| sense |
Description |
Studies show that fewer than a quarter of British children regularly use their local
patch of nature and many suffer from 'Nature Deficit Disorder', impacting physical
and emotional health. Recently, analysis of the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on
children has shown a critical link between low educational attainment and reduced
access to outdoor spaces for children living in poverty. Crucially, unequal access
to green space for children and communities aligns with a general pattern of nature
degradation, with the 2019 State of Nature report concluding that the UK is among
the world's most nature depleted countries, and unable to meet international commitments
such as the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Targets. We believe that jointly
addressing iniquities with respect to children's access to science learning, nature
and the outdoors is key for advancing the discourse around environmental sustainability.
Sensory input, including those of touch, smell and sound, are known to be important
to early science learning. New haptic technologies based on variable friction allow
users to feel textures on a touch screen. We propose developing such technologies
to create a platform for sensory explorations of nature. We will bring together our
interdisciplinary expertise across Computer Science, Education, Ecology and Science
Communication to research touch and haptic interfaces for bridging the known divides
with respect to children's access to nature and the outdoors and science learning.
We emphasise school grounds as spaces that can be developed through wildlife-friendly
gardening practices as equitable spaces for encounters with nature for all pupils,
and develop a citizen science project to observe nature in such spaces. Our research
then aims to augment observation outdoors through developing variable-friction haptic
interfaces that allow you to feel texture when touching an image on the screen.
Our project will thus seek to augment observation outdoors through developing variable-friction
haptic interfaces that allow you to feel texture when touching an image on the screen.
The key aim is to enhance, rather than distract from or replace, experiences of and
curiosity about nature. We expect the touch interfaces we develop to be useful for
(a) drawing attention to nature, e.g. a child may have access to real trees but not
be minded to touch them or question why they have different barks; (b) making the
untouchable tactile, e.g. through touching images of a badger; (c) playing with scale,
e.g. feeling images at microscopic (e.g. leaf veins) or macroscopic resolutions,
or comparing textures of leaves over seasons; and (d) continuing explorations of nature
even when indoors, to sustain interest. We will explore in depth in a multidisciplinary
manner the scientific and philosophical issues that stem from tactile but digital
human-computer interactions around nature. For example, whether the inclusion of sensory
input help pupils in distinguishing species (e.g. plant species through the textures
of tree bark or leaves), whether digital tactile experiences generate emotions and
feelings that are qualitatively or quantitatively different from just looking at the
image, and whether they can help reconnect pupils with nature and encourage tactile
explorations outdoors.
We seek to amplify the capacity of school pupils, from diverse backgrounds, to influence
and participate in scientific inquiry and conservation action, by engaging in a "slowed
down" multifaceted scientific, artistic and sensory observation of nature biodiversity
within their school grounds. In the process they will learn about the circular economy
and explore ideas from permaculture for redesigning their school grounds to support
wildlife and also provide themselves with a richer sensory experience. We will develop
a first of its kind online museum of citizen science for pupils to publish and share
their biodiversity stories from school grounds.
See the UKRI press release at <a href="https://www.ukri.org/news/haptic-tech-turns-phones-into-multi-sensory-nature-learning-tools/">https://www.ukri.org/news/haptic-tech-turns-phones-into-multi-sensory-nature-learning-tools/</a>. |
