Case Study:
The Spread Your Wings Club
AI-Integrated, Interactive SEL Webseries for Preschoolers
Project Snapshot:
The Spread Your Wings Club (TSYWC) is an interactive, AI-integrated, web-based learning experience designed for preschool children (ages 3–6) to support social-emotional learning (SEL) around separation and independence (S&I).
It serves as a companion piece to Kiwi Island, a CG-animated, SEL-focused preschool series currently under development by CAKE, Kickstart Media, and Cloud9World.
Blending evidence-based SEL instruction with engaging narrative media, this project emerged from conversations with the Executive Producer of Kiwi Island. I developed it as my capstone for Dr. Tina Grotzer’s “Research-Based Instructional Design: Applied Cognitive and Learning Sciences” course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
My Role:
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Instructional/Learning Experience Designer
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Script Writer & Conversation Designer
Context:
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Companion web series with AI-integrated interactivity for Kiwi Island, a CG-animated SEL show for preschoolers.
Audience:
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Children ages 3-6, primarily in English-speaking homes
Format:
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Short, interactive webisodes with light AI-enabled dialogue
Topic:
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Helping young children navigate separation and independence (S&I)
Outputs:
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Written Report
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25 pages, detailing the project's topic rationale, target learners, understanding goals, learning challenges, assessment plans, and research that informed prototype design decision
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Prototype
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Scripts for 3 webisodes (5-7 minutes each) and additional interactive scenes, aligned to learning goals
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UX wireframes of the larger digital experience
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Conversation trees for interactive portions
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Meet the Characters:
Problem Statement
Many young children struggle with the emotional complexities of separation (from caregivers, peers, or familiar environments and routines) and the process of developing independence. The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing societal changes have only heightened these challenges, especially for children from marginalized or vulnerable backgrounds. The TSYWC project sought to address this gap by creating a scalable, media-rich learning experience that models healthy emotional regulation and metacognition, while being accessible and engaging for diverse learners. It also needed to live within and extend the Kiwi Island universe—its characters, settings, and brand.
Research, Discovery, and Generative Question
Like any good instructional design, I began by developing an understanding of my learners’ characteristics, contexts, and unique learning challenges. I reviewed literature on SEL, S&I, media-based learning, and transfer of learning in early childhood. I also drew on research on Social Learning Theory and modeling, metacognition, and the unique needs of children from nondominant groups. While I did not conduct original user interviews due to project constraints, I relied on published studies and best practices to shape my understanding of the audience. I paid particular attention to the risks of generic design and the need for both personal relevance and abstraction to support transfer.
From this discovery process, I landed on the Generative Question for young learners that would guide my project design:
What big or strong feelings do we get when we’re by ourselves, or somewhere new, or when someone we love goes away? What should we do when we feel these feelings?
Design Process
Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd edition). ASCD.
I followed a backward design process for this project, starting with clear understanding goals rooted in SEL competencies. I organized these into four buckets, and wrote each in language aimed toward adults and children, respectively—a helpful exercise for keeping my 3-6 year old learners always in mind.
Understanding Goals
From this point, the design process proceeded iteratively, as I began to map out performance tasks and learning activities, and transformed the Understanding Goals into instructional narratives starring Kiwi Island’s colorful denizens.
Each narrative was aligned with specific Understanding Goals and designed using evidence-based, developmentally appropriate practices. For example:
- Consistent, routine episode structure
- Linear temporality, without time jumps
- Elements to encourage limited screentime
- Elements to encourage parental co-viewing and modeling
Webisode Loglines & Goals Alignment
AI Integration
A key influence on this project was my work as a Research Assistant in Dr. Ying Xu’s Learning Media Lab on the Converse 2 Learn project, where researchers from Harvard and UC Irvine partnered with PBS KIDS to study interactive STEM episodes powered by conversational AI. That work showed how contingent interaction with an AI-powered character can deepen engagement and learning.
As I developed TSYWC, I explored whether a similar model could work for teaching SEL. I ultimately chose a fairly constrained approach. Rather than using fully generative agents, TSYWC uses AI only in targeted moments to support active processing, scaffold understanding, and enable lightweight formative assessment. Learner responses are categorized through natural language processing and routed to a limited set of prewritten video replies.
