We introduce ARMath, a mobile Augmented Reality (AR) system that allows ch ildren to discover mathematical concepts in familiar, ord inary objects and engage with math problems in meaningful contexts. Leveraging advanced computer vision, ARMath recognizes everyday objects, visualizes their mathematical attributes, and turns them into tangible or virtual manipulatives. Using the manipulatives, children can solve problems that situate math operations or concepts in specific everyday contexts. Informed by four participatory design sessions with teachers and children, we developed five ARMath modules to support basic arithmetic and 2D geometry. We also conducted an exploratory evaluation of ARMath with 27 children (ages 5-8) at a local children's museum. Our findings demonstrate how ARMath engages children in math learning, how failures in AI can be used as learning opportunities, and challenges that children face when using ARMath.

We introduce PrototypAR, an Augmented Reality (AR) system that allows children to rapidly build complex systems using paper crafts and to test their designs in a digital environment. PrototypAR combines lo-fidelity prototyping to facilitate iterative design, real-time AR feedback to scaffold learning, and a virtual simulation environment to support personalized experiments. Informed by three participatory design sessions, we developed three PrototypAR applications: build-a-bike, build-a-camera, and build-an-aquarium---each highlights different aspects of our system. To evaluate PrototypAR, we conducted four single-session qualitative evaluations with 21 children working in teams. Our findings show how children build and explore complex systems models, how they use AR scaffolds, and the challenges they face when conducting experiments with their own prototypes.

We present early work developing an Augmented Reality (AR) system that allows young children to design and experiment with complex systems (e.g., bicycle gears, human circulatory system). Our novel approach combines low-fidelity prototyping to help children represent creative ideas, AR visualization to scaffold iterative design, and virtual simulation to support personalized experiments. To evaluate our approach, we conducted an exploratory study with eight children (ages 8-11) using an initial prototype. Our findings demonstrate the viability of our approach, uncover usability challenges, and suggest opportunities for future work. We also distill additional design implications from a follow-up participatory design session with children.

Wearable sensing poses new opportunities to enhance personal connections to learning and authentic scientific inquiry experiences. In our work, we leverage the body and physical action as an engaging platform for learning through live physiological sensing and visualization (LPSV). Prior research suggests the potential of this approach, but was limited to single-session evaluations in informal environments. In this paper, we examine LPSV tools in a classroom environment during a four-day deployment. To highlight the complex interconnections between space, teachers, curriculum, and tool use, we analyze our data through the lens of Activity Theory. Our findings show the importance of integrating model-based representations for supporting exploration and analytic representations for scaffolding scientific inquiry. Activity Theory highlights leveraging life-relevant connections available within a physical space and considering policies and norms related to learners' physical bodies.

We present and evaluate a new mixed-reality tool called SharedPhys, which tightly integrates real-time physiological sensing, whole-body interaction, and responsive large-screen visualizations to support new forms of embodied interaction and collaborative learning. While our primary content area is the human body, we use the body and physical activity as a pathway to other STEM areas such as biology, health, and mathematics. We describe our participatory design process with 20 elementary school teachers, the development of three contrasting SharedPhys prototypes, and results from six exploratory evaluations in two after-school programs. Our findings suggest that the tight coupling between physical interaction, sensing, and visualization in a multi-user environment helps promote engagement, allows children to easily explore cause-and-effect relationships, supports and shapes social interactions, and promotes playful experiences.

This paper introduces immersive e-learning system which provides vivid learning experience using augmented reality(AR) technology. This system gives illusion that participants feel as if they are in foreign environment by synthesizing images of participants, virtual environment, foreign-language speakers in real-time. Furthermore, surrounding virtual environment reacts to the behavior of each participant including student, local teacher, remote teacher. The system has been installed along with 10 scenarios at 14 public elementary schools and conducted during regular class time. This paper presents our motivations for the system development, a detailed design, and its contents.