Circular Species: Designing critical thinking into children's science education through biomaterials and augmented reality

Science education is paramount as humanity works to mitigate the major socio-economic, technological, and environmental impact of the Anthropocene and build a sustainable future. For children to engage with and one day contribute to finding sustainable solutions, they must learn not just science concepts, but also how to think critically about the role of the human in the systems we exist in.

In this paper, we present a design approach that involves human (teachers and children) and non-human agents (biomaterials and augmented reality), to create educational tools that promote learning of science subjects and critical thinking in children. We describe the resulting prototype, Circular Species, which comes in the form of a biodegradable woolly mammoth toy and accompanying AR app that teaches the carbon cycle. We share insights gathered from testing Circular Species through in-classroom workshops with students aged 8-11 in London and New York schools.

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