PAPER
FLOW PATHS: A STANDALONE TANGIBLE BOARD SYSTEM TO CREATE EDUCATIONAL GAMES
Flow Paths: A Standalone Tangible Board
System to Create Educational Games
http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v10i4.4640
A. Barredo, P. Garaizar
Universirty of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
Abstract—Educational mobile apps are ubiquitous these
days. Despite of their huge commercial success, parents and
children realized that physical objects manipulation
requires a different set of skills, often developed using
traditional toys. A century ago, Montessori proposed a
methodology that emphasizes the use of physical materials
to facilitate self-learning of abstract concepts. Selfcorrecting Montessori's materials allow learners to improve
autonomously in a structured environment. In the same
vein, Flow Paths provides a standalone tangible board
system to create educational games.
Index
Terms—educational
programs,
educational
technology, tangible user interface, education, games
I.
INTRODUCTION
In the last five years, millions of educational games
have been published in mobile application stores such as
Google Play or Apple App Store. Shortly after using them,
parents and children realized that physical objects
manipulation requires a different set of skills. A century
ago, Montessori proposed a methodology that emphasizes
the use of physical materials to facilitate self-learning of
abstract concepts [1, 2]. Self-correcting Montessori's
materials allow learners to improve autonomously in a
structured environment. Following a similar approach,
Flow Paths provides a standalone tangible board system to
create educational games.
Interactive tangible systems are not new. During the last
decades there has been a technological evolution in the
field of Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs), from digitally
augmented paper to physical objects as icons (phicons),
manipulatives, or digital sensors / probes [3, 4]. However,
many of these proposals (Phidgets [5], TagTiles [6],
multi-touch boards [7], or projector-based augmented
reality [8]) require a high initial investment. By contrast,
Flow Paths uses inexpensive chips and microcontrollers
for its board and passive blocks which can be handled
without care by non-expert leaners.
Flow Paths is a system to create interactive block-based
educational games. Unlike other tangible solutions, Flows
Paths do not rely on additional technology such as
cameras, video projectors or mobile devices. The Flow
Path's board consists of a matrix of connection slots
managed via an Arduino microcontroller capable of
sending and receiving information to the blocks connected
to it. Using i-shaped and l-shaped blocks, players can
create flows from one point (flow source) to another point
(sink or terminator). Each block has a multicolor LED that
indicates whether it is stacked properly and if it is within
the flow or not. The cover story, goals, and difficulty level
iJET ‒ Volume 10, Issue 4, 2015
of educational games made with this block-based system
can be redefined dynamically. Players can replace
scenario sheets provided with RFID tags to suit their
interests and learning needs.
II.
ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
Flow Paths relies on well-known a widely used
electronic components.
Arduino Uno board. The Arduino Uno is a
microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. It
provides 14 digital input/output pins (6 of which can be
used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz
ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an
ICSP header, and a reset button. The board can be
connected to a computer with a USB cable or powered
with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to be used. The Uno
differs from all preceding Arduino boards in its lack of
FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it features the
Atmega16U2 (Atmega8U2 up to version R2) programmed
as a USB-to-serial converter.
MM74HC151 Multiplexers. The MM74HC151 high
speed Digital multiplexer takes advantage from advanced
silicon-gate CMOS technology. The high noise immunity
and low power dissipation of standard CMOS integrated
circuits are two of its main features. Moreover, it has the
ability to handle 10 LS-TTL loads. The MM74HC151
selects one of the 8 data sources depending on the address
presented on the A, B, and C inputs. It features both true
(Y) and complement (W) outputs. The STROBE input
must be at a low logic level to enable this multiplexer. A
high logic level at the STROBE input forces the W output
to be HIGH and the Y output to be LOW.
SM130 Mifare RFID reader. The SM130 is a double
layer, 28 pin DIP type module that is integrated with a
microcontroller, analog & digital signal processor, IC, and
all necessary passive components on both top and bottom
layer to complete a fully functional ISO14443A Mifare
Classic read/write module.
MCP23X17 port expander. The MCP23X17 provides
multiple 8-bit configuration registers for input, output and
polarity selection. The system master can enable the I/O
ports as inputs or outputs by setting the I/O configuration
bits (IODIRA/B). Data for each input or output is kept in
the corresponding input or output register. The polarity of
the Input Port register can be inverted with the Polarity
Inversion register. All registers can be read by the
system’s master.
Communications. All Flows Paths' components are
connected through the I2C protocol to control and gather
data from the RFID reader, and through a simple 6-bit
protocol to define the selections of the multiplexers.
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FLOW PATHS: A STANDALONE TANGIBLE BOARD SYSTEM TO CREATE EDUCATIONAL GAMES
Blocks. Regardless their final use and shape, all blocks
use the same technology. Each block has a RFID tag on
the bottom. Once it is plugged into the board, the data of
the RFID tag is transferred to the Arduino microcontroller
and then conveniently processed.
