A case of Learning through robotics community in a school

2019

This research explores the impact of educational robotics on children aged 9-15. The research was conducted after a training robotics seminar and, as evidenced by its results, the learners were thrilled by the content of the program, although they initially mistrust the program because of relative ignorance. However, they seemed happy that they met new friends and worked with them without any particular difficulty. The use of computer as well as the programming did not present any difficulty. The research concluded that older children were more familiar with concepts that are directly related to programming, obviously because they are every day involved with technology and less with robotics. Of course, with regard to the construction of various vehicles, the trainees showed their impatience and inventiveness for this and were extremely effective. It is therefore obvious that through educational robotics, children can learn to cooperate more effectively with each other and that the teaching of basic principles of computer science, mathematics, geometry, physics, mechanics, and in general mechatronics, can escape the narrow limits of conventional teaching and to take the form of a game.

Makers at School, Educational Robotics and Innovative Learning Environments

Many attempts have been made to introduce robotics into curricular activities, although these have largely been occasional and discontinuous experiences. These experiments are often organized to teach specific know-how, enormously devaluating the technology’s potential. Furthermore, they might be placed in the hands of experts who are not on the school’s staff, and who conduct the entire project mostly without the involvement of teachers. Our research project is directed at lower secondary schools. Our aim is to try to move past the dictates of “teaching robotics” towards the less controversial vision of “teaching with robotics”. Following the lead of Datteri and Zecca (Metodi e tecnologie per l’uso educativo e didattico dei robot. Mondo digitale 75, editorial (2018)) we propose robots as a mediation instrument for normal learning and for transversal competencies in the school setting. The proposed research is a three-year program within the host school’s normal curricular subjects ...

International Journal of Research in E-learning, 2020

This article analyses various aspects of using robotics in education and examines the level of preparation and motivation of children and pupils. The authors carry out a comprehensive review of research and scientific publications regarding technological, didactical, methodological, and human aspects of using robotics in education. The article presents a report on a survey on pupils’ opinion on robotics in education, which was conducted during the third Silesian Science Festival, and discusses the exhibition stand presenting innovative digital technologies and methods in education and business as well as Photon robots.

International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 2011

This paper describes a study carried out with K-12 students. This study is focused on understanding the motivation of these students on the use of robots in the Project Area curricular unit and to understand whether they want to continue their studies in technology areas. K-12 students participated in the RoboParty® event, where the main task is to assemble and program a robot. In other words, the students, in a simple and entertaining way and guided by qualified tutors, learned how to build a robot. At the end of the academic year, a questionnaire was applied to identify and evaluate the K-12 students' opinions regarding the experience. The students’ reaction to this experience as well to the direct contact with the university environment was quite positive.

EDULEARN proceedings, 2017

With the objective of describing an investigation involving basic education and activities with Educational Robotics with Tools (Free Pedagogical Robotics) in public schools of Recife, this article focuses on the construction of robotic artifacts, their integration and contextualization with knowledge and school knowledge at the level of initial years of Basic Education. In this experiment, we involved fifty 4th and 5th graders students, aged between 9 and 10 years, trying to identify the level of transposition of the knowledge developed in the curricular subjects to solve the challenges proposed in the educational robotics workshops during the process of context, idealization, design, construction, programming and socialization of robotic artifacts relevant to children's imagination and integrated into the educational Brazilian curriculum.

The present work describes the experience of teaching robotics for children at secondary school level. A set of exercises was designed and evaluated. The exercises were designed for teaching robotic systems, basic programming and control concepts, and the tasks included learning important mathematical and physical science definitions. The proposed robotics exercises were introduced to the curriculum of the London School of Mathematics and Programming and preliminary teaching and learning outcomes showed that the majority of the proposed robotics exercises were attractive to children independently of the tasks' difficulty.

2018

Since the acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) was firstly introduced by the US National Science Foundation to bring technology and engineering into regular K-12 curriculum, Robotics has proven itself to be the sum of STEM disciplines. This paper presents an extra-curricular experience held in a formal environment with the aim to foster culture on technology and, in particular, on smart cities. Final assessment strategies included questionnaires and crossword puzzles to evaluate students’ perception of activities and the knowledge they acquired. Data were processed and compared with the objectives of the project: increasing interest in learning school’s subjects, stimulating students to work in team and transforming students’ attitude towards ICT. Results showed that robotics engagingly teach traditional concepts while applying them to compelling real-world problems. Authors hope that this reported experience may give a useful contribution in favor of the int...

Advances in early childhood and K-12 education, 2012

—This paper describes a study carried out with K-12 students. This study is focused on understanding the motivation of these students on the use of robots in the Project Area curricular unit and to understand whether they want to continue their studies in technology areas. K-12 students participated in the RoboParty® event, where the main task is to assemble and program a robot. In other words, the students, in a simple and entertaining way and guided by qualified tutors, learned how to build a robot. At the end of the academic year, a questionnaire was applied to identify and evaluate the K-12 students' opinions regarding the experience. The students' reaction to this experience as well to the direct contact with the university environment was quite positive.

This paper describes, taking a PhD thesis defended in 2011, some results about the integration of robotics as a technological resource in the curriculum of a private school in Brazil. It's emphasized the pedagogical and didactical aspects and brings a discussion about teaching science and the perspective of using robotics and the relation between curriculum, science and technologies. The results indicate the integration of robotics as a technological resource in basics education in Brazil has complex aspects, such as relation between time/space, the preparation of the educators and the relation between robotics and other subjects. Therefore, the comprehension of these aspects could indicate some steps that we should think when integrate robotics into curriculum, that the technology is not going to keep the prescribed curriculum hegemony, but amplified the perspectives of education for science and technology significant and motivated for students.