• What is the research problem and why is it important?
There are a vast amount of educational engineering kits for students in high school and college, these kits expose students to critical thiking and new concepts. But when the age group is students in primary school, the options are limited and expensive. How can we expose young children to engineering skills with little and inexpensive kits, and make sure the kits are targeted and usable for those in primary school?
There are a vast amount of educational engineering kits for students in high school and college, these kits expose students to basic design, engineering, and programming concepts. But when the age group is students in primary school, the options are limited and expensive. How can we expose young children to engineering skills with little and inexpensive kits, and make sure the kits are targeted and usable for those in primary school?
A majority of students are initially exposed to STEM during their time in high school, and college. There a large amount of kits, ranging in price and complexity, that introduce students to basic design, engineering, and programming concepts. What if we could expose students to these concepts earlier?
Our goal to introduce STEM to children at an earlier age brought us to a robotic foldable boat, aka a Paper Boat. Without electrical, mechanical, and software components, only a sheet of paper is required to create a functional paper boat. This one material is widely available throughout the entire world.
We to create options for children, as young as five years old, to begin dabbling in STEM. Requirements for this project to be a success are: low cost, accessible supplies, usable for all ages, and limitless design ideas.
• What did you do and why?
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@@ -78,7 +79,7 @@ Session 2: Test the skills of a 5 year old with computer and tablet games/apps.
Session 3: Try to build a GUI by this point and test it on them. (not 100% sure yet, need to complete more literature review (design principles))
### 4.1 Experimental Procedure
### 1. Experimental Procedure
Children and Adults have different uses and expectations of computers (desktop and/or laptop) and tablets. Adults generally user tablets for content-consumption and computers for content creation. But tablets are easier to use among children for content-consumption and content-creation because mice and keyboards are not as intuitive. (https://www.diffen.com/difference/Laptop_vs_Tablet_computer, deisgn principles)
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@@ -108,19 +109,13 @@ How to we engage and elecit feelings of excitement when the user/designer is pr
What functionalities should we or should we not include in the design of a GUI?
##### Session 1: Meet with volunteer; play games on tablet and computer; observe differences, conduct interview
For the inital session, I will meet with a the volunteer. This session will consist of playing games that are targeted to the 5 year old audience, but these games will be played on a tablet and on a computer. I will observe the difference between each game and platform used. Before ending I will ask the child questions based on the usability of each game on each platform.
Session Specific questions: When given the task to play games, was it more easy to use a tablet or computer? Which game did you like best on tablet and why? Which game did you like best on the computer and why? (Which game did you have the most fun? Will this recieve a similar answer? Can like/enjoy and fun be used interchangably?) Did you enjoy playing games more on the computer or on the tablet? (Do research and make list of computer and tablet games for 5 year olds, look into how and why they were designed.)
##### Session 2: Meet with volunteer; bring paper and supplies to draw boats boats for different purposes; observe difference, conduct interview
##### Session 1: Meet with volunteer; bring paper and supplies to draw boats boats for different purposes; observe difference, conduct interview
For the second session, I will meet with the volunteer. This session will consist of providing paper (construction paper) and art supplies, the child will be initially asked to draw a boat (figure out how to present it?, dream boat) After the child will be asked to draw boats designed to serve different objectives/purposes. (fast, tall, capacity to carry objects, etc.) Observe how and why they design each boat to their liking, observe the difference between free flow vs not and how it affected their design or their creative expressions? Ask them questions (create a survey)
Session Specific Questions: How do they design it?
##### Session 3: Meet with volunteer; same as sesssion 2, but on tablet and computer; observe differences, conduct interview
##### Session 2: Meet with volunteer; same as sesssion 1, but on tablet and computer; observe differences, conduct interview
For the third session, I will meet with the volunteer. This session will consist of providing a tablet and a computer with drawing applications with the child's objective to draw any boat they want on each platform. I will observe what they draw, how they draw it, which drawing tool they enjoyed more, which drawing application was more usable for the child. At the end I will ask the child questions about their drawings, as well as the drawing tools.
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@@ -128,6 +123,12 @@ Session Specific Questions: When given the task to draw a boat, was it more easy
*~~Maybe* Session 3~~
~~For the inital session, I will meet with a the volunteer. This session will consist of playing games that are targeted to the 5 year old audience, but these games will be played on a tablet and on a computer. I will observe the difference between each game and platform used. Before ending I will ask the child questions based on the usability of each game on each platform.~~
~~Session Specific questions: When given the task to play games, was it more easy to use a tablet or computer? Which game did you like best on tablet and why? Which game did you like best on the computer and why? (Which game did you have the most fun? Will this recieve a similar answer? Can like/enjoy and fun be used interchangably?) Did you enjoy playing games more on the computer or on the tablet? (Do research and make list of computer and tablet games for 5 year olds, look into how and why they were designed.)~~
What functionality should we include (or not) in design? How to engage the user/designer, to excite boat design?
