Hey there! Play & Learn Chemistry with
Q elementary
elementary Q major studio 1
Carla Molins Pitarch
Since my childhood I have realized that some children have problems with specific subjects, most commonly Math, Physics and Chemistry. As I grew up, I tutored a wide range of students who found Science tedious and incomprehensible. It was not until I taught two middle school girls with dyslexia that I found out how important it was to find new ways to explain what they found complicated. I was always trying to create small challenges to catch their attention and to spark their motivation. Ultimately, learning ended up being a game. Why it worked? The secret is in curiosity. Curiosity is innate: everybody has it, but you need to awaken it. There are plenty of scientific topics that are incredibly interesting, but complicated language and a lack of good visuals unintentionally restrict the audience. There are a lot of people thirsty for knowledge, and others may not know what they like or simply are skeptical. All of them however, have something in common; they will look at an impressive, powerful, and stunning photograph or illustration. So, how could science be more understandable and attractive? Media artists have the tools to produce what people don’t expect to see, and certainly call attention to learn something new. Science and Design, my two passions, find a home in scientific visualization. Particularly, in this project, I would like to work closer on a matter of educational content and tooling. Elementary Q is a set of activities for children to play and learn chemistry. It is aimed at children between six and eight years old, and encourages children to interact with some concepts maybe for the first time but in a playful way. Each activity will bring in an interactive and entertaining environment in which a student encounters a new concept related to elements of the periodic table.
problem vs solution children & science
But, what about children’s relation to Science? Sometimes the only motivation that they get is at school. School systems do not always spark motivation in their pupils, they rely just on memorization tailored to some test. That kind of knowledge is not meaningful because the only goal is to retain information to be able to score high in a test. However, is the real purpose learning or getting an A? Moreover, I truly believe that students hate the kind of learning that requires hours of memorization, it has zero real application into the real world and of course is forgotten straight way. These assertions come from my own personal experience as student, as an academic support teacher at Betania Patmos School (Catalan educational system) for several years and also from my own siblings’ academic syllabus from the American School of Barcelona (American International System). Personally, it wasn’t until I reached college level at Elisava (Barcelona School of Design and Engineering) that I had my first chance to learn through experimentation, creating and learning from my own projects. This time, it was my own choice of institution that gave the opportunity to enjoy another kind of education. Thus, the main goal of my project is generating experiences where direct interaction generates learning of any discipline within science. The experiences generated don’t arise from creating artworks that are merely aesthetic but the value relies in its potential to indirectly transmit knowledge in a visual and clear way but, at the same time, being powerful and attractive. It should include different ways of interaction with the user such as, visuals, sound and haptics. Lastly, storytelling seems to be an element that could help to build a stronger concept as it has been showed in other projects such as Artificial Listener with Social Intelligence1, Data of Children Storytelling2 and Storytelling companion3. Three different MIT explorations that get data from its different users and allow scientists and educators to understand the type of behaviour children express when storytelling.
R+D
Scratch screenshot.
“To thrive in today’s rapidly-changing world, young people must learn to think and act creatively.”4 Mitchel Resnick is the co-creator of Scratch, a programming language and online community that makes it easy to create interactive stories, games, and animations and share them online. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively, while also learning important mathematical and computational ideas. Resnick analyzes the extraordinary successes that have emerged from his kid-centred view of learning with technology, sketching out a future in which kids program their classroom computers, not the other way around.5 Is it possible to have a more interactive learning system? How to engage children to be the future generation of scientists? Perhaps, there is just a need to create a fun way to learn science, to give to each child more options and better understanding. There are many educational tools yet to be created. For me, creating a tool for children is adding a new challenge to my personal goal, to give answer to a question, illustrating scientific concepts, but focusing on kids, and understanding how they learn. It’s interesting the idea of learning process for an audience with any scientific background or previous knowledge. This blank canvas allows them to create their own set of skills.
I’m interested in creating a new system for learning science. How kids first contact science today needs to be revised and questioned, and also find out how it could be improved. There are different educational systems that teach the same subjects differently. For example, Scandinavian schools have shown that an alternate educational system is possible and better on long term results. Finnish schools have minimal homework, and it is not until the age of 7 that schooling becomes compulsory. “We have no hurry,” said Kari Louhivuori, a veteran teacher and the school’s principal of one Helsinki’s suburbs school. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”6 Can education with less formal learning, without applying the pressure that a grading system implies, end with a better performance than the standardized one? As shocking as could seem for American students or even educators, it is possible. Finnish students do the least number of class hours per week in the developed world, yet get the best results in the long term. Students in Finland sit no mandatory exams until the age of 17-19.7
Finland ranks near the top in reading, science and math. ( Chart Resources: Programme for International student Assessment Test Scores; Infographic by 5W in Infographics)
As this graph shows, the final performance demonstrated by Finnish students is substantially higher in Reading, Science and Math than the American appears to be. This demonstrates how more effective Finnish education is compared to the American system.
