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Studying Interest During a Pandemic: A Case Study of Evaluating Interest of Young Children Through a Tangible Learning Game

  • June 2022
DOI:10.1145/3501712.3535302
  • Conference: IDC '22: Interaction Design and Children
Authors:
Sherry Yi at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Sherry Yi
Yuqi Yao
Yuqi Yao
Yuqi Yao
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Heidy Maldonado at Stanford University
Heidy Maldonado
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Abstract

In this case study, we tracked children's interest in math during a voluntary math learning program using a constrained version of Osmo's "Math Wizard Magical Workshop's Potions" game. This game targets addition and subtraction skills taught in first through third grade. Families with children six to eight years old (N = 75) volunteered to play 15-minutes daily for two weeks. The entire learning experience was conducted remotely. We administered six surveys to measure participants' attitudes toward math at three time periods (Pre-, Mid-, and Post-experience). We then use regression to explore the relationship between interest and learning gain scores, and minutes of play. Results were mixed with mostly weak positive correlations across variables. Hand-coded responses revealed that the greatest increase of interest triggered from Mid-to Post-Experience was 'Affect' from parents. We discuss the implications of this study on future analyses with children during a pandemic. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing; • Education; • Interactive learning environments ; KEYWORDS case study, tangible interaction, interface design, interest development ACM Reference Format: Sherry Yi*, Yuqi Yao, and Heidy Maldonado. 2022. Studying Interest During a Pandemic:: A Case Study of Evaluating Interest of Young Children Through a Tangible Learning Game. In Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’22), June 27–30, 2022, Braga, Portugal. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages. https: //doi.org/10.1145/3501712.3535302
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Sherry Yi, Ph.D., Yuqi Yao, M.A., &
Heidy Maldonado, Ph.D.
LEARNING MATH
THROUGH A
TANGIBLE GAME
Tangibles like Rods and Cubes
help children practice and
understand counting, early
addition, and subtraction
within twenty.
PRE
BEGINNING
OF THE
PROGRAM
MID
END OF THE
FIRST WEEK
POST
END OF THE
SECOND
WEEK
GOAL: ASSESS CHILDREN'S ATTITUDES TOWARDS
LEARNING MATH
Our work contributes to the
interest literature on children
eight and younger in a
learning environment.
Children six to eight prefer to choose positive
emoticons from the choices given.
No child chose negative emoticons to express
their feelings about the experience.
While earlier research had found that this was the
case for older children, we've shown it applies to
this age group as well(*).
*For details see Sherry Yi, Yuqi Yao, and Heidy Maldonado. 2022. Studying interest during a pandemic: A case study
of evaluating interest of young children through a tangible learning game. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM
Interaction Design and Children Conference. June 27 - 30, 2022, Braga, Portugal. AMC Inc., New York, NY.
75 families with children six to
eight volunteered to play
Osmo's "Math Wizard Magical
Workshop Potions" game for
15 minutes each weekday
during two weeks
2 weeks, 6 surveys
IMPLICATIONS FOR DESIGN
Children 6-8 years of age aren't used
to small digital keyboards on mobile
devices.
They're also not used to entering text
or numbers in blank text boxes.
Use large pressable
buttons or zones.
SUGGESTIONS WE FOLLOWED:
Reduce to numbers
or letters displayed
in digital keyboard.
Questionnaires for both parent and child
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