Enacting orbits: Refining the design of a full-body learning simulation

Interactive and immersive digital environments offer promising avenues for embodied interaction - learning by enacting concepts through one's body. These environments have the potential to generate intuitive forms of understanding about processes and principles in areas such as science. More needs to be known, however, about how to design systems that effectively elicit both the desired physical actions and the relevant conceptions, such that they become amenable for change. In this paper we describe the design of a full-body simulation environment where students are tasked to enact trajectories of a virtual asteroid projected onto the floor. The paper presents preliminary analyses of semi-structured interviews that allow insights into how the experience of "creating an orbit" shaped the participants' developing understanding about orbital motion, the role of gravity, and general principles about how things move in space. An initial evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and future work is discussed.