SPRING project landing page.
Additionally, new educational tools such as SPRING, A Smart Platform for Research, Intervention, & Neurodevelopmental Growth, have a different approach too. “SPRING is a custom-built hardware and software platform for children with neuro-differences. The system automates data acquisition, optimizes learning progressions, and encourages social, cognitive, and motor development in a positive, personalized, child-led play environment. The quantitative data and developmental trajectories captured by this platform enable systematic, multi-modal, long-term studies of different therapeutic and educational approaches to autism and other developmental disorders, as well as a better understanding of motivation, engagement, and learning for the general population.�8 There needs to be a lot of experimentation, analysis and testing. Educational tools are not a new topic, there is an incredible research lead by first level institutions (f.e MIT departments: Affective Computing9 , Lifelong Kindergarten10 , Personal Robots11 , Social Computing12 ) . I’d like to focus on many different answers to the same question, how to create new learning models regarding to children learning process. There is a need to be aware of what has been done before and if there is any lack in other programs, in order to be able to apply the best principles.
There are a lot more projects such as SpeechBlocks13 and StoryBlocks14 that try to teach using other types of motivation, because children may learn better when appropriately challenged. In this case, a robot matched the “level” or complexity of the language used to the general language ability of the child. This adaptability might help children to improve even more.
StoryBlocks project landing page.
My design purpose here is to design a better tool for science learning for children. I would like to Inspire. Educate. Motivate. But more important, challenge them and awaken their thirst for learning even more. Popular Science. Easy learning. Knowledge for everyone. Simplify Complexity. Visual Science. Those are the core elements of the project. I want to point out that creating a tool for achieving learning easily doesn’t mean to teach easy content. Seymour Papert, Media Lab founding faculty member, created a basis of a new theory of learning through construction. Children seen as designers and creators thanks to tools that he created, such as Logo (Lego Mindstorms’ programming Language).15 Instead of being consumers of technology, defended that learning through imaginative experimentation and creating objects that could be shared, happens best in an active knowledge constructing environment for children16.
“I have no doubt that this kid called the work fun because it was hard rather than in spite of being hard.� Seymour Papert has no doubt, too17. Creating small challenges will be more effective than just letting hard to be hard inside a text book. Science might seem complex, but could be fun too! At this point, I wanted to focus on just one specific topic to teach. In my opinion one of the most boring memorizing content I had to learn was the periodic table. It was necessary in chemistry class but I can barely remember anything because of the way I had to learn it. How about learning from a story? Moreover, I wanted to create a tool that grows alongside the child learning process. It needs to be a challenging but encouraging process behind. Visuals are the key of this particular learning, and retaining a different type of information creating synaptic connexions in the future, instead of having isolated pieces of knowledge.
process
The first steps of my design involved decidedly how to be able to illustrate some of the elements of the periodic table and then create a small story behind each element. This visual identity created enough context to present some learning and then using some kind of trivia system to play around the content. Quizzes, quests, challenges ‌ different ways to motivate the young future scientists. As designing for exhibit purposes was out of my comfort zone, I decided to visit different science exhibitions in order to take into account the use of the space, ergonomics, user experience, and child-proofing systems among others that I will explain with some detailed examples. My first case study was the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. My visit was as a science’s passionate user and at the same time as a designer. Therefore, I evaluated and listed some aspects that should be revised and some other that should be considered for my final design. On the one hand, I realised a lot of mistakes that worsened my experience which I am going to detail in order to have a balanced analysis.
Scale & complexity.
The installation about renewable energy was a huge rough construction in the middle of the floor. This construction was absurdly complicated in relation to what it was trying to explain. While I was around none of the children stayed to complete the activity proposed, or showed any special enthusiasm. I wonder if an easier interaction could improve the experience.
Size & materiality.
Build a molecule activity consisted on using two different type of pieces corresponding to the atoms and bonds. The construction was supposed to be easy. However, the youngest ones had troubles reaching the table to join all the pieces together. In addition, after trying myself, I discovered that the pieces didn’t fit at all which could be discouraging too.
Random Interaction
Molecule magic activity was an interesting interface that allowed the user to create a custom molecule. Nevertheless, it wasn’t clear if it was complimentary to the activity analysed before or if it was an isolated one. My point here is that it didn’t seem part of the set, in which every other activity had a physical interaction that explained the principle. For me, it was inadequate in the context of the exhibition as a whole.
Visual complexity.
