Because of its hands-on and integrative approach to STEM, educational robotics has become increasingly popular in recent years. Yet, a gender gap still exists in attitudes towards STEM studies and careers, especially among middle and high school students, potentially resulting in a lack of women in the STEM workforce. This study explores the effect of a robotics curriculum on Dutch 7th- and 8th-grade students’ attitude towards STEM subjects and careers, as assessed by the S-STEM survey. The results revealed no difference between the pre-test and post-test in attitudes toward STEM for both boys and girls. However, boys scored significantly higher than girls on attitude towards technology, engineering and future STEM studies on the post-test. A post hoc analysis revealed a significant difference between boys and girls on their attitude towards engineering and technology during the pre-test. These results demonstrate the difference between boys and girls in their attitudes towards STEM subjects and careers within the context of robotics education. Considering the lack of research on educational robotics among young teenagers, this field needs to be further studied to assess its effect on gender differences within attitudes towards STEM.

Due to technological advancements, robotics is findings its way into the classroom. However, workload for teachers is high, and teachers sometimes lack the knowledge to implement robotics education. A key factor of robotics education is peer learning, and having students (near-)peers teach them robotics could diminish workload. Therefore, this study implemented near-peer teaching in robotics education. 4 K10-11 secondary school students were teachers to 83 K5-6 primary school students. The intervention included 4 3-hour robotics lessons in Dutch schools. Primary school students completed a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire on their STEM-attitudes and near-peer teaching experience, and a report on their learning outcomes. Interaction with near-peer teachers was observed. After the lessons, a paired-samples t-test showed that students had a more positive attitude towards engineering and technology. Students also reported a positive near-peer teaching experience. Conventional content analysis showed that students experienced a gain in programming and robotics skill after the lessons, and increased conceptual understanding of robotics. The role the near peer teachers most frequently fulfilled was formative assessor. Near-peer teachers could successfully fulfil a role as an engaging information provider. This study shows that near-peer teachers can effectively teach robotics, diminishing workload for teachers. Furthermore, near-peer robotics lessons could lead to increased STEM-attitudes.

Computational thinking is a popular student skill on a steep rise today. Nevertheless, the assessment of this skill is a matter of contention. This pilot study examines whether computational and logical thinking are related. Therefore, we investigated the effect of a robotics course concerning logical thinking and computational thinking on 14-year-old Dutch students. Thirty-five students were pre-tested to assess their logical thinking and post-tested for their logical thinking and their computational thinking. The intervention group (N = 11) followed a robotics course between the pre- and post-test. This study's results show a significant positive correlation between computational and logical thinking. This study, with small sample size, does not show the effect of the robotics course on either logical or computational thinking.