Animation, Motion and Education
Griffey, Julia
If our bodies know something our minds do not, can the knowledge in our bodies help out our minds? Helen Gummerseimer thought so. Mrs. Gummerseimer was my second grade teacher who taught us the “pronoun-a-la-go-go” to help us learn our pronouns. It was a simple little dance—a couple of hand gestures and some steps forward and back—that went along with a rhythmic chanting of “I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They.” Thanks to Mrs. Gummerseimer, I will never forget my pronouns.
Other educators besides Helen Gummerseimer subscribe to the philosophy of using physical motion to help kids learn. The Washington Center for Learning is a non-profit agency with the mission of helping primary and high school teachers with educating students in reading, writing, math and language. They developed KTM (Kinematics Teaching Methodology), a system that “uses a whole body’s motion in space as a medium for translating abstract concepts to the concrete.” Mathematical dances that use timing, direction changes, and distance to reinforce mathematical concepts are one example of how the KTM philosophy is applied. (http://www.washingtoncenterforlearning.org)
On a purely physiological level, when we move, we are better learners. Exercise shunts oxygen to the brain, increasing the blood flow to this area by 20%. This makes us more alert, allows us to think more clearly, and aids in committing new concepts to memory, which essential for learning. (Peterson & Bryant, 1999)
I found this phenomenon fascinating and set out to build interactive experiences especially suited to users with high aptitudes in body-kinesthetic intelligence (people that have good control of body movements and are able to perform specific movements when required and are able to solve problems using their body). While movement would be a key part of these experiences, their content would not be movement related. My theory was that the movement would facilitate the learning of the non-movement related content.
The Barn Owl Project
The Barn Owl Project is an animated, movement-driven, interactive exhibit designed for the Franklin Park Zoo. It teaches children about barn owls through animation and interactive physical activities.
The idea for the project emerged after a meeting with zoo staff. They had an interest in teaching children about birds or owls. They also had a space at Franklin Farm in which they could host an exhibit.
Franklin Farm is an area at Franklin Park Zoo where children can interact with farm and barn animals. It includes a large barn and several outdoor pens for chickens, sheep, goats and other barn animals. When I first visited, there were placards about the animals but no interactive exhibits in the space.
Why Barn Owls?
Inside the barn at Franklin Farm there were two barn owls residing in an elevated cage. Despite a sign informing visitors to “Look Up!” to see the barn owls, they were easily missed by the casual visitor. Creating an exhibit dedicated to these creatures would finally bring them the attention they deserved.
Barn owls make an interesting subject for an interactive, animated movement-based exhibit. They are distinct looking animals from which a unique character could be created. Their behavior is also fascinating. They are nocturnal and rely on their super-sensitive hearing to do all their hunting at night. Barn owls also mate for life.
How It Works
The exhibit is based on the life of an adult barn owl named Larry. In the program, Larry talks about his life and then gives the user an opportunity to participate in games that mimic his life experiences. There are five interactive, movement-driven activities interspersed with six pieces of linear animation. The interactive experiences are: hatching, feeding, flying, warming the nest and hunting. The games are fairly simple. Most are timed experiences where the user has to accomplish a goal within a certain period of time.
The mat in the exhibit is comprised of seven pads (labeled A-D and 1-3), and the arrangement of the pads facilitates the playing of all of the five games.
Process
For the linear animation between the interactive experiences, the script needed to be factual but light and conversational in tone. Reliable references as well as feedback from my zoo collaborators assured a truthful script. Establishing the appropriate tone was more challenging, requiring several revisions of the script.
A colleague with acting and voice-over experience played the role of the narrator, Larry the barn owl. He truly gave life to the character. His skillful reading made the script sound natural, light and jovial.
A paper prototyping session helped determine how the interactive experiences would work. The goal of this process was to simulate the real experience as much as possible by acting out the parts of the computer and the user. From this experience, we discovered that many of the games could be simplified.
To teach users how to play the game, I took advantage of the flexibility of the animated medium. For example, in some cases, I show what is happening on the screen at the same time as I illustrate what should be happening on the mat. I also utilized fluid and unexpected transitions to a greater extent in an effort to hold the viewer’s interest between games.
Programming the interactive experiences required extensive testing. Some of the games worked well when playing them with a keyboard, but not initially with the mat. For example, in the flying game, it was easy to make the owl fly if you were pressing keys on the keyboard. Making the owl fly by jumping on the mat was much more difficult. I had to alter the variables controlling the level of difficulty several times after watching users attempt it on a mat.
Assessment
It’s been rewarding to combine my fascination with body memory and animation into such an educational piece.
The Barn Owl Project was installed in the gallery at the New England Institute of Art as part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival in April 2005. It resided at the Franklin Park Zoo for one month during the summer of 2005. This allowed me to watch many different people experience the exhibit.
These observations validated my concept. Participants really had to move! Some got quite sweaty and attributed failures in the game to being out of shape. While some adults were initially shy about playing, many lost their inhibitions once they were absorbed in the game. Children, on the other hand, approached the physical challenge with enthusiasm and wanted to play again and again.
The exhibit was also successful at fostering a social atmosphere. Observers would help the player by yelling out what pad(s) he should hit. Sometimes children played the game collaboratively. For example, when testing the Defending the Nest game, on brother-sister team split duties, one monitoring the attack button while the other warmed the eggs.
In the midst of all the fun, by participating in these perceptual experiences, players gained an appreciation for what it is like to be a barn owl. One player reported that she never thought warming a nest would be difficult. Many were surprised to learn how barn owls hunted, and how many rodents the owl needed to capture. I do not believe that the participants would have this level of understanding if the format of the exhibit were more traditional.