In my opinion, there was a misuse of textures, images, and texts on some exhibits. Sometimes, it was difficult to understand the narrative and the flow of most of the exhibition. Humans& Microbes is a good example because the hierarchy is questionable and the saturation of the colours doesn’t help at all . Even though I was overly disappointed by my visit to the museum, I truly appreciate having inputs that helped me to avoid some critical mistakes in my own design. On the other hand, there were a few things from the Liberty Science Center that I want to keep in my own exhibition.
Production & Technique
There were some small activities that worked really well such as the logic puzzles. These big wooden pieces kept inside a frame were a good example of how something simple worked better than other complex structures.
Less is more
This bees temporary exhibition had another visual language that worked much better. Minimalistic but at the same time powerful thanks to a proper use of bright colours, and geometric volumes.
Set up
Fiber optic booth had an activity directly related to a further explanation next to it that it was clear. Worked much better that the ones that didn’t have an instruction set next to it too.
To summarize and as a reminder, I need to keep in mind: simplicity, clarity, hierarchy, usability and visibility.
My second case study was the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia which was hosting a stunning temporary exhibition about the brain. Even though the theme of the exhibition was a complex topic, it was like a journey of constant discoveries. There were a wide range of activities for different audiences and personal interests.
Powerful visuals
The visual identity created adhoc for the exhibition was in my opinion the key to the success of their narrative. The whole exhibition is connected smoothly along the different sections. Heterogeneous but homogenous enough to feel inside the same fictional world.
Welcoming ambient
The space offered a lot of information but with different activities to cover more specific concepts offering a higher level of understanding. In addition, all interaction where clear, easy and engaging.
Although I could appreciate different levels of engagement, I was observing its users and they were not only able to understand easily what to do but also enjoying the experience. Actually, this field study defined for me a set of tools, rules and recommendations that should be found and explained on my final product.
Q elementary
outcomes
Taking all references into consideration Elementary Q started to take shape as a set of different activities aiming to show and to bring each chemical element closer into a daily life application. The main goal is to better understand some properties of each element and in addition see how it could be applied or found on earth. Elementary Q will consist of a set of more than 100 hundred activities related to each of the elements of the periodic table. The complete set should be displayed in a large space such a museum or any other institution with the certain conditions to ensure the proper interaction. As is not an individual installation, should be suitable for a group dynamic interactive experience. Otherwise, it could not guarantee an ideal play time. Moreover, both studies and user-testing confirmed that is easier for most people to visually understand ideas rather than get ideas just from words or abstract concepts. For that reason, there is a sample of 3 activities (Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium), corresponding to the first 3 elements of the table in order to show the key elements that each activity should have. The remaining activities will follow the same methodology along their creation.
The exhibition starts with a call to action for the kids. A visual message to call for their attention and that also works as a starting point of the installation. There is a small explanation for the parents too.
hydrogen Firstly, the Hydrogen activity consist on a threedimensional physical toolkit where each user can use all elements given to create its own representation of Universe. The different elements help each individual to visualize its own idea and at the same time acquire a small capsule of content such as where to find Hydrogen in the real world. The kit includes a variety of arts& crafts materials organized in wooden containers inside the surface that frame the canvas. The activity encourages both creativity and spatial intelligence, in which each child needs to visualize and represent with physical materials their own idea of how the universe is. The materiality is essential because they can customize almost everything instead of using predefined or given elements such as planets, stars or asteroids. The only constrain that they will have is a framed wooded art board providing white paper.
For this activity, I tested adding another kind of interactive elements, conductive dough and some LEDS. At first seemed a good idea to add even more interaction, but at the end it was misleading, because the main purpose of the activity that was learning about the abundance of Hydrogen on the Universe and where can be found remained on a second place.
helium Secondly, the Helium activity wants again to show the real application of the element on earth. Helium balloons are a day to day object know by almost all children. So, this time the game is more about an action- reaction experience; where they need to trigger a system holding the string of a balloon finding the proper item in order to release the string and allow the object to fly up a little bit. This will create several questions such as, what it happened? Why it happened? How it works? They will need to answer or guess some questions by themselves. The system is compounded by a box divided in two different sections: one for the electronic system (including an Arduino board connected to a stepper motor which will turn a gear when it’s activated thanks to a NFC sensor); and another including 100 coloured balls that will have RFID tags in order to trigger or not the motor in case the kid chooses the correct ball and approaches it to the sensor triggering the system.
lithium Lastly, the Lithium activity is a simple way to discover what objects found in our day to day contain lithium. A matching trivia with just two possible answers, yes or no.
