Abstract
Outdoor play has known benefits for children's development, and studies show it is in decline. Heads-Up Games have been proposed as a possible solution, in some cases with an integrated coding platform to enrich play variety. In this pilot study we set out to evaluate a Scratch-based coding platform for outdoor play. The code primitives control digital features of a stick-like outdoor play object. We observed children's play patterns with the coding platform and with the play object, and report on three distinct patterns: Basic Exploration, Advanced Exploration, and Game Invention. Our preliminary findings show that all children began with Basic Exploration and progressed either to Advanced Exploration or Game Invention. With regards to outdoor play benefits, the Game Invention pattern was associated with more collaborative social interaction, physical activity, and heads up interaction. We discuss the implications for future coding platforms designed for outdoor play.
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