Summary
Bear-E is a bilingual stuffed animal created by my Design for America team and me for English Language Learners to break down the language barrier and lead to success in the classroom. Please watch the demo below.
Role ― Prototyping Lead
I led and did all the prototyping on this project. I determined and ordered the componeents necessary. I also solder the electronics to the Raspberry Pi we used. Finally, I wrote a program in Python to play recorded English and Spanish phrases from a Raspberry Pi if Bear-E's arm was pressed. More details are in the Prototyping section.
I also conducted secondary research and expert interviews. From this user research, I synthesized our insights using techniques such as clustering and journey maps with my team.
Team
Alex
Goodman
Katie
Han
Justin
Hatfield
Jenny
Park
Me!
Challenge
From our secondary research, we realized there is a gap between the growing population of English Language Learners (ELL) and teachers for these students. English Language Learners are students whose primary language is not English; in Chicago, typically their primary language is Spanish. The lack of support for the ELL students puts them at a disadvantage when compared to other students.
ELL Student and Teacher Gap
Talking to volunteers at Jumpstart, a program that works with ELL classrooms, we learned that ELL students tend to be more socially isolated and less willing to participate in class.
From our insights we devised a How Can We (HCW) problem statement:
How can we create a self-sufficient educational tool for ELL students that incorporates technology and culture in an interactive and relevant fashion?
Solution
Our team designed Bear-E, a stuffed animal that speaks English and Spanish to ELL students. Bear-E is designed to not only be portable and promote independence, but also be a great friend.
Prototyping
The minimal viable product (MVP) needed to "speak" English and Spanish phrases given a user input. I decided to use a Raspberry Pi to control Bear-E because it could do all the tasks we wanted for the MVP and further iterations.
Construction of Bear-E ― Top, Raspberry Pi; Bottom, Doma Portable Speaker
Programming and Wiring
I wrote in Python because it has good integration with Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins. I used the pygame Python library to play voice recordings when given a button input.
I wanted Bear-E to act as a toy. So, the Python program needed to run automatically when Bear-E turned on. I made a Cron job to run the Python program every time the Raspberry Pi was turned on.
Schematic of Button Wiring
Results
We tested Bear–E is an elementary school class, and the students really liked it just as toy. They wanted to keep playing with him. So as an initial result we were able to engage students.
Next Steps
Right now the project has been put on hold. The project was an incredible learning experience for me. I was able to make a prototype that had potential for community impact. Future prototypes would incorporate more interactive elements to increase user engagement. I have made a sketch below of what Bear–E 2.0 may look like.
Bear-E 2.0