Embodied Games, Next Gen Interfaces, and Assessment of High School Physics
Abstract
In this worked example we present ongoing research in the realization and evaluation of a new mixed-reality learning environment called SMALLab. Within SMALLab, students interact in real time with each other and with dynamic visual, textual, physical, and sonic media through full-body 3D movements and gestures. The environment fosters embodied and multimodal learning in a manner that brings together contemporary research in the learning sciences and human-computer interaction. The need for new approaches to science education and a recent study of SMALLab learning in a high school physics classroom are presented. We describe a game-based scenario for learning about constant velocity. We present an assessment framework that integrates a variety of measures to provide a broad view of SMALLab-facilitated learning in a formal school context. The primary focus of this study is to explore the impact of SMALLab learning on representational fluency. Results suggest that embodied activity in SMALLab scenarios with multiple representations (i.e., representing physics constructs graphically, algebraically, verbally, etc.) is strongly related to better performance on more traditional measures of representational fluency. The current study is one component in a longitudinal examination of the efficacy of embodied SMALLab learning.
What is SMALLab?
SMALLab is a mixed-reality environment developed by a collaborative team of researchers including those in education, psychology, interactive media, computer science, and the arts. By “mixed-reality,” we mean that there is an integration of physical manipulation objects, 3D physical gestures, and digitally-mediated components where the physical body functions as an expressive interface . Within SMALLab, students use a set of “glowballs” and wireless peripherals to interact in real time with each other and with dynamic visual, textual, physical, and sonic media through full-body 3D movements and gestures. For example, working on a spring physics scenario, students are immersed in a complex physics simulation that involves multiple sensory inputs to engage student attention. They can hear the sound of a spring picking up speed, see projected bodies moving across the floor, feel a physical ball in their own hands and integrate how the projected ball moves in accordance with their own body movements enabling them to construct a robust conceptual model of the motion system.
SMALLab is a highly collaborative space at all levels of design and implementation. It builds upon prior work in the domain of social computing interfaces in that participants can freely enter and exit the space without the need for wearing specialized display or sensing devices such as head-mounted displays or motion capture suits. As shown in Insert Figure 1 <figure1.jpg>, participants seated or standing around SMALLab can readily see and hear the dynamic media, and they can directly communicate with their peers in the active space. As such, SMALLab establishes a porous relationship between the mediated space and the larger physical learning environment.
Figure 1. Whole class interaction within and around SMALLab.
Physically, SMALLab is an open cube-shaped space with the following sensing and feedback equipment: a 3D-object tracking system, a top-mounted video projector providing real time visual feedback, four audio speakers for surround sound feedback, and an array of tracked physical objects (“glowballs”). A networked computing cluster with custom software drives the interactive system. In past work our team has deployed SMALLab in a series of pilot regional school and museum programs.
