SENIOR CAPSTONE
Educational Toy Design
My capstone proposal identified the initial problem and area of research as an exploration of the field of technology education from Pre-K to 3rd Grade. From this, I would create an educational toy that can measurably improve a young child’s intrinsic knowledge of robotics. As I progressed through the research, I would identify a secondary problem to go with this - the solution must function without a trained instructor or guide present.
The State of the Art
My primary research consisted of an exploration of three topics - education standards, robots in the classroom, and the intersection of those fields, robotics education for young children. There was a distinct lack of content for the latter field, with only one research lab even exploring the subject. Most of my primary research involved finding the people who could see the intersection between these fields to interview.
Education Topics and Standards
For my exploration of education topics in Pre-K through 3rd grade, I focused on what skills young children learn that could go hand in hand with a technology-based curriculum. From this research, I’ve learned that many schools have progressed past the use of the direct Common Core standards, and have moved to use a system called Next Gen Science. Next Gen includes applicable engineering design lessons in the standards, which have helped me align the standards to what a robot should be able to teach kids at this age.
Applicable skills from the Next Gen standards include:
Pre-K: Colors, Close/Far, Bright/Dark
1st: Senses, Sentence/Story Order
2nd: Distances (inch, centimeter)
3rd: Processes, Algorithms, Estimation, Points on a line
Existing Solutions and Competitive Benchmarking
Currently, robotics for early childhood learners is a small field, with no real experts besides the Tufts DevTech team. This means that many systems that exist in the world today are confusing, hard to use, and need a parent or instructor present to really have the child understand what to do. I’ve evaluated 10 different platforms based on their price, age level, playground/playpen, complexity, and consumer rating out of 5. With this information, I was able to identify where a product I produce should land.
I interviewed 10 people - 5 users (students from Pre-K through 3rd grade), 3 indirect users (Parents and Teachers), and 2 industry partners. One quote from industry partner Marina Umaschi Bers stood out to me as a good summary of all of them.
"Learning to code is more than job preparation. It is about learning to think in systematic ways and learning to use language, a programming language, to express our ideas. It can be taught in playful developmentally appropriate ways and can promote socialization and create creative problem-solving.”
With these interviews and research in mind, I used these design goals to identify my problem statement.
Must-haves:
Developmentally appropriate
Divergent play principles
Integrates sensors
Obvious cues to this being a robot, understanding of what is inside
Opportunity for growth within the toy
Promotes creative thinking
Like-to haves:
Under 100$
Mild assembly required
Ability to build your own additions to the toy
Simple to start programming
Extras:
Fits into Common Core standards
Videos on usage for Indirect Users to evaluate where the user is and how to help them without having a complete understanding of the system
How can we design a system that encourages divergent play without a guide present that supports intrinsic knowledge of robotics and coding in children ages 7 and under?
Overall feedback from my experts indicated that I should proceed with the Storybook next semester. This will include mock-ups, testing, and prototyping.
At the start of this semester, I began work on the human factors of the storybook remote and robot. I wanted children to have an innate familiarity with the form, which would give them confidence in playing with it. This led to a very natural, form-based design. I created this in Onshape afterwards, and 3D printed the form to have a better understanding of how it would feel in the hand.
