EAGER: Paper Mechatronics: Creating High-Low Tech Design Kits to Promote Engineering Education

“网络学习和未来学习技术计划”资助的工作旨在支持展望学习技术的未来，并推进我们对人们如何在技术丰富的环境中学习的了解。在这个网络学习EAGER项目中，项目团队正在开发使用“纸面机电一体化”作为学习技术的基础。纸面机电一体化使工程和计算教育的工艺导向方法成为可能，它整合了机械工程、电气工程、控制系统和计算机编程的关键概念，同时将纸面作为学习者设计、探索和探究的主要材料。在这种方法中，学习者将设计可折叠的纸组件和组件；程序电机，传感器和控制；反复测试他们的想法；并在网站上分享他们的设计。这种基于纸张的建模方法学习机械工程、电气工程、控制系统和计算机编程的概念和实践，最终目的是使所有学习者都有可能接触并有机会参与创造性工程、设计和计算机编程。通过设计和制作来学习的方法是通过许多不同的技术因素的融合而成为可能的——一系列小型计算机、传感器和执行器正以低成本和儿童可以使用的尺寸提供；可操作的导电材料种类繁多（线材、涂料、织物）；低成本和精确的桌面和激光切割机，用于纸张和类似材料；各种各样的新奇的纸状材料；以及与电脑互动的新方式。这种方法在Papert的建构主义和当前的创客运动中有其基础，但它有超越建构主义本身的潜力，无论是在实践中，还是在使用它的背景下，关于学习和发展的潜在学习和发展。在拟议项目的过程中，团队正在解决各种问题——理论问题（例如，扩展建构主义方法，以考虑儿童对拟议材料的具体体验类型）、学科问题（例如，哪些学科内容学习和跨学科联系可能会为这种学习提供最好的支持，以及为哪些人群提供最好的支持）、技术问题和实用问题。他们将确定设计目标和在更成熟的项目中最有意义的研究问题。这个项目的工作将为扩展基于计算的表达技术理论、设计以建构主义为导向的学习环境、评估学龄学习者的创造力、自我效能、参与度和对机电系统的概念理解奠定基础。

The Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies Program funds efforts that support envisioning the future of learning technologies and advance what we know about how people learn in technology-rich environments. In this Cyberlearning EAGER project, the project team is developing foundations for using "paper mechatronics" as a learning technology. Paper mechatronics makes possible a craft-oriented approach to engineering and computing education that integrates key concepts from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control systems, and computer programming, while using paper as the primary material for learner design, exploration, and inquiry. In this approach, learners will design foldable paper components and assemblies; program motors, sensors and controls; test their ideas iteratively; and share their designs on a website. This paper-based modeling approach to learning concepts in and practices of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control systems, and computer programming ultimately aims to make it possible for all learners to have exposure to and the opportunity to participate in creative engineering, design, and computer programming.The approach to learning through designing and making through paper mechatronics is made possible by a convergence of many different technological factors -- the array of small computers, sensors, and actuators that are becoming available at low cost and a size that children can use; availability of a wide variety of manipulable conductive materials (threads, paints, fabrics); low-cost and precise desktop and laser cutters for paper and similar materials; a wide variety of novel paper-like materials; and new ways of interacting with the computer. The approach has its foundations in Papert's constructionism and in the current maker movement, but it has potential beyond constructionism itself, both in practice and with respect to what can potentially be learned about learning and development in in context of its use. During the course of the proposed project, the team is addressing a variety of issues -- theoretical (e.g., extending the constructionist approach to take into account the kinds of embodied experiences children can have with the proposed kinds of materials), disciplinary (e.g., which disciplinary content learning and interdisciplinary connection making might this kind of making best support and for which populations), technological, and pragmatic ones. They will identify both the design goals and the research questions that it makes the most sense to take on in a more mature project. Work on this project will lay the foundations for extending theories of computationally-based expressive technologies, design of constructionist-oriented learning environments, and assessing creativity, self-efficacy, engagement, and conceptual understanding of electro-mechanical systems with school-aged learners,