PAMELA L. JENNINGS, PHD
PAMELA L. JENNINGS Ph.D., MBA
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For more information: www.construkts.com
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CONSTRUKTS® (patent pending) mixed reality EdTech platform is being developed to:
Strengthen. Spatial thinking skills with scaffolded lessons, games, and challenges.
Connect. Hands-on learning with computational thinking.
Increase. Self-efficacy in learning by connecting abstract concepts to creativity.
Strengthen. Spatial thinking skills with scaffolded lessons, games, and challenges.
Connect. Hands-on learning with computational thinking.
Increase. Self-efficacy in learning by connecting abstract concepts to creativity.
I am a huge believer in a constructivist approach. That students need to construct to understand. Why are formulas what they are? Why area length times width? Students should have to build it and see it and experience it so that the formula for the algorithm makes sense. They can’t do that with current EdTech applications.
-Lisa Bodenheimer, Principal, Wiley Middle-School, Winston-Salem, NC.
-Lisa Bodenheimer, Principal, Wiley Middle-School, Winston-Salem, NC.
There is now convincing evidence that spatial thinking abilities are important predictors of career success and that spatial skills can be enhanced with training. CONSTRUKTS® is a very promising game platform for training these skills.
-Dr. Mary Hagarty, Professor Psychological and Brain Sciences, UC Santa Barbara
-Dr. Mary Hagarty, Professor Psychological and Brain Sciences, UC Santa Barbara
CONSTRUKTS® can offer us real-time data driven methods to rehabilitate patients with traumatic brain injury. The method used to test spatial thinking skills remains to be the WAIS Block Test. CONSTRUKTS would be a game changer with its ability to map a person’s motor skills to their problem-solving process.
-- Dr. Jordan Grafman, Director, Brain Injury Research, Northwestern University
-- Dr. Jordan Grafman, Director, Brain Injury Research, Northwestern University
The CONSTRUKTS ® (patent pending) smart blocks support a wide variety of constructions. Constructions are rendered as 3D virtual models that update in real-time when physical blocks are added or removed. The CONSTRUKTS® Knowledge Engine analyzes the model for structural features that can be used for STEM learning opportunities. Features of the model can be selected from the entire construction, individual blocks, and block components.
PILOT DEVELOPMENT
The CONSTRUKTS® pilot is being developed to teach middle-school level (grades 6-8) geometry. Students struggle to transfer STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills they learn in the classroom to different scenarios that do not mimic the original problem. (References: 2019 Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development Programme for International Student Assessment (OECD PISA); 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)). Addressing this national decline in mathematics competency requires a range of approaches to learning that connect real-world experiences and problem solving with mathematical and other academic skills. |
CONSTRUKTS® leverages learner’s creative curiosity to understand complex subjects with a learning framework that includes building, sense-making, and synthesis. Learners explore physical properties of models they build from a variety of smart blocks. Learners engage the academic skills they learn in school to understand the structural and computational properties in their constructions. Learners synthesize and integrate ideas and newly garnered insights into the world of their imagination. |
BUILDING A TEAM
Developing a “hardware product is hard” was the PCH International Highway1 Hardware Start-up Incubator mantra – a program in 2014 that CONSTRUKTS® participated. CONSTRUKTS® development requires an interdisciplinary team of subject matter experts with the capability to integrate emerging technologies in wireless sensor networks, product design, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, real-time model analysis, cloud computing, learning and design theories, and game development. This is a team of individuals who are eager to contribute their knowledge to solve a myriad of technical problems. And a team of individuals capable of exploring and learning new methods in technology and product development that challenge and broaden their domain knowledge. The most important aspect of the design process has been the open environment I created for learning and innovation across multiple perspectives framed by students and professionals. All team members are both expert and novices in the design process. Sharing our insights and skills in an environment that invites experimentation and risk has enabled the development of a system that is much larger than the skills and perspectives of any one team member or discipline. |
CORPORATE AND ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS
We established corporate partnerships with The Reimagined Classroom, Wolfram Research, Neuvatek, Inc., Daedalus Product Design, San Juan Software, Microsoft HoloLens for Academic Research, and the Highway1.io hardware start-up incubator. Collaboratively students and professionals have worked together to find solutions for wicked problems in design. Our academic partnerships included faculty from The Borough of Manhattan Community College and North Carolina State University. Most importantly, since the beginning the team has included undergraduate and graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University, North Carolina State University, California College of Art, and Winston-Salem State University. Students represented a range of academic departments including computer science, electrical engineering, visual arts, design, entertainment technology, theater, product design, architecture, information sciences, and cognitive science. |
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