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Lived Science Narratives
Cyberlearning
2 / 6
Making the Maker
Cyberlearning
3 / 6
Enactment-Based Storytelling
Positive Computing
4 / 6
Everyday-Inspired Media
Positive Computing
5 / 6
Culturally-Relevant Teaching
Cyberlearning

THE STORY LAB

Our mission is to conduct research in the area of human-computer interaction (HCI) with a focus on the design and evaluation of technologies that draw inspiration from narrative theories.

Cyberlearning

This emphasis area addresses technologies to support children's cognitive, emotional and social development.

Positive Computing

This emphasis area addresses technologies to support the emotional well-being of vulnerable populations, such as older adults and individuals with depression.

LIVED SCIENCE NARRATIVES

Cyberlearning

MAKING THE MAKER

Cyberlearning

EVERYDAY-INSPIRED MEDIA

Positive Computing

ENACTMENT BASED STORYTELLING

Cyberlearning

CULTURALLY-RELEVANT TEACHING

Cyberlearning

Physiological sensing of insight formation

Cyberlearning

Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings

Chu, S. L., Quek, F., Bhangaonkar, S. and Berman, A. (2017). Physical Making Online: A Study of Children’s Maker Websites. In Proceedings of FabLearn 2017: 7th Annual Conference on Creativity and Making in Education. Stanford University, Palo Alto.
Chu, S. L., Quek, F., Deuermeyer, E., Martin, R., Berman, A., Suarez, M., Zarei, N., Nam, B. and Banigan, C. From Classroom-Making to Functional-Making: A Study in the Development of Making Literacy. In Proceedings of FabLearn 2017: 7th Annual Conference on Creativity and Making in Education. Stanford University, Palo Alto.
Chu, S. L., Deuermeyer, E., Martin, R., Quek, F., Berman, A., Suarez, M., Zarei, N., Nam, B. and Banigan, C. (2017). Becoming Makers: Examining ‘Making’ Literacy in the Elementary School Science Classroom. In Proceedings of International Conference on Interaction Design & Children (IDC ’17). Stanford, CA. ACM.

[Paper]

Chu, S. L., Quek, F., Bhangaonkar, S. and Berman, A. (2017). Physical Making Online: A Study of Children’s Maker Websites. In Proceedings of FabLearn 2017: 7th Annual Conference on Creativity and Making in Education. Stanford University, Palo Alto.
Chu, S. L., Quek, F., Deuermeyer, E., Martin, R., Berman, A., Suarez, M., Zarei, N., Nam, B. and Banigan, C. From Classroom-Making to Functional-Making: A Study in the Development of Making Literacy. In Proceedings of FabLearn 2017: 7th Annual Conference on Creativity and Making in Education. Stanford University, Palo Alto.
Chu, S. L., Schlegel, R., Quek, F., Christy, A. and Chen K. (2017). I Make, Therefore I Am: An Investigation of Curriculum-based Making on Children's Self-identity. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’17). Denver, CO. ACM.
Chu, S. L. and Garcia, B. (2017). Toward Wearable App Design for Children’s In-the-World Science Inquiry. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI '17). Yokohama, Japan. ACM.
Chu, S. L., Garcia, B., Quance, T., Geraci, L., Woltering, S. and Quek, F. (2016). Understanding Storytelling as a Design Framework for Cognitive Support Technologies for Older Adults. In Proceedings of International Symposium on Interactive Technologies for Ageing Populations (IxAP) 2016. Kochi, Japan. ACM. [Best Paper Award]
Berman, A., Garcia, B., Nam, B., Chu, S. L. and Quek, F. (2016). Toward a Making Community of Practice: The Social Aspects of Elementary Classroom-Based Making. In Proceedings of FabLearn 2016: 6th Annual Conference on Creativity and Making in Education. Stanford University, Palo Alto.
Chu, S., Angello, G., Suarez, M. and Quek, F. (2016). A Systemic Analysis of Making in Elementary Schools: Understanding Making for Children through Activity Theory. In Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT ’16). Austin, TX.
Chu, S., Saenz, M. and Quek, F. (2016). Connectors in Making: Investigating Children’s Motoric Abilities in Making. In Proceedings of International Conference on Interaction Design & Children (IDC ’16). Manchester, UK.
Angello, G., Chu, S., Quek, F., Osazuwa, O. and Zarei, N. (2016). Making as the New Colored Pencil: Translating Elementary Curricula into Maker Activities. In Proceedings of International Conference on Interaction Design & Children (IDC ’16). Manchester, UK.
Chu, S. L., Angello, A., Quek, F. and Pyle. S. (2016). Supporting Scientific Model Thinking through Curriculum-based Making. In Proceedings of FabLearn Europe 2016. Preston, UK.
Chu, S., Quek, F., Saenz, M., Bhangaonkar, S. and Okundaye, O. (2015). Enabling Instrumental Interaction through Electronics Making: Effects on Children’s Storytelling. In Proceedings of International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS ’15). Copenhagen, Denmark.
Arita, J., Seo, J, Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2015). The Role of Materiality in Tangibles for Young Children’s Digital Art Drawings. In Proceedings of Interaction Design & Children (IDC ’15). Boston, MA.
Chu, S., Quek, F. and Sridharamurthy, K. (2015). Augmenting Children’s Creative Self-Efficacy and Performance through Enactment-Based Animated Storytelling. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI '15). Stanford University, CA. ACM.
Seo, H., Arita, J., Chu, S., Quek, F. and Aldriedge, S. (2015). Material Significance of Tangibles for Young Children. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI '15). Stanford University, CA. ACM.
Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2014). Exploring Performative Authoring as a Story Creation Approach for Children. In Proceedings of International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS ’14). Singapore, Singapore.
Chu, S., Quek, F. and Sridharamurthy, K. (2014). Ready...Action! A Performative Authoring System for Children to Create Animated Stories. In Proceedings of the 11th Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference (ACE ’14). Madeira, Portugal.
Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2014). The Effects of Visual Contextual Structures on Children's Imagination in Story Authoring Interfaces. In Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children (IDC '14). Aarhus, Denmark.

