We took our ideas to a NYC public school to test out our ideas.
Post play test questions.
Logistics Reflections
Did you have everything you needed? What was missing?
I wish I would have brought more gears, a second Ardunio board, a larger peg board and cards to accompany the project.
Would particular resources/materials have helped?
Cards to accompany the game, some sort of extra resources.
What did you do to prepare this time that worked well?
I brought the learning game, gear examples, and extra electronics.
How would you prepare differently next time? What would you prioritize?
I would have spent more time developing the gameplay, cards, instructions, and extra handouts. Possibly develop characters to fit on top of the gears.
Activity Reflections
How did your introductions go with the students and to the project?
It went ok; the first group seemed interested in the project.
Would you change or keep anything from what you did?
Make it more fun, more engaging in some sort of way.
How was the flow of what you ran?
It was a bit awkward to start but the students gave great feedback.
What would you want to remember for designing for the students next time?
The students asked us to add more features. The suggested to decorate the gears with flowers, add LED's
What do you think was the most important takeaway from what happened within the activity you created?
To develop the interactive device more and turn it into more of a game. Add characters, make it into a charades game, put flowers on the gears, make it fun.
What do you think captured their attention well?
The device had moving parts.
What didn’t work so well, and what might you do differently?
It needs to be developed more.
How did they respond to your explanations, questions, etc.?
They were more open to giving feedback when they realized it was still a W.I.P.
Would you change any of your methods for engaging the students?
I wish I had brought additional resources, like other board games or things to work with, if they did not find the learning device interesting.
What aspects of how you explained things worked well or would you improve?
Everything needs to be packaged in a more uniform and polished way.
Were there things that might help you have a broader reach with the students?
Turn it into an RPG, a charades game, something with characters, or anything more interactive.
Were there things that worked well across students?
Allowing the students to plug, play, and tinker on their own.
What kinds of things do you think mediated differences between students for your particular activity (i.e. knowledge, skills, interests)
Resource Reflections
How did the physical designs go?
Did the interactivity have the intended effect? If not, why do you think that was? If so, why do you think that was?
Do you think the students were able to engage with the concepts the way you had hoped?
Do you think the students found the design interesting to play with?
Slightly, the first ground seemed more interested than the second.
Were students able to interact in the way that you hoped?
What would you change to improve the interaction?
Add more features.
Do you think the interactions supported learning?
Slightly, I think it needs to be developed more..
How could you more closely tie the interaction to expanding what students learned?
There should be more examples of torque, speed/force multipliers, and cards to accompany them. Alternatively, those aspects could be hidden more, making it more interactive and developing the story/world more.
Do you think the interaction supported interest to continue engaging? How would you improve it? What worked well?
What kinds of feedback helped the students?
What was missing that could have helped?
Cards or handouts.
More features are also needed to make learning more visible.
How did the resources/design pair with what you did with them? How would you improve it? What would you retain?
Add more features and turn it into a more interactive game. Add characters, plushies, make the gears into flowers, turn it into a charades game.