In the educational engineering sphere today, there are limited and expensive introductory kits for children in primary school (K-4) that focus on concepts like basic design, engineering, and programming. We are working to create a system that is suitable for 5 year olds to design robotic paper boats. From beginmning to end, the system will include: a graphical user interface, a robot compiler and a printer. Components needed for this system to be complete include: a collection of designs, a set of parameters that designs can change, and the collection of interactions with the student. My goal is to create a graphical user interface suitable for 5 year olds to change parameters of a boat. This involves creating a widget that is "best" to change parameters based on the student's efficieny and creativity when using the widget with a desired end goal. We are conducting qualitative research by which we collect data during meetings with the student based on the questions we are attempting to answer. After the intial participant observational meetings, one widget will better allow for efficeincy and creativity. That widget will be implemented into the graphical user interface that is created in the future, along with other expansions of the system.
In the educational engineering sphere today, there are limited and expensive introductory kits for children in primary school (K-3) that focus on concepts like basic design, engineering, and programming. We are working to create a system that is suitable for 5 year olds to design robotic paper boats. From beginmning to end, the system will include: a graphical user interface, a robot compiler and a printer. Components needed for this system to be complete include: a collection of designs, a set of parameters that designs can change, and the collection of interactions with the student. My goal is to create a graphical user interface suitable for 5 year olds to change parameters of a boat. This involves creating a widget that is "best" to change parameters based on the student's efficieny and creativity when using the widget with a desired end goal. We are conducting qualitative research by which we collect data during meetings with the student based on the questions we are attempting to answer. After the intial participant observational meetings, one widget will better allow for efficeincy and creativity. That widget will be implemented into the graphical user interface that is created in the future, along with other expansions of the system.