[Paper]

Chu, S., Quek, F. and Tanenbaum, J. (2013). Performative Authoring: Nurturing Storytelling in Children through Imaginative Enactment. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS ’13). Istanbul, Turkey. (Best Paper Award)

[Paper]

Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2013). Things to Imagine With: Designing For the Child's Creativity. In Proceedings of Interaction Design & Children '13. New York City, NY: ACM.

[Paper]

Chu, S., Quek, F., Gusukuma, L. and Tanenbaum. J. (2013). The Effects of Physicality on the Child's Imagination. In Proceedings of Creativity and Cognition '13. Sydney: Australia.

[Paper]

Chung, H., Chu, S., Quek, F. and North, C. (2013). A Comparison of Two Display Ecology Models for Collaborative Sensemaking. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Pervasive Displays (PerDis '13). Mountain View: CA. 4-5 June, 2013.

[Paper]

Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2013). Information Holodeck: Thinking in Technology Ecologies. In proceedings of INTERACT '13. Cape Town: South Africa. IFIP-Springer LNCS.

[Paper]

Chu, S., Quek, F., Wang, Y. and Hartson, R. (2013). Finding-NEVO: Toward Radical Design in HCI. In Proceedings of INTERACT '13. Cape Town: South Africa. IFIP-Springer LNCS.

[Paper]

Chu, S., Federovskaya, E., Quek, F., and Snyder, J. (2013). The Effect of Familiarity on Perceived Interestingness of Images. In Proceedings of IS&T/SPIE International Conference on Human Vision & Electronic Imaging XVIII, Vol. 8651, SPIE: Burlingame, CA.

[Paper]

Chu, S., Quek, F. and Lin, X. (2011) Studying Medium Effects on Children's Creative Processes. In Proceedings of Creativity & Cognition ‘11. ACM: pp. 3-12: Atlanta, GA.

[Paper]

Chu, S., Quek, F., Endert, A., Chung, H. and Sawyer, B. (2012). The Physicality of Technological Devices in Education: Building a digital experience for learning. In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2012). Rome, Italy.

[Paper]

Sawyer, B., Quek, F., Wong, W., Motani, M., Chu Yew Yee, S. and M. Perez-Quinones (2012). Using Physical-Social Interactions to Support Information Re-finding. In Proceedings of ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2012). Austin, TX.

[Paper]

Duh, H.B.L., Chu Yew Yee, S.L., Chen, V.H.H. Gu, Y. (2010). A Narrative-driven Design Approach for Casual Games with Children. In Proceedings of SIGGRAPH ’10: the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (Game paper section). Los Angeles, CA.

[Paper]

Chu Yew Yee, S. L., Duh, H. B. L. & Quek, F. (2010). Investigating Narrative in Mobile Games for Seniors. In CHI 2010, 28th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 669-672. Atlanta, GA. (Honorable Mention for Best Paper)

[Paper]

Chu Yew Yee, S. L. & Marsh, T. (2009). Investigating fun and learning in educational games. In ISAGA 2009, the International Simulation and Gaming Association conference ’09. Singapore, Singapore.

[Paper]

Journal Article

Chu, S., Deuermeyer, E., and Quek, F. (2017). Supporting Scientific Modelling through Curriculum-based Making in Elementary School Science Classes. In the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction: Special Issue on Fabrication in Learning.
Chu, S., Angello, G., Saenz, M. and Quek, F. (2017). Fun in Making: Understanding the Experience of Fun and Learning through Curriculum-based Making in the Elementary School Classroom. Journal of Entertainment Computing: Special issue on Maker Technologies to Foster Engagement and Creativity in Learning (Make2Learn), 18, pp. 31-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2016.08.007
Chu, S., Quek, F., Bhangaonkar, S., Ging, A. B. and Sridharamurthy, K. (2015). Making the Maker: Nurturing the Maker Mindset. In the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction: Special Issue on Digital Fabrication in Education, 5, pp 11-19. doi:10.1016/j.ijcci.2015.08.002
Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2015). Beyond ‘Apps’ on Tablets: Making Sense of Learning within Technology Ecologies. The Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education. Human-Computer Interaction Series, pp. 173 - 192. Springer.
Chung, H., Self, J., North, C., Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2013). VisPorter: Facilitating Information Sharing for Collaborative Sensemaking on Multiple Displays. In Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing: Theme Issue on Designing Collaborative Interactive Spaces, pp. 1-18.

