| NSF Org: |
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 27, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 27, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1513432 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Robert Russell
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2017 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $25,961.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $25,961.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
926 DALNEY ST NW ATLANTA GA US 30318-6395 (404)894-4819 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
225 North Ave., NW Atlanta GA US 30332-0002 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Cyberlearn & Future Learn Tech |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
The Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies Program funds efforts that will help envision the next generation of learning technologies and advance what we know about how people learn in technology-rich environments. This project investigates how to provide customized instructional scaffolding to young kids to learn science in unstructured, out-of-school environments. The innovation is in using 'virtual STEM buddies' (VSBs), a computerized character that functions as both a mentor and a peer, and interacts with a child across exhibits within a children's museum to help them learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Research will examine how to design and build such technologies, and how the 'virtual buddy' fits into other learning interactions (such as those between parent and child, or between museum guide and child).
The VSB, an intelligent embodied agent, will be built and pilot tested at the Children's Museum of Atlanta, with engineering research focusing on how to ensure the agent can align with the learner's knowledge and passions in what Crowley and Jacobs term 'islands of expertise'. Key features will include assessment of and alignment to the youth's prior knowledge; an interaction tailored to social construction of knowledge and continuity over time (so that the agent evolves with the child); and opportunistic instruction based on teachable moments both within and outside the museum. Engineering research will explore, in conjunction with participatory design, technologies for visitor identification (barcode, RFID, biometrics), user experience design to explore input methods in the noisy environment of a children's museum, and mechanisms to handle 'bottlenecking' of visitors (i.e., to allow an acceptable multi-user experience if multiple children want to access the VSB technology at an exhibit). The learning research will focus on discourse of youth in the museum with adults and peers, and will be augmented with a brief post exhibit attitudinal survey based on the "Changes in Attitudes about the Relevance of Science" instrument.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This EAGER project had two aims:
1. Better understand how the Virtual STEM Buddy (VSB) system can capture children's interest and scaffold learning in the informal learning environment of a children's museum.
2. Identify potential technological issues and solutions with proposed VSB features, including identifying users, appearance customization, environmental interference, user input, museum bottlenecks, interacting with users, serving children with special needs, evolving discussions over repeated visits and out-of-museum interactions.
To address the first aim we developed an series of formative activities with children and parents that might visit the children’s museums together. These activities were conducted in the previous year. Based upon the data collected from these activities this year we analyzed and wrote up reports on the findings. We have submitted two papers based upon this data to the ACM conference on Interaction Design and Children, and to the ACM Groupworks conference. During both review processes, we received productive feedback and are currently preparing the data to be submitted as one paper for a journal publication.
The findings did inform the design and development of the technical aim and have been incorporated over the past year with the development and implementation of the VSB in the Children’s Museum of Atlanta. The VSB exhibit was successfully installed and is presently running at the Children's Museum of Atlanta. We are actively collecting data on a daily basis.
We also shifted from wrist-bands to simple 5-digit alphanumeric codes. Parents enter their phone number to receive a text code for each of their chidren's VSBs. This is scalable to any number of kiosks. We implemented a second STEM mini-game that has enabled us to introduce additional STEM concepts such as force, velocity, and projectile motion. Finally, we implemented a more intuitive 3D interaction technique that enables parents and children to select and manipulate 3D objects more efficiently, and has led to significantly more frequent use of the exhibit.
The kiosk has had over 10,000 interactions with children at the museum. The average length of each interaction is about 2-minutes for each game type. This is consistent with our goals for an engaging interaction. Children are also complete game objectives at a high rate (> 50% of games are played to completion).
Last Modified: 12/04/2017
Modified by: Elizabeth Disalvo
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