This activity consists on a simple guessing card game on each card has one illustration of an object. To discover the answer the user just needs to flip the card. The simplicity of this activity was the result of asking several questions to different users and also from observing other activities more complex at the Liberty Science museum that didn’t work. The only downside that this activity has is that it can easily be outdated with a few years. Luckily there is an easy solution to this problem, adding or changing cards in order to be always up to date to what the children should know.
conclusion
What is the best way to learn science being a child? This just can be answered by a kid. Playtech revealed some interesting takeaways for the final version. I wanted to test engagement of different types activities and the feedback received was very valuable. Physical elements, real examples and simplicity were some of the most repeated features. They pointed out some key elements of the final designed tool: Clarity, Simplicity, hands-on learning, physical interaction, fun‌ All of them are reflected in the final design. To sum up the whole session with more than 20 different users, the most valuable features of the prototypes where visuals, physical interaction, mechanics (balloon system) and game-ability of some activities. In addition, I learned both strengths and weaknesses: I needed to improve each activity individually to create a complete set of information, clear, and more organised; and also I wanted to show the mechanism of the balloon in order to show what a lot of users asked, how it worked intrigued them a lot. Last but not least I was able to discover what worked better to take advantage of them and how I could do some small but enriching improvements. Consequently, the session reaffirmed again my design values. Visual science and creativity are bonded thanks to design. I believe that as a technologist building bridges between disciplines, I am able to create powerful experiences to encourage and engage another type of learning. As the users recalled me, physical interactivity is able to create a new level of educational entertainment. Depending on the age/ knowledge, the feeling after participating was different, but always positive. Some felt challenged, some amused, other surprised, even melancholic for parents recalling their school days. Both adults and children agreed on how this system was much more appealing that what they have done before. All in all, Elementary Q becomes a first step into an area with a huge potential. Educational scientific visualization is not only a challenge but also a great opportunity to solve a problem for some young students. Demystifying scientific complexity could be a deal breaker for our future generations. In a future iteration, I would like to introduce different levels of the activities according to each user pace of learning. In my opinion, as I explained before, each child has different levels of engagement too, so it needs to be adequate to the audience. I can imagine different sets covering more concepts depending on the interests or previous knowledge. In addition, having a system where progress could be stored and accessible, could help parents and educators to see what needs to be reviewed or even better, challenged.
Endnotes 1 “Project Overview. Artificial Listener with Social Intelligence. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed November 20, 2017. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/artificial-listener-with-social-intelligence/overview/. 2 “Project Overview. Data of Children Storytelling. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed November 20, 2017. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/data-of-children-storytelling/overview/. 3 “Project Overview. Personalized Robot Storytelling Companion. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed November 20. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/collaborative-robot-storyteller/overview/. 4 “Group Overview. Lifelong Kindergarten. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed November 20, 2017. https://www.media.mit.edu/groups/lifelong-kindergarten/overview/. 5 “Lifelong Kindergarten.” MIT Press. Last modified August 17, 2017. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/lifelong-kindergarten. 6 “Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful?” Smithsonian. Accessed November 20, 2017. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/. 7 Lopez, Adam. “How Finnish Schools Shine.” The Guardian. Last modified July 29, 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/apr/09/finish-school-system. 8 “Project Overview ? SPRING: A Smart Platform for Research, Intervention, & Neurodevelopmental Growth ? MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed December 3, 2017. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/ spring-a-smart-platform-for-research-intervention-neurodevelopmental-growth/overview/. 9 “Group Overview. Affective Computing. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed December 3, 2017. https:// www.media.mit.edu/groups/affective-computing/overview/. 10 “Lifelong Kindergarten: How to Learn Like a Kid, by the Co-creator of Scratch.” Boing Boing. Last modified October 4, 2017. https://boingboing.net/2017/10/04/passion-play-peers-projects.html. 11 “Group Overview. Personal Robots. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed November 20, 2017. https:// www.media.mit.edu/groups/personal-robots/overview/. 12 “Group Overview. Social Computing. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed November 20, 2017. https:// www.media.mit.edu/groups/social-computing/overview/. 13 “Project Overview. SpeechBlocks. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed November 20, 2017. https:// www.media.mit.edu/projects/speech-blocks/overview/. 14 “Project Overview. StoryBlocks. MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab. Accessed November 20, 2017. https://www. media.mit.edu/projects/storyblocks/overview/. 15 “Logo and Learning.” Accessed November 20, 2017. http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/what_is_logo/ logo_and_learning.html. 16 “Seymour Papert’s Legacy: Thinking About Learning, and Learning About Thinking | Transformative Learning Technologies Lab.” Transformative Learning Technologies Lab | Transformative Learning Technologies Lab. Accessed November 20, 2017. https://tltl.stanford.edu/content/seymour-papert-s-legacy-thinking-about-learning-and-learning-about-thinking. 17 “Hard Fun.” Professor Seymour Papert. Accessed December 3, 2017. http://papert.org/articles/HardFun.html.