Skip to content.
Learning Technologies Center

Research & Development

Activities

Playful Invention and Exploration
PIE (Playful Invention and Exploration) is an approach to using new technologies that integrates art, science, music, and engineering. The main goal of PIE is to enable and inspire more people to create, invent, and explore—using a combination of traditional craft materials and new digital technologies. PIE projects and workshops make use of Crickets, small programmable devices you can use to create your own musical sculptures, interactive jewelry, communicating creatures, and other playful inventions.

SMILE
Lawrence Hall of Science is collaborating with a number of Science Centers around the country to build a new "pathway" to informal learning resources. Called the Science and Math Informal Learning Educator (SMILE) pathway, The Learning Technologies Center, the Exploratorium, the Childrens Museum of Houston, the New York Hall of Science and LHS are all contributing and cataloging rich activities into a dynamic search engine that can quickly find activities particularly suited to informal educators and classroom teachers needs.

Science Buzz
We're trying to create exhibits and web content that offer opportunities to dig deeper into science headlines, and give you a chance to talk with each other and with scientists about your questions and concerns.

What's next? How about an exhibit about cloning? Or West Nile virus? Or the search for life on other planets? Or invasive flying carp? We're just getting started working on the next topics. If you have an idea you'd like to share, become a part of the current science community via this website and let us know what you're thinking!

The Game Studio
This is an archived project that got us started developing resources around gaming in the classroom. The goal of the Game Studio website was to provide a common location for anyone to find help, tips, ideas, tutorials, and forums about Microworlds, Flash, and helped us to test the new software called Scratch. The site originally was focused on, but not limited to, these three programs.

In Learning Technologies we teach classes using these programs. Students are exposed to software that is capable of producing media-rich interactive gaming experiences. With this site we are focused on the technical aspects of the programs as well as the more over-arching topic of game-making.

Tools

We use a number of information technologies tools—computer programs and environments, digital and analog electronics in concert with art and craft materials. These tools are intended to provide youth and adults the means to explore ideas and realize those in the physical (and virtual) world.