Antennas. Four round cooper antennas are placed below
each functional position of the board. They are powered
by the Arduino board and managed by the multiplexers.
early-stages students, there are two types of blocks:
straight paths -I-shaped blocks- and curved paths -Lshaped blocks- (see Fig. 2). Both are implemented in the
same way: every block has a RFID tag at the bottom to
transmit to the board the information about the block that
has been placed into the slot. Moreover, blocks for earlystages students are labeled with numbers and letters for
easy identification. Conversely, blocks designed for
higher-education students are labeled with fake serial
numbers mimicking the identification of electronics
components. However, they work on the same principle as
the blocks of the game designed for early-stages: an RFID
tag placed at the bottom to be read by the Flow Paths
board.
Figure 2. Flow Paths blocks (top and front views).
Figure 1. A Flow Paths board (4x4 slots).
III.
TECHNOLOGICAL DETAILS
Technologically, Flow Paths consists of a board,
blocks, and scenario sheets. There is no need to use a
computer or mobile device to play with Flow Paths, it is a
standalone tangible board system.
As mentioned before, inside Flow Paths' board there is
an Arduino Uno board to manage the events of the game
and the communication and control of the other electronic
devices. Taking into account that we are trying to make a
standalone tool, the Arduino Uno board was chosen
among others due to its low consumption and nonexpensive price. This board works with an open source
version of C programming language toolchain. Along with
its versatile functions, the Arduino Uno also allows
communicating different boards between them. This
means that the road to link several boards to make bigger
and interoperable boards is still open.
Multiplexers are meant to control the RFID antennas
accessed by an RFID reader. The RFID reader used in
Flow Paths board (Mifare SM130) is a 33.56 Mhz reader.
We chose this reader because its wide range reading RFID
tags. This way, the number of readers needed to compose
the board is reduced (see Fig. 1).
The blocks used in Flow Paths are different depending
on who is using them. In the next section two examples of
learning games based on Flow Paths are explained.
Students at early stages need more visual hints than higher
education students. In the case of the game designed for
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Reading the RFID tags of the blocks placed on the slots
of the board, the Arduino Uno microcontroller is able to
gather the layout of all blocks and store it in memory
(using an array of blocks’ positions and shapes). Once
detected the RFID tag of the scenario sheet, the Flow
Paths board can apply the logic of the game to the blocks
layout and activate the LEDs of the blocks consequently
(e.g., in the case of the water pipes game, the pipe-shaped
blocks create a water flow which is illuminated in blue,
while the remaining blocks are illuminated in red to
indicate that they are placed incorrectly).
Through the use of game sheets Flow Paths games can
be adapted to any context and level of difficulty by users,
developers, or third-parties. The only requirement to
create a new game sheet is to use a RFID tag compatible
with the SM130 Mifare RFID reader placed in the Flow
Paths board. Then, game designers can define the scenario
and goal of the game, whereas developers adapt the way
the Arduino Uno board interacts with the blocks placed on
the board. Therefore, it offers a wide range of new
educational opportunities. In the following section, we
explain two of them.
IV.
SELF-LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
Flow Paths pretends to be a system to create new games
easily. To accomplish this, it provides a standalone board
that can be programmed adapting the source code
examples to each need. Flows Paths behavior can be
changed using sheets. These sheets are provided with a
RFID tag and a background image to provide enough
contexts about the goals of the game. Developers can
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FLOW PATHS: A STANDALONE TANGIBLE BOARD SYSTEM TO CREATE EDUCATIONAL GAMES
adapt provided examples with no effort because all of
them follow the same pattern.
Example 1: Water flows. This game is designed to show
how the water flows in nature. Young kids are able to
interact with the blocks in order to better understand how
spatial configuration and gravity can affect water flows.
The sheet of this game shows a cloudy sky on the top
and a mountain near to the sea on the bottom (see Fig. 3).
On the right side, the sheet provides a brief explanation
about the goals of this level (i.e., each Flow Paths game
consists in a set of levels with different goals and
complexity), the number of blocks meant to be used, and
the slots of the board that should be used to solve it. Flows
Paths blocks aimed to be used by kids have numbers
written on their back. The purpose of numbering the
blocks is twofold. First, it is easier to define which blocks
should be used to solve a challenge in a Flows Paths game
(e.g., explicit indications: “you should use blocks 1, 3, 5,
and 4”). Second, game designers can provide subtle hints
about the blocks involved in the solution of a challenge in
a Flow Paths game (e.g., implicit indications: “decompose
these numbers to know which blocks are involved: 13, 24,
and 35”).
When players use incorrect blocks, they will be
provided with instant feedback, as we explain later.
Similarly, each slot on the board is also labeled with a
letter, and therefore can also be used to provide hints to
gamers (e.g., "Hint: start placing the first block on the C
slot"). Moreover, the game sheet can cover some of the
slots on the board to simplify challenges for first graders
(instead of having an N x N board, they will be using a
sheet just with some paths available -or even just one, for
trivial challenges-).
