In order to better understand how to design hands-on child-computer interaction, we explore how different styles of interaction facilitate children's thinking while they use their hands to manipulate objects. We present an exploratory study of children solving a spatial puzzle task. We investigate how the affordances of physical, graphical…

With so many choices and so many terrific nonfiction titles in the pipeline, picking the "right" read can be daunting. This year, the author offers a variety of choices: the future of books, the life of a great American photographer, jigsaw puzzles as a metaphor for life, the negative legacy of America's positive thinking, a history of American…

Challenging one's brain is the beginning of making great art. Tangrams are a great way to keep students thinking about their latest art project long after leaving the classroom. A tangram is a Chinese puzzle. The earliest known reference to tangrams appears in a Chinese book dated 1813, but the puzzles existed long before that date. The puzzle…

Routine human behavior has often been attributed to plans--mental representations of sequences goals and actions--but can also be attributed to more opportunistic interactions of mind and a structured environment. This study asks whether performance on a task traditionally analyzed in terms of plans can be better understood from a "situated" (or…

Emotions and behaviors observed during challenging tasks are hypothesized to be valuable indicators of young children's motivation, the assessment of which may be particularly important for children at risk for school failure. The current study demonstrated reliability and concurrent validity of a new observational assessment of motivation in…

The study targets children in especially difficult circumstances from 8-14 years; and explores the importance of psychosocial needs for the PTSD and displaced children in schools. Out of 235 participants, descriptive statistics indicated that 63 children are traumatized. Based on ANOVA findings, the result revealed that there is significant effect…

As in many other fields of science and technology, college students in computer engineering do not come into full contact with the key ideas and challenges of their chosen discipline until the third year of their studies. This situation poses a problem in terms of keeping the students motivated as they labor through their foundational, basic…

A central question in creativity concerns how insightful ideas emerge. Anecdotal examples of insightful scientific and technical discoveries include Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization of rubber, and Mendeleev's realization that there may be gaps as he tried to arrange the elements into the Periodic Table. Although most people would regard…

This paper provides nine short chemically based puzzles or problems extensible for use with students from middle school to college. Some of these will strengthen students' recognition of individual elements and element names. Others require students to focus on the salient properties of given chemical elements.

This study aimed to develop a collaborative and manipulative virtual Tangram puzzle to facilitate children to learn geometry in the computer-supported collaborative learning environment with Tablet PCs. In promoting peer interactions and stimulating students' higher-order thinking and creativity toward geometric problem-solving, we designed a…

The goal of this project was to further our understanding of how students learn. Does reviewing for exams using certain teaching methods actually enhance students' learning of course material? Through a comparative analysis of two sections of the same class the researchers tested to see if using crossword puzzles as a "fun" review…

Tangrams have sometimes been used as an extension activity intended only to keep faster students busy while others finished essential desk-work. Without adequate introduction, many find that tangrams are just an open-ended form of a jigsaw puzzle. Happily teachers have discovered that games provide an effective introduction to a new topic. In the…

This educative material uses the symbols of 45 elements to spell the names of 32 types of laboratory equipment usually found in chemical labs. This teaching material has been divided into three puzzles according to the type of the laboratory equipment: (i) glassware as reaction vessels or containers; (ii) glassware for measuring, addition or…

In this article, a systematic approach is given for solving a magic star puzzle that usually is accomplished by trial and error or "brute force." A connection is made to the symmetries of a cube, thus the name Magic Hexahedron.

Some individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome exhibit strengths in solving jigsaw puzzles. We compared visuospatial ability and jigsaw puzzle performance and strategies of 26 persons with Prader-Willi syndrome and 26 MA-matched typically developing controls. Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome relied on piece shape. Those in the control group…