Springlab - Bewegend Leren Platform
Development: Springlab
Software: Unity
Role: Game design, Interaction design, UX design
Released: 2019
Research shows that 80% of young children in the Netherlands do not exercise enough. On the other hand, research has shown that exercise has a major positive effect on the physical and mental health of children, as well as on their learning performance. For optimal child development, embodied learning (bewegend leren) is therefore indispensable.
There are plenty of reasons to apply embodied learning. Yet we are increasingly letting our children sit still and this has a major negative impact on their early development, while these first years of life are essential for the rest of their lives.
The Springlab Beweegvloer has been specially developed for toddlers and preschoolers in collaboration with scientists, pedagogical experts and children themselves. It combines movement, play, discovery, social interaction and learning in a completely new learning experience for young children.
4 Parts of the Beweegvloer
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The Beweegvloer (move floor): This is a highly reflective mat which shows the beamed image as optimally as possible. It also provides the players a frame of reference where the game and interaction takes place.
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The tablet: This is the controller for the whole system. On the tablet teachers can start and control a game, players can scan a special ticket to play a game, follow an introduction on what they will be doing on the Beweegvloer, it helps the players to move from the classroom to the floor and back independently and provides a recap of what they have learned after completing a game.
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Embodied learning games: These are the games that can be played on the Beweegvloer which seamlessly connect with the SLO learning objectives of the learning lines for math, language and artistic orientation and at the same time also improve their motor development and 21st century skills.
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The Beweegkast (move box): This is where the magic happens! The Beweegkast consists of a beamer, a computer, an audio system, a camera and sensors. In this device we can track the players movements and translate this into input for playing the games which can be done by moving around individually, by moving around as a group, by moving around physical objects and by using objects with specific colors.
My role
Within this project I was working within a development team which was responsible for developing the product from a working prototype to a complete product. We prototyped and tested different hardware setups, built and tested various prototypes of games with different learning objectives and ways to interact with the game.
We created the whole Bewegend leren platform which provides the users with a user friendly and intuitive environment where they can control the entire platform, all from a single tablet. They can turn the system on, scan tickets, start and stop games, control the games’ progress, adjust the settings of a game, watch introductions and recaps of games, calibrate the system and switch the system off again.
But most importantly preschoolers can use the system independently from start to finish, which saves the teacher a lot of time. Time that they then can spend on other, more important things.
Dynamic queuing system
We also created a dynamic queuing system where multiple tablets in different class rooms could enter a queue. Once the group playing on the Beweegvloer only has a couple of minutes left to play, the tablet will let the next group know and start their introduction on the tablet.
After the introduction is done, the group before them will be done playing the game and the tablet will guide them to the Springlab Beweegvloer. This optimizes the time spent on the Beweegvloer and prevents the players having to wait for the other group to finish the game.
Kids very excited by Beweegvloer.
A tour through the office.
A revolution in education!
Award
Nominated for Best Technology
Dutch Game Awards, 2020
