This unique electronic toy helps children learn their shapes

It isn’t a secret that many kids find math to be boring and it is easy for them to develop an attitude of “when am I ever going to use this?” But math is incredibly useful in the real world, from blue-collar machinists using trigonometry to quantum physicists unveiling the secrets of our universe through advanced calculus. By engaging children early on in fun, intuitive ways, we can lay a mathematical foundation to build upon and TIEboard is a unique electronic toy that could help.

Developed by researchers from the Keio Graduate School of Media Design and University of Auckland, TIEboard is an interactive digital tool aimed at teaching kids geometric concepts. It is a bit like the classic Lite-Brite toy, but for geometric shapes and smart enough to guide learning. It consists of a grid of points, each of which is a hole that can be lit by an LED and accept a “thread.” Those threads are fiber optic and light up. They’re also conductive and make contact with pads around the holes.

A basic lesson to guide the construction of a square would light up four points. The child could then string threads between those points to form the sides of the square in glowing colors. More complex lessons are possible and kids can progress through them as they grasp the fundamentals of shapes and geometry. 

An Arduino Nano Every board provides that functionality by setting the colors of the LEDs and monitoring the matrix of copper pads around the holes. Buttons let the pupil move through the different lessons. 

The lessons created for the TIEboard prototype are limited and the researchers found that some of the test participants struggled to follow along, but the concept is strong and lesson refinement would likely improve the results in the future.

Read more about TIEbaord in the team’s paper here.

Image credit: Arooj et al.