[Paper Review] Cultivating Visualization Literacy for Children Through Curiosity and Play

S. Sandra Bae, Rishi Vanukuru+5 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 9, 2022

Innovative Human-Technology Interaction4 citations

TL;DR

This paper introduces Data is Yours, a constructionist, play-based toolkit that uses everyday materials to help children (6–11 years old) create physical visualizations (bar, line, pie charts) through hands-on crafting and curiosity-driven exploration. The study shows the toolkit fosters visualization literacy by enabling children to engage creatively and personally with data, with prior experience enhancing authoring motivation and novices gaining foundational comfort and interest.

ABSTRACT

Fostering data visualization literacy (DVL) as part of childhood education could lead to a more data literate society. However, most work in DVL for children relies on a more formal educational context (i.e., a teacher-led approach) that limits children's engagement with data to classroom-based environments and, consequently, children's ability to ask questions about and explore data on topics they find personally meaningful. We explore how a curiosity-driven, child-led approach can provide more agency to children when they are authoring data visualizations. This paper explores how informal learning with crafting physicalizations through play and curiosity may foster increased literacy and engagement with data. Employing a constructionist approach, we designed a do-it-yourself toolkit made out of everyday materials (e.g., paper, cardboard, mirrors) that enables children to create, customize, and personalize three different interactive visualizations (bar, line, pie). We used the toolkit as a design probe in a series of in-person workshops with 5 children (6 to 11-year-olds) and interviews with 5 educators. Our observations reveal that the toolkit helped children creatively engage and interact with visualizations. Children with prior knowledge of data visualization reported the toolkit serving as more of an authoring tool that they envision using in their daily lives, while children with little to no experience found the toolkit as an engaging introduction to data visualization. Our study demonstrates the potential of using the constructionist approach to cultivate children's DVL through curiosity and play.

Motivation & Objective

• To investigate how a curiosity-driven, child-led approach can enhance data visualization literacy (DVL) in children beyond formal classroom settings.
• To explore the role of physical crafting and embodied learning in helping children understand visualization components like encoding, scale, and structure.
• To evaluate how a DIY toolkit made from everyday materials supports diverse children in authoring personalized visualizations.
• To assess the potential of physicalizations as a low-floor, high-engagement entry point for children to develop long-term DVL.

Proposed method

• The researchers designed a physical toolkit using common materials (paper, cardboard, mirrors) to construct three interactive chart types: bar, line, and pie charts.
• Children assembled the toolkit, collected personal data, created paper templates, and built physical chart panels, with real-time digital rendering via smartphone using computer vision.
• The toolkit was deployed in in-person workshops with five children (6–11 years old) and interviews with five educators to observe engagement and learning.
• The design process was grounded in constructionism and embodied cognition, emphasizing learner agency, creativity, and tactile interaction with data.
• Digital rendering via smartphone allowed dynamic visualization updates and saved outputs, bridging physical creation with digital persistence.
• The approach treated the toolkit as a design probe to explore children’s natural curiosity and personal interest in data.

Figure 1: (a) Diagram of inner workings of Data is Yours . (b) Fiducial markers (FM) behind chart panels face the phone’s rear-facing camera. Detected FM (outlined in pink) require a high-contrast background. FM are detected based on their (c) orientation and (d) position.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How do children respond to a curiosity-driven, child-led approach to creating physical visualizations using everyday materials?
• RQ2 In what ways does physical crafting with visualizations support children’s understanding of visualization components and data reasoning?
• RQ3 How does prior experience with data visualization affect children’s engagement and perception of the toolkit as an authoring tool?
• RQ4 What role does personalization and play have in increasing children’s comfort and interest in data visualization?
• RQ5 How can physical, hands-on creation serve as a foundation for long-term data visualization literacy in children?

Key findings

• Children with prior data visualization experience treated the toolkit as a practical authoring tool they could use in daily life, indicating its perceived utility beyond the workshop.
• Children with little or no prior experience found the toolkit to be an engaging and accessible entry point into data visualization, sparking curiosity and comfort.
• The physical act of assembling and customizing visualizations helped children reason about visual encodings (e.g., color, shape, scale) in a concrete, non-prescriptive way.
• Children naturally collaborated and provided feedback on peers’ visualizations without prompting, suggesting the toolkit fosters social and critical engagement.
• The toolkit successfully created a 'low floor' for entry, enabling even young, inexperienced children to create and interpret basic visualizations within a two-hour session.
• Educators and children suggested future expansions into home and informal settings (e.g., tracking height, recreating news visualizations), indicating potential for sustained, longitudinal use.

Figure 2: (a) Formative prototype. (b) A child from formative study is moving cardboard sliders to author a bar chart. His paper template consists a mix of words and icons and is reflected on the smartphone display (indicated by dotted outlines). See subsubsection 3.2.2 for more details.