LeARn Physics is an educational construction game for learning electricity among young students. It offers, by simulation, the possibility to create and manipulate electrical circuits thanks to an immersive, emerging and accessible technology (augmented reality). Simply with software, a computer, a webcam, and a set of pieces of paper, students have access to infinite virtual resources to understand, through experience,how works electricity. They can create, like a puzzle, electrical circuits (with generator, lights, LEDs, switchs, motor, …) and safely analyze their behavior if they are properly performed or not (eg: bulb lighted or burnt).

Today we find ourselves in a world evolving at breakneck speed. The space taken by the digital and the use of new technologies as tools of everyday life is pervasive. Similarly, the acceptance of digital technonologies in educational system is evolving. A real revolution of education has been underway for some years in some countries. Today, we recognize the need to communicate with our youth today, the generation of “digital natives” with their own language and tools to interest them.
My purpose wasn’t to find a way to replace the teacher’s role, which is essential in the education of youth, but rather to find a way to captivate his attention and encourage his involvement in knowledge over time. How find a way to extend the education of our children outside of their school time? How to transform chores, like homeworks, in a game? How to raise self-learning among “digital natives”?

I am firstly focused on work and student learning outside of their school time. Indeed, the educational system already offers solutions, means and resources during the school classes (teachers, material, …). But how students think and learn once they are delivred to themselves. How do they find the strength to exploit the knowledge learnt in day at school, without its external aid, once back home ?

I first took the initiative to isolate one type of school learning subject in order to provide a solution. The goal was to analyze whether this solution could be transcribed in other subjects. I chose to work on physics, especially on electricity and electrical circuits. This choice wasn’t annodin. Indeed, learning of this topic passes through the manipulation and testing to understand how it works. We are talking about a school matter that needs, firstly, scientific experiments with human and material resources (teachers, cables, bulbs, protective system, …) and, secondly, about experiments on electricity that could be potentially dangerous for student. My intention was the student find a similar structure of school learning (materials and help) when they leave school environment. That means they could access resources malleable, aids, … and they could manipulate, create or reproduce the same electronical circuits learnt in class. All just my goal was to establish consistency and linearity between the current school and home learning.

Learn physics is a box containing a software, a webcam, and a book with explanations and pre-cut pieces of cardboard. Each polygonal piece includes at least one “in” (where electric current come in) and / or an “out”(where electric current come out), a front face calls “visual” and back face calls “informative”.

The front face: visual.
Each piece has a symbol. This symbol is the ID of object, that means this symbol defines if the room is a generator, a light bulb, … The iconagraphie used is similar to that of physics, so for the bulb the symbole used will be (image), for the switch (image), …. It functions as a marker, so once viewed by the webcam and analyzed by the software, the 3D element corresponding to the symbol (bulb, button, engine, …) is virtually mapped on the puzzle piece.

The back face: informative.
The front is the informative part of the element. It has the same symbol as the front face but it’s associated to a question mark. When it’s analysed by the software, the user accesses to the carateristics of virtual element (power, type, name, …) For example he knows that it is a 50 Watt halogen bulb.

How it works:
Like game (levels dictated by the software) or freely, children can simulate the construction of electrical circuit thanks to augmented education puzzle. When two pieces are fitted together, the software identify their relationship and create a connection between them, as if we connect a battery to a bulb by electric cables.
The interest to learn Physics and utlisation of augmented reality is that the user can manually interact with the elements or the virtual circuit. For example it may, by gestures, change the type, size, or shape of one element (same piece) or it may interact with the virtual switch to start or stop the circuit.
A help system is also available to guide learners on error. If once the circuit started there is a nonsense, the system informs the user of its errors and suggests possible solutions.

It offers, at lower cost, offer the potential for children to handle (even if it is virtual way) electrical circuits to better understand the complex matter. With augmented reality technology, we can imagine to use and handle all kinds of objects, the oldest ones to the future, more microscopic to more gigantic, simplest to more rare, cheapest to more expensive, and harmless to harmful. Learn Physics open the borders in terms of cost, time and space.
Moreover, its potential could be used to understand and address other scientific terms. For exemple in biology: construct a human heart to understand how it works …

6. Describe the overall philosophy that drove the design brief, research methodologies, tools, and
outcomes (e.g. self-defined or client-defined briefs, participatory briefs, process outcomes or artifacts outcomes, etc.). (250 words)

Learn Physics was my final project to valid my master’s degree in interaction design at L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique. For 7 months, I worked on this project since problematic to mock up of solution. I worked in 4 phases.