Berta’s Tower
In the Berta’s Tower project – a fore-runner of Digital Zoo – we investigated the effectiveness of SodaConstructor as a game engine. Twelve middle school students participated in two weekend-length games, engaging in engineering design projects that involved creating static and dynamic structures in SodaConstructor. The project was completed in 2003.
Who is Berta?
Berta di Bernardo was the widow who bequeathed money to the town of Pisa to build a bell tower for the local church. Soon after the construction of the tower began, it began to lean due to the poor soil quality under the foundation. The structure soon became famous as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and to this day is a canonical example of the physics concept known as center of mass.
Project History
Berta’s Tower, Phase One
Phase one consisted of an expert-novice study exploring how practicing engineers and middle school students solved the same design challenges. The first challenge was to build a cantilevered structure out of small stone bricks. The second challenge was to build a structure out of index cards that was at least eleven inches tall and could support a stapler on top. Experts had much more coherent solution strategies than the novices, who were engaging mostly in “reflection in action” (Schon, 1987).
SodaConstructor Expert Survey
An email survey was sent out to interested users of the SodaConstructor (recruited via a posting on the online forum). The questions were targeted at uncovering problem solving techniques within the tool, understanding the motivation of expert designers for using the program, and determining the most challenging aspect of creating models.
Epistemic Gameplay
An epistemic game for 6th and 7th graders was conducted in February and March 2003. Players used SodaConstructor to learn about the center of mass of an object and engaged in several computer-aided design challenges. Players transitioned from the two-dimensional computer program to the three-dimensional real world, building large-span cantilevers out of PVC pipe and nylon rope.
Analysis and Results
Audio and video data were transcribed and analyzed within a grounded theory framework. The results suggest players were able to develop their understanding of center of mass by working on design challenges on SodaConstructor. The players identified the ability to “build whatever they wanted” combined with the ability to test their designs as the “coolest part” of working with SodaConstructor.
Publications
Berta’s Tower: Developing conceptual physics understanding one exploratoid at a time.
Svarovsky, G. N., & Shaffer, D. W. (2006). Berta’s Tower: Developing conceptual physics understanding one exploratoid at a time. Paper presented at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Bloomington, IN.
Berta’s Tower: Understanding physics through virtual engineering.
Svarovsky, G. N., & Shaffer, D. W. (2004). Berta’s Tower: Understanding physics through virtual engineering. Paper presented at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Santa Monica, CA.
Svarovsky, G., and Shaffer, D.W. 2003. Berta’s Tower: An expert-novice study investigating ideas in the domain of physics and the practice of engineering. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, April 2003, Chicago, IL.
