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PegBlocks: a Learning Aid for the Elementary Classroom Ben Piper and Hiroshi Ishii ABSTRACT In this paper we describe the imp lementation of PegBlocks – an educational toy that can be used to illustrate some basic physics principles to elementary school students. SCENARIO A group of kindergarten children and their teacher sit around a classroom table. The teacher produces a set of wooden toys – PegBlocks – and lays them out on the table. Together the children and their teacher set about networking the blocks together using a set of electrical cables. When a network is complete the children physically manipulate the PegBlocks and observe how the kinetic energy they put into the system is distributed through out rest of the network. Through this kind of physically interactive play the children begin to develop a more intuitive understanding of a number of abstract physics principles. |
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