Supporting Embodied Exploration Of Physical Concepts In Mixed Digital And Physical Interactive Settings

In this paper findings are presented from a study on how sensor equipped computer game technologies can be used to create tools for educational settings to learn about for example concepts in physics. In a workshop focusing on the concept of gravity, a group of children interacted with an environment consisting of both physical and digital interactive components. We discuss how the mixed digital and physical setting affects the children's coordination and collaboration and their strategies to solve the given assignment. Findings suggest that the embodied nature of the technology create new opportunities for collaboration and that the alignment of the physical and digital parts of the interactive setting is important in order to create a seamless experience that takes advantage of the properties of the respective media.