The Role of Identity of an Animated Character in the Story Line

The identity of an animated character means who he really is, or what are the characteristics that would never change? How the character sees himself and how others see him? It includes shape, color, race, beliefs, and choices in life.The more the storyteller gives identity to his animated character, the more it is sound and convincing.  In that sense, it touches the audiences’ hearts as they feel its pain or happiness. In other words, they are involved in the story and united with the character.As the story begins, characters and settings are presented before the audience to get an overview of the characters’ identity. Then, more elements are to show up, like the conflict, the problem that needs to be solved and the rising actions, which are series of events that lead to the high main point or the climax. It is considered as a turning point of the story after which the falling actions come.  The falling actions are events and complications that start to loosen the plot. Gradually, the solution shows up as the story ends either happily or tragically.Throughout the story line, these groups of events that form the story sometimes account for the appearance of an identity crisis that impact the character. It means that he is uncertain of his feelings about himself; he gets confused about what type of person he is or what is the true purpose of his life. It always takes making an existential that plays a big role in the story line.The identity crisis appear in Toy Story 1995 to Buzz light-year when he discovers the truth of himself; that he is a toy, not a space ranger as he thought before. This made him give up hope of returning anywhere. It took him sometime to accept the fact of himself after seeing how Woody struggles to return them both to Andy. He tries his best to save his friend and return home safely, as being dictated by the role’s vision.In Toy Story 2 1999, the identity crisis appear to Woody when Buzz strikes him with the fact that he is not a collector’s item. He is a child’s play thing, he is a toy. Then, a decision has to be made to return to Andy, and the struggles start with the Prospector.In Toy Story 3, 2010, the identity crisis appear to Woody at the end of the story. He was suffering to be away from all his toy family that will be left in the attic, so he wrote on the box to be donated and he attached himself in, with them hoping that Andy gives him a very warm goodbye and leaves him with the rest of the toys in good hands.In Finding Nemo 2003, the identity crisis for Nemo is when he chooses to touch the boat, even though it is a dangerous thing, just to prove to his father and his friends that he is brave. It led him to fall in the capture and to meet other fish

Children's Moral Reasoning about Attribution of Intentions: The Influence of Gender Stereotypes and Theory of Mind

The present study investigated how holding gender stereotypes and having a false belief theory of mind impacts children's understanding of intentionality when evaluating morally relevant stories. Children 3 - 4, 5 - 6, and 7 - 8-years-of-age (N = 127) were interviewed about the intentions of a potential transgressor in two hypothetical stories. Both stories involved a child accidentally (or on purpose) putting another child's toy into their own backpack. One of the stories utilized the taking of a toy that was gender stereotype consistent (a girl taking a doll) while the other story involved a gender stereotype inconsistent toy (a boy taking a doll or a girl taking a truck). A false belief theory of mind task as well as gender stereotype knowledge, tolerance, and flexibility tasks were administered to each participant. Results revealed that children over-attributed negative intentions and endorsed more punishment in the story with the counter-stereotypic toy than in the story with the stereotype consistent toy, indicating that stereotypes were impacting the children's decisions concerning intentionality. Additionally, across scenarios, older children as well as children able to pass the false belief theory of mind task, endorsed less punishment and indicated less negative intentions than their counterparts, demonstrating that as children get older and more cognitively advanced they are better able to see the ambiguity of a morally relevant scenario, despite gender stereotypes, in order to attribute less negative intentions. Furthermore, children who were aware of gender stereotypes and children who were tolerant of others playing with any toy regardless of the associated gender stereotype also endorsed less punishment and indicated less negative intentions than their counterparts. The present study therefore shows how children may erroneously focus on stereotypic knowledge when making attributions of intentionality. This is important as over-attributing negative intentions can lead to peer rejection and exclusion. Understanding when and how contextual variables such as gender stereotypes as well as when and how having a false belief theory of mind impacts attributions of intentions is critical to understanding the ontogeny and development of moral reasoning

How getting noticed helps getting on: successful attention capture doubles children's cooperative play

Cooperative social interaction is a complex skill that involves maintaining shared attention and continually negotiating a common frame of reference. Privileged in human evolution, cooperation provides support for the development of social-cognitive skills. We hypothesize that providing audio support for capturing playmates' attention will increase cooperative play in groups of young children. Attention capture was manipulated via an audio-augmented toy to boost children's attention bids. Study 1 (48 6- to 11-year-olds) showed that the augmented toy yielded significantly more cooperative play in triads compared to the same toy without augmentation. In Study 2 (33 7- to 9-year-olds) the augmented toy supported greater success of attention bids, which were associated with longer cooperative play, associated in turn with better group narratives. The results show how cooperation requires moment-by-moment coordination of attention and how we can manipulate environments to reveal and support mechanisms of social interaction. Our findings have implications for understanding the role of joint attention in the development of cooperative action and shared understanding

Helping Kindergarteners Make Sense of Numbers to 100

The authors share what was learned about kindergarteners\u27 abilities to make sense of numbers to 100 when one of the authors, Linda Jaslow, took over a kindergarten class from February through the end of the school year. Through examples of how she engaged her students in nine weeks of problem solving and discussions focused on making sense of the number system, we provide evidence that the children grew substantially in their ability to count and show understanding when counting by 10\u27s and using 10\u27s during problem solving. Suggestions for tasks to promote continued growth are also provided. Throughout this teaching experience, Mrs. Jaslow was reminded of the complexity of making sense of our number system, and this article showcases her instructional decision making that was based on inquiry into children\u27s thinking. By valuing children\u27s existing ideas, Mrs. Jaslow could use that thinking to help guide her instruction

