ASPECT sinking and floating: an interactive playable simulation for teaching buoyancy concepts

Traditional methods of teaching concepts relating to buoyancy (sinking and floating) to elementary students are often ineffective. With the development of new const-effective haptic controllers, we may be able to improve upon traditional teaching methods. Data was gathered during focus groups with both teachers and students to develop a list of misconceptions to target. In addition to targeting misconceptions, we use a Novint Falcon haptic force feedback controller to enable direct feeling of forces. To effectively merge the haptic controller into the system usability testing was performed. This paper presents the initial findings of our interactive playable simulation.