A simulated bee teaches science

Learning Sciences Assistant Professor Kylie Peppler and colleague Joshua Danish, also an assistant professor in the Learning Sciences program,are working on "e-puppet" technology to help teach kids science through interactive experience. "BeeSim," a bee puppet that goes over your hand, makes use of "wearable computers." Through "e-textiles," which have computer circuits built into fabric, such puppets can teach young children (ages 7-9) about how honeybees collect nectar from a complex systems perspective in their science classroom. Parts of the bee light up when the bee collects nectar from flowers and other lights indicate when the bee is growing tired.

Peppler and Danish have discovered in early studies that the BeeSim helped students to engage with the increasing complexities of a natural system, learning things like honeybees can only fly so far with the energy they gain from nectar and cannot search indefinitely. You can read more about their findings in this published report: http://kpeppler.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010_Peppler_BeeSim.pdf.
The actual BeeSim puppet was produced by a team from the The Center for Research on Learning and Technology (CRLT) at the School of Education, Benjamin Zaitlen, Alexander Jacobs, and Diane Glosson. More on how they did that is available at http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-Bee-Game/.

The CRLT is an organization dedicated to helping people find the appropriate application of technology to improve teaching and learning in diverse settings. People around the globe are exploring new educational collaborations, brought to them through new technologies. The CRLT was formed to put people in touch with the technology that is helping to change education and to shape the tools that will make those changes more productive.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• IU School of Education
• Indiana University
• BeeSim
• science
• schools