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Universities try to reinforce their connections with society in many different ways. Introducing children to science at an early age is an important part of this mission. The online “Kids’ Knowledge Base” is a key instrument for presenting showcases of various scientific fields to primary school children, thereby aiming to pique their curiosity. We outline the architecture and development process of the Kids’ Knowledge Base, and describe how it is increasingly being embedded in an ecosystem of online and physical tools, stakeholder networks, and activities. We show how it has been used since its launch in March 2013, and discuss how combining different modes of offline and online interaction helps to promote its overall usefulness and use. We discuss some applications and extensions of the current digital infrastructure and how these may help increase the quality and quantity of the online interactions with the knowledge base. See: http://chi-sparks.nl/2014/session/kidsplay-4/ http://kinderkennisbank.nl http://battleweters.nl
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The Kids’ Knowledge Base:
Connecting Junior Science to Society
Aldo de Moor
CommunitySense WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL
Chi Sparks 2014 Conference, The Hague, April 3
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Science Hub Brabant: From (only) a
physical “Kids’ University”…
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to (also) an online
“Kids’ Knowledge Base” (KKB)
http://www.kinderkennisbank.nl
• Enthuse children for science
• Develop scientifically valid content for curious
children in primary school
• Enliven content through activating
conversational and work practices
• Support other science hub (physical) activities
with digital knowledge base
• Develop a community of stakeholders
→ towards a living kids’ knowledge base
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KKB objectives
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KKB architecture
• Scope: scientific discipline/area – E.g. Philosophy
• +/- 4 themes – E.g. Ethics
• +/- 4/5 topics – E.g. How do you become happy?
• 1 (WordPress) knowledge card per topic
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KKB introductory knowledge modules
What is?
Example
Research
Questions
Advanced
Learn more
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KKB teacher materials
Conversational practice: e.g. “dialogue”
Work practice: e.g. “question fire”
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Applying the KKB “in society”
B@ttleweters – scaling up use of KKB
Brabant
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KKB use growing
Page views in 2013
(March 10, 2014):
• Total page views: 54,272
• Max/day: 1,271
• Avg/day: 217
• New modules: Emotions; European Values
• New functionalities: interactive quizzes
• More social media: Facebook, Twitter
• More activities: B@ttleweters, primary school
workshops, ….
• More community: community of teachers
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Next steps
• Kids’ Knowledge Base becoming relevant
instrument for science education
• Approach: online content x
activities/applications x community/networks =
impact
• Technology is only small piece of the puzzle
• Different metrics and evaluation approaches
needed for societal human-computer interaction
• Key question: how to embed the tools in a
complex, evolving socio-technical system
driving use & evolution of the platform?
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Conclusions
