Today, we visited CMU’s Children’s School and took notes on the behaviors of children. I noticed that the activities that held the most attention were those that the children could create a story around. For instance, building houses out of wooden blocks or toy train train tracks allowed the children to make the activity their own and find autonomy. Many children were fixated on the “remixability” of building blocks and I noticed that when the children got bored of one activity (or one story), they find a new one (or make a new story). Hands-on activities engaged children significantly.

I mostly observed an activity that children seemed not to enjoy, which was the required “bear sorting” activity to teach students sorting skills and patten recognition. I saw that many children seemed bored after finishing the activity and some seemed uninterested during. I felt like this was because there was only one “correct” answer to the activity and once the children found it, there was nothing else for them to do, since any variation to the activity would be “incorrect.” The complex and sometimes tedious task of “bear sorting” (though very important for learning and development) was not as captivating as building blocks or dolls. Also, during the bear sorting activity, the children didn’t seem to sit and admire their work as much as I would have thought. I think this was because of the fact that there was a “final” answer and it wasn’t as satisfying to a child as making a house. I remember noticing a child glance around when he was sorting the bears, wanting to play with something else.

This experience has led me to realize that, to keep a child’s attention, a toy/mechanism has to be remixable/rebuildable. It also has to spark an imaginative story from the child and enable them to create a world around the toy. There also should not be a “done” state to the toy. To engage a child, a good project might have to be a bit modular. 

void setup() {
     Edward.goto(childrensSchool);
}

void loop() {
     Edward.observe();
}