Playing and creating embodied math games (WLCP)

Playing and Creating Embodied Math Games

Over the past 2 years, I have worked with my colleague Ivon Arroyo on the Wearables for Learning Project. The Wearables for Learning project is investigating mathematics learning in elementary and middle school via authentic games that children play in the classroom and the playground, which are full of rich mathematical properties.

We integrate technology with relay races, and scavenger hunts that target the development of number sense, measurement and geometry, and overlap technology to authentic children’s games that capitalize on this infrastructure to learn mathematics and excite kids about learning math.

With two recent EAGER and Cyberlearning awards from the National Science Foundation we will investigate middle schooler’s development of computational thinking as children create math games themselves, defining the behavior of wearables as finite-state-machines. We will also study how teachers can best integrate this technology into the classroom.

This research explores how learning with physical-technology compares to learning with classic/passive-technology and how problem-posing adds inquiry-based approaches and ownership into the game, as well as motivational/affective impact on perceptions of mathematics and the drive to learn.

The technology includes cell phones with NFC and SmartWatches that act as “wearable tutors” that communicate mathematical cues about classmates' hiding places, or about the mathematical properties of hidden or sought objects.

We have made many exciting advances on this project over the past 2 years.

To visit our site on the Embodied Games Project, visit wearablelearning.org