Madison Yasmin Kafai University of Pennsylvania Jason Yip Sesame Workshop -------------------------------------------- *Spatial computational-thinking with 6th-grade students. Plug-in modules on the worktable.* *Students completing our study sheets.* *Earlier prototype.*				CyberPLAYce \| A novel, interactive-computational construction kit for elementary school children and their teachers [video] *o v e r v i e w :* CyberPLAYce bridges the physical and digital worlds, allowing young students to bring their ideas, stories and class subjects to life through the construction of cyber-physical environments. The CyberPLAYce construction kit is comprised of hand-sized, magnetic modules integrating a variety of electronic components, and panels, nearly two-feet on a side, that receive the modules and serve as physical building blocks for constructing cyber-physical environments imagined by children. Through play, children become comfortable with the working modules and panels; subsequently, they are provided matching non-electronic module cards allowing them to quickly compose pattern sequences to map ideas, stories and class content. Additionally, students are provided action and story cards to spark their imagination. CyberPLAYce merges play and learning in the physical world while transitioning students from consumers of virtual and digital-centric technologies into technological innovators and cyber-playful storytellers. *p u b l i c a t i o n s :* Soleimani, A., Herro, D., Green, K. E., and Walker, I. D. 2019. “CyberPLAYce – A Tangible, Interactive Learning Tool Fostering Children’s Computational Thinking through Storytelling." International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, Elsevier, 20C, pp. 9-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2019.01.002. Soleimani, A., Herro, D., Green, K. E., and Walker, I. D. “A Tangible, Story-Construction Process Employing Spatial, Computational-Thinking." Proceedings of IDC 2016: the 12th International ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC 2016), June 21-24, Manchester, UK, pp. 157-166. Soleimani, A., Smith, K., Zeng, J., Green, K. E., Herro, D., Santiago, J., Sharma. S. Tonapi, M., Vijaykumar, A., Walker, I., & Garder-McCune, C. “Learning with CyberPLAYce; a Cyber-Physical Learning Environment for Elementary Students Promoting Computational Expression (archival video).” In Proceedings of CHI 2014: the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'14). Toronto, Ontario, Canada, p.165 and archived video of this first prototype. Soleimani, A., Green, K. E., Walker, I. D., Gardner-McCune, C., Herro, D. “CyberPLAYce -- A Play Space of Creative Intelligent Tools Promoting Personal Expression; Collaboration and Computational Thinking for Early Learners.” In Proceedings of DIS 2014, the ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS'14), Vancouver, B.C.. pp. 191–194 (Doctoral Consortium). Current prototype above, and in a video clip from an emprical study with 6th grade students at Fisher STEAM school. *Previous two prototypes:* Video of our second prototype - empirical study with children, 8-10 years old. Video of our earliest prototype, as shown at the CHI'14 Video Showcase. Spatial computational-thinking as recorderd by one of the participants.