Once the kid has understood the story, identified the
blocks to use, and the path to follow, she is able to start
placing the blocks on the board. To accomplish that
mission, she has to take into account which numbers and
letters are involved and place the blocks. In this example,
blocks are similar to water pipes, some of them straight
and some of them bent. These blocks have a small
extension on their bottom, meant to be placed on a slot on
the board. When kids place a block on a slot, the led
placed on the top left side of the slot is turned on. The
color of the LED is used to provide feedback: red when
the position is wrong and green when it is right. The
whole board will turn its LEDs red if the blocks chosen
are wrong. As can be seen, Flow Paths provides
immediate feedback to encourage self-discovery. Kids
start trying until a green light is shown, and then they
proceed with the following block. Once all the blocks are
correctly placed on the board, the full path is turned on in
blue color for a few seconds to simulate the water flow.
Example 2: Electronic Flows. This Flow Paths game is
designed for high-school and higher-education students.
Similarly to the previous example, this Flow Paths game
uses a set of game sheets to provide a brief explanation
about the goal of the game and to cover some of the slots
of the board to place the blocks. The most relevant blocks
of this game are those representing logic gates (e.g., AND,
OR, NOT, XOR, etc.) and digital inputs (1 or 0), because
the general procedure of this set of challenges is to get the
desired output using the appropriate setup of logic gates.
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Figure 3. A Flow Paths game sheet designed for early-stages students.
The available set of game sheets provides digital
electronics challenges with several levels of difficulty (see
Fig. 4). In each game sheet there is a brief explanation of
the goal of the challenge, background information (e.g.,
description about how some logic gates work), and hints
about which blocks are involved. Instead of using
numbers to identify the blocks like we did in the previous
example, logic gates blocks are labeled with fake serial
numbers, simulating the way electronic components are
identified in the real world.
Regarding the feedback during the game play, placing
blocks on incorrect slots does not make any LED to be
turned on. Instead, the red LED of each block labeled with
a 0 is turned on when placed on the board. The same
happens with the green LED of each block labeled with a
1. Once those input blocks are connected with logic gates
blocks, a red or green light path is created from the input
blocks to the final block (the result block). Therefore,
gamers can see what is going on the whole process and
not only focus on the result.
V.
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
In the 19th century, progressive education supporters tried
to renew the education curriculum, going from a
traditional teacher-centered methodology to studentcentered and task-based approaches [9, 10, 11]. Year later,
Montessori proposed an educational philosophy based on
the following principles: a) students should be placed at
the center of school activities, b) teachers should act as
helpers in learning events, situations and processes, and c)
the school should be a prelude to the inclusion of students
in social life. Montessori stated that an optimal learning
experience requires autonomy, competence and
relatedness of the learner [1]. Therefore, she assigned a
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FLOW PATHS: A STANDALONE TANGIBLE BOARD SYSTEM TO CREATE EDUCATIONAL GAMES
do not cover all capabilities of a system of this kind yet.
Therefore, our future efforts are aimed at improving and
expanding these educational activities, as well as testing
and studying the learning processes that occur when using
them.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Figure 4. A Flow Paths game sheet designed for high-school and
higher-education students.
key role to physical objects because they allow selfdirected and purposeful learning activities [4, 12], and
enable collaborative experiences in shared contexts with
adults [13] or peers [14]. As we mentioned before, Flow
Paths materials also allow self-directed and purposeful
learning activities that can be shared with peers.
Moreover, they are self-correcting and provide immediate
feedback, can promote multi.-sensorial interactions (e.g.,
visual, auditory, and haptic) and are grouped by difficulty.
Although most Montessori supporters prefer using lowtech approaches, learning materials made using Flow
Paths follow Montessori's main goal: to explode the
potential of each learner to improve autonomously in a
structured environment.
Flow Paths is a standalone system that can be entirely
manipulated by learners for learning concepts related to
flows and paths. Its modular architecture allows extending
its dimensions, adapt the difficulty of the challenges, and
vary the scenario game easily. The design choices made to
develop this system provide several advantages from an
educational point of view. First, the use of physical blocks
instead of virtualized objects enables the development of
fine motor skills in early childhood of special needs
learners. Second, these blocks can be handled without
extreme care, since all active components of the system
are placed on the board. Third, the independence of the
system from a personal computer or mobile device
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interact with blocks and change scenario sheets by
physically acting on the system. If the design of games
developed on Flow Paths is properly scaffolded, there are
extensive opportunities for self-learning. However, we
think that educational games designed to test Flow Paths
14
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AUTHORS
A. Barredo is with the DeustoTech Institute at
University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain (e-mail:
abarredo@opendeusto.es).
P. Garaizar is with the DeustoTech Institute at
University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain (e-mail:
garaizar@deusto.es).
This article is an extended and modified version of a paper presented
at the EDUCON2015 conference held at Tallinn University of
Technology, Tallinn, Estonia, 18-20 March 2015. Manuscript received
20 April 2015. This work was supported in part by the Cátedra
Telefónica – Deusto, Spain. Submitted 20 April 2015 Published as
submitted by the authors 20 August 2015.
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