Game overview

Description

Can we learn numbers and math operations in a more intuitive way?

+-· : numblers is a numerals system that helps children aged between 5 and 7 to get number sense; understand the properties and operations with numbers in a physical and visual way. In order to make it more fun a board game is included so that it is not limited to its use as a support material in classrooms. It has been designed so that it can be easily downloaded from the Internet. It can also be printed at very low cost since it just needs a little bit of black ink and colored A4 paper. It is distributed through a Creative Commons License.

Award

+-·: numblers. Awarded first prize in the International Contest Science on Stage (Hispanic Countries and Portugal) organized by CSIC (High Council for Scientific Research), ICMAT (Mathematical Science Institute), RSEF (Royal Spanish Physics Society) and UNED (National Distance Learning University). 2013.

Opportunity & process

I began to think if I could fnd a simple way to make him “see” what he was doing.

This project started as I observed how my son was learning numbers in school. I was astonished to realize that he was learning very much the same way I learnt many years ago; same difculties, same limitations and same misunderstandings. To begin with, he was learning to count by heart; not really understanding what he was doing and, of course, not knowing what counting was for. He did not understand what number was bigger and did not grasp the notion of successor. Tings got a bit worse when he started to learn how to add / subtract numbers. He was learning the operations, counted with his fngers and had difculties getting what it was for as soon as the problems demanded some extra thinking and were not a straightforward addition / subtraction operation. I began to think if I could fnd a simple way to make him “see” what he was doing.

Click here for more information about the process.

Video presentation of the solution

Preliminary sketches

Still pictures presentation

RecortableMan II splash screen

Description

Can we get children into the flow of a video game and make them learn physics?

RecortableMan is a constructivist and open videogame designed to explain inclined planes to children aged between 5 and 7. The different variables that take place in ramps and skateboards are presented in an isolated way so that its understanding is easier: friction, height, weight and angle. Real experiments and competitions with other super heroes are included in order to certify the learning objectives. It pursues a learning by doing, experimenting and discovering focusing each content unit on a key concept. Later on in the videogame several of these firstly isolated key concepts will have to be combined to solve the higher levels.

Opportunity & motivation

What do video games have that make children learn very difficult things in order to play them for hours?

What do video games have that make children learn very difficult things in order to play them for hours? In this project, that I consider a beautiful failure, I tried to explore if a video game could make you learn some physics principles.

Designed with my own child’s drawings and paper cut outs I tried to make it look warm and close to children. Having a goal (not awakening the sleeping baby) and small new challenges based on previous ones I tried to make it fun. I also tried to give it a bigger general goal in the sense that the main character should learn to jump and fly for a few seconds with his skateboard.

But the lack of randomness, the lousy interaction and rather boring challenges make it a play-only-once game.

Try the game

Clicking here you can download the RecortableMan videogame for Windows ®.

Video presentation

End of Game Screen

RecortableMan jumps and FLY!

Screenshots of the application

Presentation from mariano velamazán on Vimeo.

To introduce programming as a creative tool

Description

The world we live in is more and more described by digital data which is stored and distributed via omnipresent networks

The aim of this five-day workshop was to introduce programming as a creative tool. The world we live in is more and more described by digital data which is stored and distributed via omnipresent networks. How specific sets of data manifest is determined by the hidden processing algorithms alone. Usually, the transformation from raw data to form serves a certain purpose, but it also bears a high aesthetic potential. Network-Input-Processing-Output.

I learned/upgraded programming skills and learned about system design by undertaking a simple assignment: translating data from an input medium to an output medium. During the workshop, a set of simple computer programs were developed, each dealing with a defined input and output. The output should be aesthetically appealing and should serve as an input for one of the other programs.

All the pictures created with mouse movement. All of them take a picture of mine as input.

Exercise one

Exercise two

Exercise three

Exercise four

Exercise five

Exercise six

Exhibition

Some images of our (all the students) exhibition with the exercises on Computational Design.

CIID projects exhibition

And a time lapse video…

Exhibition at CIID from mariano velamazán on Vimeo.

This is the outcome of our course on Computational Design at CIID

The bigger the balloon, the more important that friend to me

Description

The course explored digital interaction concepts through purely analogue projects.

This five-day course combined brief lectures, hands on exercises, film viewings and discussions to introduce students to a set of core interaction design concepts, methods and tools. Interaction design touches a broad range of experiences including products, software and services.

Though the topics covered had direct implications for the design of interactive digital experiences, we did  not use computer hardware or software in our exercises. Instead, the course explored digital interaction concepts through purely analogue projects.

Topics included, but not be limited to, mental models, metaphors, affordances, usability, gestures, networks, sociality, and augmentation.

Exercise two: The city talks to me. Crossing Buddy

Showing an emotional response to the pedestrians if a car didn’t respect the red light.

As part of our final project for our Interaction Design Introduction at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design we were asked to find a new application for existing technology in the city. Our idea was to hack the number of seconds remaining screen in ordinary traffic lights in order to show an emotional response to the pedestrians if a car didn’t respect the red light. Drivers would get blinking streetlights so that they knew they had done something wrong to others. Project made in one day (19 uninterrupted hours) with Michael Owen Liston. I did the scenes/settings and the video editing.

Untitled from mariano velamazán on Vimeo.

Exercise one: 3D model social network (with trash).

First exercise in this amazing course I took in Copenhaguen Institute for Interaction Design (CIID). We had to make an object out of the trash we could find in the school that represented our social network. Teacher: Matt Cottam.

A project for a TV pilot programme dealing with science education for children. It contains animations, challenges and experiments for children and nothing is explained. Everything is visual and hands-on playing.

Download Echando Chipas Sinopsis

Screenshots of document presenting the experiments