Just making faces? : animatronics, children and computation

Abstract

Computation is a powerful way of knowing and exploring the world that finds its application in a broad range of human activities, from art making to mathematical modeling. Historically, this way of knowing has been taught in a canonical, top-down abstract fashion. This thesis presents a critical historical analysis of computers and computation in order to arrive at a framework for design of spaces for introducing computational concepts. Existing work is revisited before presenting a new system called CTRLSPACE, specifically built to as an alternate method of conveying computational concepts to young children ages four to seven.