Learning Data Structures with Augmented Reality for Computer Science Education (K-12)

Computer Science Education, while based on Mathematics and Philosophy, does not have to be purely axiomatic and abstract. Indeed some our most formative experiences as students and developers come from solving difficult coding assignments or diving into the unknown by adopting new, often poorly supported, development platforms and programming languages. Can learning Data Structures, using the Empirical Model as inspiration, aid in retaining key concepts fundamental to our core curriculum as CS students? Vuforia was used on the back-end as the image processing and fiducial marker generator. Using their cloud-server technology we uploaded any image we wanted to their servers, and they would take care of the image-recognition and machine-language training by generating a device image database and a cloud target database to integrate with Unity. Once we had that, we created textures and animations to rig to the specific marker. Then using the animations we created Scenes in Unity, as well as the UI experience that modeled the desired interaction.