State machines are child's play: observing children ages 9 to 11 playing Escape Machine

Authors:
Michael Philetus Weller;Ellen Yi-Luen Do;Mark D. Gross
Affiliations:
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA;ACME Lab, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA;Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
Year:
2009

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Abstract

We developed Escape Machine, a puzzle game in which children control the behavior of characters in a maze by manipulating a tangible state machine built with Posey, our computationally-enhanced hub-and-strut construction kit. We observed children ages nine to eleven playing the game in several sessions. The qualitative results of this observation validate the promise of Posey and Escape Machine to engage children in manipulating algorithmic specifications for behavior.