Our Ambient Wood study took place in Sussex over a period of four days, comprising one day finalising and setting up the technology followed by two full days of data collection with child participants, closing with a day of debriefing. The study took place in an outdoor woodland setting, where pupils could learn about ecology related topics (e.g. interdependencies of habitats), and was designed to encourage independent enquiry, exploration, discovery, and reflection.
The physical environment was augmented to give the pupils the opportunity to explore, hypothesize and experiment in a digitally enhanced woodland environment. Sixteen pupils (boys and girls) aged 11-12 years from Varndean School, Brighton took part in the study. The experience was structured such that two pairs of children explored an area of the woodland with a variety of tools, reflected and discussed their findings together, hypothesised about the effects of other organisms on the environment, followed by an experimental phase back in the woodland.
Below is a selection of photos from our study showing the different stages of the set up and pupil interaction. Scroll down the photos and hover your cursor over some of the photos for more information.
Setting up
The periscope in the woodland - used for both exploration and experimentation. Here the children could manipulate the periscope to access more detailed information about the habitat, and could place RF tagged objects onto the surrounding petri-dishes to 'see' the effects on the habitat.
Pairs of children explored either an open clearing
within the woodland, or a dense wooded area to find out about the
different habitats of plants and animals and the relationships between
them.
As well as being able to explore the environment
itself, pupils were also able to explore using tools that digitally
augmented the environment, and enabled them to take their own readings of
the area. Besides this, their positional information triggered a variety
of additional details about the environment and its inhabitants.
Information is triggered to pupils via PDAs. Pupils
used walkie talkies to report findings to an adult facilitator in the den.
Pupils also had a digitally enhanced probe tool to
collect information about moisture and light in their habitats.
As the pupils are engaging in their activities, the
software infrastructure ("Elvin" notifications and "MUD")
in the background and underpinning this experience are being monitored by
the Southampton team.
The periscope enabled pupils to access more detailed
information about the habitat e.g. seasonal changes, processes invisible
to the naked eye.
The two pairs of pupils gathered together in the den
to reflect upon and discuss their findings from their explorations.
Den area used as a starting point, reflection stage, and finishing point.
To help the pupils to reflect, compare their
habitats and begin to hypothesise, they could reaccess their moisture and
light readings on a computer, as well as used tagged tokens with digital
feedback.
A group of pupils gathered in the den.
Reaccessing data readings and using tagged tokens.
At this stage pupils were able to hypothesise about
the effects of the introduction of other organisms on the habitats that
they explored. In addition they used tagged objects in conjunction with
the periscope to view those potential effects in the environment.
Petri dish with fungus ready to introduce to the wooded area of woodland, and experimenting in the wood using the persicope, which displayed the effects of the fungus on the environment.