This was a deliberate UX decision. I wanted to introduce responsiveness without sacrificing safety, clarity, or instructional control. For more open-ended reflection and transfer prompts, TSYWC uses a pseudo-interactive approach, prioritizing predictability and age-appropriate scaffolding over maximum personalization.
Interactivity As Scaffolding I designed interactivity in this project as scaffolding, not novelty. Prompts from Chill ask learners to identify feelings, reflect on strategies, or respond in ways that support active processing. In other words, interaction is used to deepen comprehension and reflection, rather than simply make the experience feel more “tech-enabled.”
Cognitive Load/Familiar Schema Many of the environmental and structural choices in this project were made to reduce cognitive load for preschool learners. The Clubhouse combines familiar features from school, home, and play so that the setting feels immediately legible. The repeated episode structure, welcome routine, and recap moments also help learners know what to expect, which frees up attention for the more challenging emotional and reflective work.
The Clubhouse The Clubhouse serves as both a narrative setting and an instructional scaffold. I designed it as a stable “home base” where learners are welcomed, introduced to the characters, choose stories, and return for recap and reflection. This structure supports immersion while also reducing cognitive load: the environment draws on familiar schemas from preschool classrooms, home spaces, and play environments, helping young learners orient quickly and focus on the emotional content of each episode. The recurring “Share and Tell” format also builds repetition into the experience, which helps reinforce key ideas and sustain attention.
Metacognition Metacognition is one of the core learning principles behind this project. More than simply recognizing emotions, I wanted children to begin reflecting on their internal states, noticing how feelings shift, and considering what strategies help. Because young children often cannot reflect easily in the middle of intense emotion, I built metacognitive pauses into the structure of the experience itself. Through “Share and Tell,” Chill’s interruptions, and character dialogue, learners are repeatedly invited to step back, revisit emotional moments, and make sense of them. This design reflects the idea that metacognition can be taught, and that even early learners can begin developing these habits when they are carefully modeled and scaffolded.
Analogy Analogy plays a particularly important role in helping learners grasp abstract social-emotional ideas. In "Zoinks Flies Solo," I used multiple visual analogies, including a school of fish, a branching road, and a river that splits and rejoins, to help children understand that independence does not have to mean disconnection. I chose multiple analogical models for the same concept because research suggests this can help learners notice deeper shared structures rather than fixate on surface features. I also introduced the analogies carefully and unpacked them through dialogue so they would function as scaffolds rather than distractions.
Transfer Transfer was one of the central design challenges in this project. Social-emotional skills matter only if learners can apply them beyond a single story or screen-based interaction. To support transfer, I repeated core Understanding Goals across multiple webisodes, embedded reflection prompts at the end of each narrative, and used everyday situations that preschoolers are likely to encounter, such as separating from a caregiver, navigating bedtime, or wanting to act independently from peers. At the same time, I intentionally used some abstraction in the characters and setting so the lessons would not become too tied to one specific context. This was a deliberate trade-off: less sociocultural specificity in exchange for broader near transfer across familiar childhood situations.
Final Report & Prototype
The final prototype for this project included written screenplays for three 5- to 7-minute, animated webisodes, each tackling a common S&I scenario (e.g., saying goodbye at the start of the day, wanting to do something independently, navigating bedtime). The Kiwis—colorful, relatable characters representing different core emotions—model metacognitive strategies and emotional regulation. Each episode uses techniques like analogy and narrative abstraction to help children generalize lessons to new contexts.
The prototype also included dialogue trees and conversation scripts for all interactive elements and prompts, designed to further support engagement, parental co-viewing, and learning transfer.
In addition, I produced a written report detailing my research and design decisions.
Outcomes, Impact, & Reflection
While the prototype has not yet been tested with real users, it is grounded in research on what works in SEL media for young children. The design intentionally balances concrete, relatable scenarios with opportunities for abstraction and transfer. I anticipate that, with further development and user testing, TSYWC could help children build foundational SEL skills that transfer to a wide range of real-life situations. I also recognize the need for greater cultural specificity and inclusion in future iterations.
This project challenged me to navigate the tensions between abstraction and personal relevance, between creative storytelling and instructional rigor. I learned the value of backward design, the power of modeling, and the importance of equity-focused reflection—especially in designing for diverse learners. If I were to continue this work, I would prioritize deeper engagement with families and children from a broader range of backgrounds, and explore ways to make the stories even more culturally responsive and engaging.