Sustainability Children\u27s Book

As human driven climate change continues to alter our planet, persuading the general public to adopt sustainable living practices has become increasingly important. Storytelling has long been a part of human culture, and recent studies have emphasized the power of storytelling to influence the audience as a means of changing behavior. This project attempted to teach sustainable principles to primary school children through the creation of a scientific children’s book. The book communicated the maxim of “reduce, reuse, recycle” by tracing a fictitious story of a town where children frequently buy new toys and throw the old toys away. The book explores the supply chain of toys and the market forces of supply and demand, focusing on the consumer’s responsibility to not over-consume, i.e “reduce”. It also presents the concept of “reusing” and “recycling” as alternatives to disposal of old toys. The book was evaluated for age appropriate language and concepts for K-5 students and adjusted to meet educational standards. It was then tested by reading it to a classroom of 2nd grade students. A discussion with the students following the reading showed that they understood the theme of the book and how they could apply it to their own lives. The project also included a life cycle analysis (LCA) of a stuffed animal, a representative toy from the story. The LCA showed that the largest contributors to the stuffed animal’s impacts were the production of cotton used for its outer layer and the electricity used in its assembly. It also showed the impacts most damaging to human health were chiefly a result of the fossil fuels used to provide process energy

Into the Doll’s House: Understanding Presumed Female Housekeeping in Children’s Literature

This essay analyzes Edith and Milly’s Housekeeping (1866), written anonymously by Laura Valentine, a general editor for Frederick Warne & Company Publishing. The essay considers the book in the context of gender roles and class in Victorian England. Part of the “Aunt Louisa’s London Toy Books” collection, Edith and Milly’s Housekeeping reflects common nineteenth-century lessons for young girls in regards to housekeeping, morals, maturity, and class consciousness. The essay also suggests that the reason for the book’s failure to remain popular over centuries is that the notion of the doll’s house has been transformed in westernized countries from a tool to help young girls learn how to keep a house into a play toy with which girls are encouraged to use their strong imaginations and not restrict themselves to traditional notions of gender roles, including housekeeping

Sustainability principles through educational e-textile kit

Innovations in smart textiles technology are on the rise with a promise to add value to the consumer's life (Goodman et al., 2018). However, these innovations and the high development speed involved also raise concerns about environmental issues related to these trends (Van der Velden et al., 2015). Therefore, TTorch project was created which aim is to bring different fields, like electronics and textile engineering, together to create a kit for educational purposes and follow circular economy principles while doing it. TTorch is a creative toy with a development kit for up to 10-year-old children, using e-textile principles. The product kit creates a bridge between engineering and design, by letting the user explore a personal light source and build surroundings to it. The goal of the project is to show how interdisciplinary fields can work together and with that creating different opportunities. This paper gives a short overview of e-textiles, research on e-waste, textile waste and e-textile waste management. Further on it will focus on the necessary collaboration between design, engineering and industry by emphasising difference between core team and network around the core team. The collaboration aim it to create ecological product kit for educational purposes following the concept of STEAM. Discussions will include how collaboration between team members with diverse backgrounds, and surrounding network was necessary to identify specific gap in the market and to evolve the idea from product to development kit

Interview with Ras and Dot Wampler

An interview with Eurastas Oliver Ras Wampler and Dot Stout Wampler regarding life in western Kansas in the late 19th century. 00:00:19 - Ras Wampler, school experiences 00:02:10 - Games played at recess 00:03:31 - School facilities 00:04:36 - Transportation 00:05:14 - Preserving food 00:07:03 - Going to town 00:09:40 - Remedies 00:10:16 - Planting crops 00:11:08 - Herding cattle 00:11:50 - Blizzards 00:13:56 - Trading turkeys for dry goods 00:15:25 - 4th of July celebrations 00:16:51 - Harvesting wheat 00:21:25 - Learning how many days are in each month 00:22:51 - Dot Wampler, pet rabbit story 00:24:52 - Toy butter churn and toy stove 00:26:51 - Sledding 00:29:48 - Ras Wampler, milking cows and making cheese 00:33:24 - Dot Wampler, remedies 00:35:17 - Buying roasting ears (corn) 00:36:10 - School experiences 00:39:45 - Moving to Topeka 00:41:20 - Ras Wampler, keeping ice 00:42:48 - Harvesting wheat in Ohio 00:43:24 - Watering livestockhttps://scholars.fhsu.edu/sackett/1044/thumbnail.jp

Bringing tabletop technologies to kindergarten children

Taking computer technology away from the desktop and into a more physical, manipulative space, is known that provide many benefits and is generally considered to result in a system that is easier to learn and more natural to use. This paper describes a design solution that allows kindergarten children to take the benefits of the new pedagogical possibilities that tangible interaction and tabletop technologies offer for manipulative learning. After analysis of children's cognitive and psychomotor skills, we have designed and tuned a prototype game that is suitable for children aged 3 to 4 years old. Our prototype uniquely combines low cost tangible interaction and tabletop technology with tutored learning. The design has been based on the observation of children using the technology, letting them freely play with the application during three play sessions. These observational sessions informed the design decisions for the game whilst also confirming the children's enjoyment of the prototype