PUSH is a Flash application designed to explore concepts surrounding Simple Machines, which is integrated into the Q2L 6th grade math and science domain “The Way Things Work”. PUSH was built specifically to create game-like learning experience through collaboration and embodied play. In PUSH, students work collaboratively to help a group of digital creatures to push an object (in this case a hat) up on a hill by physically exerting ‘force’ through a set ‘distance’, at the same time tackling a common misconception in mechanical work with inclined planes. The support provided by teachers to the students in the space in terms of discussions and walk through, accompanied by worksheets, creates a different level of learning experience for the students.
PUSH is divided into four parts – title screen, level selection, gameplay, and result/formula screen. With the teacher’s guidance, students will learn to play the game utilizing their body in the SMALLab space. The students will have to make a decision on which inclined plane will require more work than another. They will then physically pushing a digital hat up on different inclined planes. By going through PUSH, the students will soon be confronted with the misconception about an inclined plane lessening the amount of work done. An experienced teacher will find moments during PUSH to take advantage of opportunities for learning. An example is when students are pushing the hat up on the hill with the digital creatures, only the force that goes along the inclined plane will be counted. In order to do better in the game, students have to “push” (actual physical movement) along the path of the inclined plane. This is a great opportunity for the teacher to step in and reinforce the fundamental concept of mechanical work.
The embodied play component in PUSH is made possible by using the Gaming SMALLab platform. It is a mixed-reality learning environment that empowers the physical body to function as an expressive interface experiencing custom-built scenarios and media-rich content through full-body movement and gestures. PUSH reads optitrack data through a custom middleware because Flash don’t have access to UDP ports. The middleware parses the data from Tracking Tool and send them to Flash using a socket server.
12/05/13 Ran PUSH for Leah, there were difficulty translating position data precisely into PUSH. In PUSH it was mapped to 1280 pixel wide but the screen resolution of the new projector is set to 1024 pixel wide. After configuring the resolution back to 1280 pixel wide, it fixed the position problem.