Manipulation is one of the most important tasks required in virtual environments and thus it has been thoroughly studied for widespread input devices such as mice or multi-touch screens. Nowadays, the Kinect sensor has turned mid-air interaction into another affordable and popular way of interacting. Mid-air interaction enables the possibility of interacting remotely without any physical contact and in a more natural manner. Nonetheless, although some scattered manipulation techniques have been proposed for mid-air interaction, there is a lack of evaluations and comparisons that hinders the selection and development of these techniques. To solve this issue, we gathered four design choices that can be used to classify mid-air manipulation techniques. Namely, choices are based on the required number of hands, separation of translation-rotation, decomposition of rotation, and interaction metaphors. Furthermore, we developed, adapted, and compared three manipulation techniques selected for studying the implications of the design choices. These implications are useful to select among already existing techniques as well as to inform technique developers.

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In this chapter, the authors describe an inquiry-based science education (IBSE) theoretical framework as it was applied to robotics activities carried out in European K-12 classrooms during the last six years. Interactions between IBSE, problem-based learning, constructivist/constructionist learning theories, and technology are discussed. Example activities demonstrate that educational robotics capitalizes on the digital curiosity of young people. This leads to concrete experiences in STEM content areas and spreads computational thinking to all school types and levels. Cooperation among different stakeholders (students, teachers, scientific and disseminating institutions, families) is emphasized in order to exploit in and out of the classroom school resources, competencies, and achievements and for implementing peer-to-peer education among students and teachers in the same class/school or from different schools.

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