Third-grade ‘mini researchers’ at UF design AI-based app to improve Florida literacy
Most 8-year-olds spend their school days mastering multiplication, perusing prose and studying the solar system. But through a multi-disciplinary research project in UF’s College of Education, a handful of third-grade “mini researchers” are adding another skill to their academic repertoires: co-designing a mobile app called AR (Augmented Reality) Expeditions, which will launch this year, to inspire Florida elementary school students to read.
Addressing the literacy gap
Throughout the state, more than one million students struggle to read at grade level and many lack the motivation to keep up their reading practice. To help close this literacy gap, the Florida Legislature established the New Worlds Reading Initiative in 2021 – a free program administered by the UF Lastinger Center for Learning for students in VPK through fifth grade who are not yet reading at grade level.
Each month during the school year, eligible Florida students receive a free book in the mail – in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole or braille – tailored to their interests, language, grade level and Florida Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking Standards. The Lastinger Center has partnered with global children’s publishing company Scholastic and the Florida Department of Education to select and distribute more than 10 million free books.
The program also offers literacy resources, activities and guides that encourage shared reading experiences for students and their families. One of these newly designed educational tools is the AR Expeditions app – a partnership between UF’s E-Learning, Technology and Communications department, the Institute for Advanced Learning Technologies and the Lastinger Center’s New Worlds Reading team – and young students have played a critical role in its development.
A collaborative, forward-thinking approach
The app undertaking began last year, when a team of augmented reality specialists and instructional designers at UF started brainstorming early iterations of the tool.
The team created four augmented reality experiences centered around themes commonly found in the New Worlds Reading book distribution lists, such as Florida’s oceans, and they enlisted third-grade mini researchers to help create the app’s ocean environments and user interface. The app now enables students and their families to play literacy-based vocabulary fishing games, take bubble pop quizzes and draw in virtual coloring books while exploring an augmented reality aquarium and learning about Florida’s marine habitats.
The third-grade mini researchers for the AR Expeditions app were selected because, like the tool’s target audience, these students need additional reading support and are eligible for the New Worlds Reading program. The students have been interacting with the app at various stages of its development, and critiquing its playability and interface to improve the user experience.
From groaning over lag times while catching virtual fish to giggling over a classroom full of digital dolphins, the students are candid and opinionated in their assessments. And, to keep up with the demands of these blossoming beta testers and the project’s tight timeline, the AR Expeditions team employs AI assistance to expedite the development process.
AR immersion meets AI enhancements
Research has shown that appropriately designed immersive media helps increase students’ learning comprehension. While augmented reality software lends itself to a growing number of real-world uses, these programs are complex systems that require extensive development to produce workable applications from the ground up.
The E-Learning, Technology and Communication’s AR team has employed AI from the project’s inception to get the app from ideation to launch as quickly and efficiently as possible. Without AI assistance, the first rollout of AR Expeditions might have been several years away; with it, the ocean experience project is being completed within months.
The team’s lead developer utilizes large language models like ChatGPT to take virtual mood boards and build an initial framework for each interactive experience. A dedicated 3D model designer crafts the interactive ocean animals before the models are incorporated into the augmented reality environments with AI programming. Scripting and debugging to enhance functionality are performed using AI tools. With specific prompt engineering and continued guidance from developers, AI is utilized in almost every facet of production.
To create the augmented reality aquarium, which is a favorite feature of the app, AI is used to help detect the surrounding planes of the user’s physical environment and accurately incorporate 3D ocean animals into a given space. Integrated AI enhances each sea creature’s behaviors while maintaining realistic movement and proper lighting to create a fully immersive underwater experience.
Looking to the future
The AR Expeditions app is scheduled to begin a tiered rollout through New Worlds Reading community events in the coming months. These frequent events occur throughout the state to enroll eligible students in the program, and information about downloading and trying the app will help caregivers and students embark on an exciting literacy journey together. Eventually, the app will be downloadable directly from app stores.
Looking ahead, the development team behind AR Expeditions has already begun creating the next themed experience: comic books. These graphic novels appeal to students who may not be interested in text-exclusive books, inspiring a whole new subset of early readers.
And the mini researchers? Their learning community leader says the students are now more curious, confident and persistent. They have been inspired to see themselves as capable learners with a new excitement for reading and research, especially about the ocean. A new group of striving readers will be taking their place to co-design the next phase of the app.