Xintian Tu

My dissertation design is built on the GEM-STEP platform, which tracks students’ movement in the classroom space and translates it into the movement of virtual bees on the shared screen (Figure 1).

There are three different types of activities in my study. Students experienced two roles in the activities: Bees and farmers. In activities 1- 4, students explored how bees communicate via the waggle dance and how this is tied to the process of pollination. Students took the role of bees, moved into their classrooms, and explored the bees’ communication and pollination within GEM-STEP. For the last two activities, students took the role of farmers and used the simulation to design a farm. In this way, students were able to move the commercial beehives and flowers in the meadow (see Figure 2).

The participants in this study are 16 students from a 1st and 2nd grade –mixed-grade classroom in the Midwestern United States. Students participated in a six-session curriculum within the GEM-STEP environment. My data analysis will be built on the Learning Embodied Activity Framework (LEAF, Danish et al., 2020), looking into how the mediators support young children’s embodied learning via play. I applied Interaction Analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) to analyze the video of classroom activities. The initial analysis of the project shows there’s a significant learning gain based on the analysis of pre and post-assessment. We also found that role-taking also helped students to explore the pollination model.

I hope this work will also inspire future designers and educators to 1) design computer-supported learning environments for young children, and 2) provide productive scaffolding to young children while keeping the balance of activities being playful and scientific.

Special thanks to the RAPT Lab, and GEM-STEP team. I also appreciate Dr. Joshua Danish and Morgan Vickery for helping me build the platform.