MENG is an educational, interactive, and collaborative physical environment prototype designed for young children between 3 to 7 years old. It allows young children to experience playful learning within the space while having the opportunity to have a better understanding of their spatial reasoning skills.
Design problem: In early childhood, spatial reasoning skills form the foundation of Mathematics learning and other STEM disciplines. Research indicates that, for young children, given the advantage of learning spatial reasoning skills at a young age, perform better in areas of arithmetic in primary and upper-grade levels. However, spatial reasoning is not an essential part of the curriculum in schools.
Design Mechanics :
Color: The zones of colors is arranging in logical orders, such as rainbow colors. When students place a manipulative in one color zone, a specific color would be projected on the manipulative.
Body-sized Manipulative: The initial design of MENG uses body-size, lightweight foam blocks that allow young children to use their gross motor skills. Within the setting, children can move the blocks by walking, running, and even crawling to see how colors change on the blocks in different locations. When children are building in different depth levels within the room, two or more colors would be projected on the blocks.
Teacher Facilitation: There are activities for two groups of children, 3 to 4 years old and 5 to 7 years old. The focus for the youngest group is to allow them becoming familiar with spatial skills in unstructured activities that would enable them to explore the space freely. The teacher only facilitates using spatial language after the children had exploration. Simple tasks are designed for teacher assessment. Activities for the older group are “Color Treasure Hunt!” and “Build a House!” These would provide for students to learn spatial reasoning skills through collaboration.
Hardware: Kinect sensor, short-throw projector, laptop / Software: Unity / Year: 2019
Course: MSTU 5199 Beyond Bits & Atoms - Designing Technologies for Educational Equity and Culturally Diverse Populations