Pas a Pas

An interactive tool that enables children to engage with educational content through stop motion animation

Pas a pas is an interactive educational tool for schools that enables children to learn and experiment with different sets of elements using animation. It aims to use the physicality and the animated outcome of stop motion animation to bridge the gap between abstract concepts from maths, physics or arts (usually represented by graphs, equations or words) and reality.

The system consists of three aspects: a platform to record and display animations, sets of elements for animating and a community to share the generated content.

The platform has a display, a camera and an interface with three main modes:
Assistant: the display shows a guide for the children to place the elements at the right position in each frame. This way it introduces the students to the set of elements and enables them to explore concepts that are being taught in the conventional curriculum. It also intends to give a progressive learning of stop motion techniques in order to create better and more realistic animations.

Director: children can create their own animated movies using the pieces provided or other objects.
Collection: children can browse through movies that have been recorded on the same platform, or on remote platforms located in other schools.

Different sets of elements are designed to teach specific content for a certain age group, such as Geometry for 4-6 year olds. Each set comes with a cartridge that contains the animation guides. Aside from the sets that the system offers, the collection is scalable as teachers can easily create new animation exercises and share them with the community.

The community serves to provide a space for exchanging knowledge and material generated using the system and for the discussion of new methods of teaching using stop motion animation.

Research with teachers has been carried out during the design process in order to better integrate the platform into the existing educational system, as well as co-creation and validation of the first tutorials. Sessions with professional animators served to provide insightful feedback on the interface for shooting and editing stop motion. User testing was carried out in a Montessori kindergarten. The concept shares the philosophy of Montessori education methods, and it’s aligned with its materials and curriculum.

Advisor: Vinay Venkatraman