Activity summary

Students were provided with a range of different sensory items, such as colored gel cut-outs, glass beads, bottles with colored liquid, toys, etc. and they were given a three-step task to follow:  picking items, placing them on the overhead projector, projecting results. Each student had 3-4 minutes to try different items, place them on the overhead projector and explore different combinations of shapes, colors, and textures.

Goals

• Learning how students react to different modalities
• Observing the way they play, choose items, place them on the overhead projector
• Observing whether they are able to follow the steps in the task
• Observing whether they are able to notice cause and effect relations
• Learning more about how students collaborate (what impedes collaboration and what enables it)

Notes from the session

• Most students had difficulty connecting what’s happening on the projector to what was being projected on the screen
• A few students were sensitive to the projector’s bright light or the noise its fan was making
• Several students were really engaged with diverse sensory items in the basket
• For a student with low vision, we needed to use touch and create some sounds and describe items to enable participation
• Many students had difficulty letting go of items and placing them on the projector and the teacher had to help them drop the items

Notes for C2LC design

• Some students needed fewer options to choose from to be able to stay on task - So we need to have an option for gradual addition/introduction of new items
• Most students enjoyed having a variety of options to choose from
• Most students need hints/assistance to be able to detect cause and effect relationships. The same behavior was noticed during the summer camps where students couldn’t connect their sequence to robot movements
• Students were more intrigued by moving/animated items than static objects