The final project for Beyond Bits & Atoms is a working prototype of an educational technology, accompanied by a short paper suitable for submission to an academic conference. In prior years, course projects have gone on to become academic research projects and commercial products.
Logistics
On Wednesday, April 12, from 1:30-2:30pm, students will present brief pitches and initial prototypes to panels of outside educators, academics, designers, technologists, and business people for feedback, critique, and discussion.
Organization: during this session, our 6 critiques will be waiting in pairs, in 3 different rooms (according to expertise and thematics). Each group will participate in only one room of critiques. In each round, students will have 5 minutes to present their project followed by 10 minutes of discussion (5 minutes per critic) and feedback.:
- Room 1: Thematic – Mia Shaw & José Lizarraga
- Kiki
- Xichen
- Inara:
- Room 2: Thematic – Isabel Correa & Brenda Nyakoa
- Heidi
- Ana Maria & Katherine
- Andrea
- Room 3: Thematic – Jacob Wolf & Gayithri Jayathirta
- Mariana & Sadia
- Zhanlan
- Eury
Orientation
- The primary purpose of the critiques is:
- To help groups advance their projects in the weeks between critiques and the final expo.
- We encourage critics to strike a balance between
- engaging with the project being presented and
- connecting it to broader issues in their fields of expertise.
- It is particularly valuable to stoke discussion between critics coming from different fields.
- After presenting their prototypes, we encourage students to
- take a listening stance,
- providing clarifying information as appropriate,
- but not necessarily defending their work against criticism.
2023 Projects in a long tweet…
Ana Maria Rodrigues & Katherine Mercurio: A gateway tool to mindful practices that encourages intuitive movement to research-based music for specific emotions. This tool will introduce students to mindful movement as a practice for emotional regulation, that can be a catalyst for deeper meditation practices and healing.
Andrea Maidanik: Circular Economy is a station designed for a Science Museum to provide kids between four and ten years old with an environment to create a physical neighborhood and play with different economy schemes. By building the neighborhood, learners will be able to understand the benefits of a Circular Economy and think critically about production, consumption, and disposal.
Inara Bezerra Ferreira de Sousa: problem Statement: Lack of representative objects for black children to explore their identities. Learning goal: Black identity awareness development. Description of Your Solution: The product features a set of dolls that serve as “objects-to-think-with” (Papert, 1980) to support children in their reflection and exploration of identity. The dolls can be used alongside a read-aloud activity, where the facilitator (such as a teacher, parent, or legally responsible adult) reads a story and discusses it with the children. Cards are also provided to help guide the child’s exploration of the topic and to facilitate the creation of characters for their story. Once the characters are established, children can play with their story and capture their imaginative moments by creating stop-motion animation. The target audience is children from 7-9 years old. This solution was designed for a formal school setting or informal such as libraries, maker-space or after-school clubs.
Heidi Halsted: Thinking by Design gamifies the design thinking process and integrates it into modern day curriculum. Students will face scenarios in which they must solve various problems while collaborating with groupmates and receiving feedback to reiterate designs. Thinking by Design strives to make students engage more in their process of creation rather than focusing on the end result.
Mariana Lederman Edelstein & Sadia Ahmed: problem Statement: how do electrical circuits work, and how can they be used to provide a steady supply of electrical energy to devices? (based on NGSS k3-5). Description of Your Solution: A puzzle game where the learner needs to accomplish card missions creating electric circuits in a city.
Zhanlan Wei: design motivation: Have you ever found math challenging? Have you ever perceived mathematical concepts to be obscure and hard to understand? Did you ever feel intimidated by solving math problems? While mathematics concepts are often abstract and complex to picture in the real world, I wish to offer students learning experiences in which they can better visualize the learned target object and use their physical movements to better understand the concept behind it. My solution: In my design, the target learners would be middle schoolers and up, and Geometry is the target learning goal. And by creating a 3D learning environment and integrating physical activities into the learning experience rather than only picturing or imaging the target figure in learners’ minds, such as a polyhedron. Using their bodies, students could create the target figure and visualize the object on the screen with real-time feedback. This embodied learning experience could support students in better practicing their spatial reasoning abilities and understanding geometrical related concepts in a different way.