Task: Develop world exploration questioning mechanics
Develop world exploration questioning mechanics
Design a universal questioning mechanic that helps explore objects and phenomena across different domains and complexity levels.
Context
We need to develop a new mechanic for the "Uchitsya - Legko!" platform: questions as tools for exploring the world, rather than as testing or checking for a correct answer.
Related concept:
Universal questions as tools for exploring the world
The concept outlines the core set of questions and their purpose.
Main Idea
The same small set of questions can be applied to very different objects:
- animals;
- plants;
- household items;
- devices;
- substances;
- natural phenomena;
- mathematical objects;
- programs;
- ideas;
- historical events.
The object and the depth of the answer change, but the cognitive operations themselves can remain the same.
Basic directions:
- Identification β what is it?
- Structure β what is it made of?
- Function β what is it for?
- Mechanism β how does it work?
- Cause β why is this so?
- Change β what happens / what will happen if conditions change?
- Connections β what is it similar to, how is it different, what is it connected to?
Higher-order questions are also important:
- what do I already know about this;
- what am I missing to understand this;
- how to test this;
- can it be done differently;
- what is the general principle here.
What Needs to Be Developed
- determine the minimal core of questions that is truly universal;
- separate basic questions from more complex meta-questions;
- understand which questions are suitable for different levels of complexity and age groups;
- determine how the same question should change the depth of the answer depending on the object and the user;
- test the applicability of questions to different domains: biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, language, programming, philosophy, etc.;
- identify questions that are particularly effective at revealing transitions between domains;
- determine which questions form knowledge transfer and which mostly provide local knowledge;
- figure out how a question can lead to the next object, the next level, or another field of knowledge;
- determine how to use questions for independent research rather than turning the mechanic into an ordinary quiz;
- develop criteria to determine whether a specific question actually teaches a method of investigation rather than simply requiring the recall of an answer;
- determine what types of answers different questions can have: a short explanation, an example, a comparison, an experiment, a visual demonstration, an action, etc.;
- separately explore the questions "What if...?" and "How to test this?" as a potential basis for experimental learning;
- check whether this mechanic can be used as a common platform layer across multiple subjects and complexity levels.
Limitation
At this stage, it is not necessary to finalize the specific UI or final implementation. First, we need to understand the structure of the mechanic itself, its boundaries, and its universality.