Play electronic - Designing electronic STEM toy for improving children stem skills

Abdul Halim, Syafiq (2022) Play electronic - Designing electronic STEM toy for improving children stem skills. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

Text (Full Text) Play electronic - Designing electronic STEM toy for improving children stem skills.pdf - Submitted Version Download (2MB)

Abstract

STEM is a new approach had been introduced in the year 2013, with the goal to produce a highly intellectual generation in the future. STEM enables the four major subjects Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics into a single line of program, so children can experience this field from the early stage and help them spark interest to pursue a career in STEM-related field. But recent surveys done by The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have shown that children’s interest in STEM subjects started to decline drastically. Apart from that, many parents and teachers struggle to find interactive ways to make STEM education fun, exciting and understandable. Therefore, to overcome this problem, this project aims to design and develop a new educational STEM toy called ‘Play Electronic’ to helps facilitate the learning process and encourage STEM interest among children. Play Electronic breaks a complete electrical circuit into tangible block modules to allow children to quickly grasp and understand the fundamental principles of electronic circuits and sensors. Each Play Electronic block module is embedded with magnets and pogo pins on each side of the block. This way, children can easily connect and separate the block from each other without much force. The development process started with several conceptual designs and block shapes is chosen to visualize Play Electronic as it can be easily placed, combined, and stacked together. Once the 3D model of Play Electronic is generated in a modelling program, the next step is to 3D print the Play Electronic block modules. Through several testing, troubleshooting, reflecting, and redesign processes, a total of 14 working Play Electronic block modules were developed. Each of the block modules can be magnetically snapped together to create various electrical circuits. Through usability testing with several children in aged of 5 to 10 years old, the result showed that children can conveniently use the Play Electronic and seem to be actively engaged while playing with it. In addition, a survey conducted to a total of 30 participants from different backgrounds also showed positive feedback toward Play Electronic design.

Actions (login required)

View Item