Workshop Proceedings

Quek, F. and Chu, S. (2017). Micro-Manufacture: At the Intersection of Making and Manufacturing. In Proceedings of Workshop on Open Design at the Intersection of Making and Manufacture. CHI 2017. Denver, CO: ACM.
Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2013). An Enactment-Based Approach to Creativity Support. In Proceedings of Workshop on Interactive Technologies that Enhance Children’s Creativity at Interaction Design & Children '13. New York City: NY.
Chu, S. and Quek, F. (2013). MAIA: A Methodology for Assessing Imagination in Action. Presented at the CHI 2013 Workshop on Evaluation Methods for Creativity Support Environments, Paris, France: ACM. 3 Quek, F. and Chu, S. Thinking with objectified digital entities. In Proceedings of CHI 2012 Workshop on Digital materiality. Austin, TX: ACM.
Sawyer, B., Quek, F., Wong, W., Motani, M., Chu Yew Yee, S. and Perez-Quinones, M., Martin, T., Burbey, T. and McNair, L. "Information Re-finding Through Physical-Social Contexts". Workshop on Personal Information Management (PIM) 2012 at ACM Conference for Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW).
Chu Yew Yee, S. L., Duh, H. B. L., Billinghurst, M., Quek, F. and Chen, V. H. H. Current progress in interaction design for seniors. CHI 2010 Workshop on Senior-friendly technologies: Interaction design for the elderly.

Paper Abstracts

Chu, S. L. (2016). Technology-based Making as a Medium for Children’s Development. Presented at the Special Topic Meeting of the Society for Research in Children’s Development (SRCD): Technology and Media in Children’s Development. October 27-30. University of California, Irvine, CA.
Bhangaonkar, S., Chu, S. L. and Quek, F. (2016). Thinking in Stories: Narrative-based Design for Higher-Level Thinking. In Proceedings of Conference on Human Factors in Computing systems (CHI EA ’16) Late-Breaking Work. San Diego, CA. ACM.
Saenz, M., Strunk, J., Chu, S. L. and Seo, H. (2015). Touch Wire: Interactive Tangible Electricity Game For Kids. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI '15) Work-in-Progress. Stanford University, CA. ACM.
Chu, S. (2013). Nurturing Children's Creative Practice in Storytelling through Micro-Enactments. Doctoral Consortium at INTERACT '13. Cape Town: South Africa.
Chu, S. (2013). Nurturing Children's Creative Practice in Storytelling through Micro-Enactments. Graduate Student Symposium at Creativity & Cognition '13. Sydney: Australia.
Chu, S. (2013). Nurturing Children's Creative Practice through Micro-Enactments. In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing System EA, (CHI Doctoral Consortium). Paris, France: ACM.
Chu Yew Yee, S. L., Gu, Y. X., Duh, H. B. L. (2010). A Narrative Approach for Game Design with Children. IEEE Learning Technology Newsletter (Special Issue on Game-Based Learning), 12(1).

[Paper]

Full-Text

SHARON LYNN CHU
Lab Director
Assistant Professor
Department of Visualization
Langford A128
sharilyn@tamu.edu
979.458.1330

STUDENTS

BETH NAM

PhD student

namieux@tamu.edu

BRITTANY GARCIA

PhD student

brinni@tamu.edu

NISHANT BARMA

MS Student

nishant.barma@tamu.edu

ZHENYA KOLPAKOVA

MS Student

spartak@tamu.edu

HANNAH PARK

PhD Student

hnpark@tamu.edu

Personal Website
ELVA ANEL TREVINO

Undergraduate student

etrevino96@tamu.edu

MOMORE ADESAMI

Undergraduate student

momore.adesanmi@tamu.edu

STEPHEN SPENCER

Undergraduate student

stevegar@tamu.edu

Personal Website

ALUMNI

Kate Sackreiter

Eva Hengtaweesub

Sourabh Bhangaonkar

Kumar Sridharamurthy

Colin Banigan

Zaid Ibrahim

Taylor Quance

JOIN OUR LAB

If you are a Student
...and interested to work on research projects in the StoryLab, please contact Dr. Sharon Lynn Chu at sharilyn@tamu.edu with the subject line: 'Joining the StoryLab:'. We welcome students from any department, as long as you are interested and willing to engage in interdisciplinary research.
If you are a Parent
...and interested to be informed about research studies involving children, or would like your child to participate in our studies, please email tamustorylab@gmail.com with the subject line: 'Study participation:'
For any other enquiries
Please send an email to tamustorylab@gmail.com