Impact of learning experiences using LEGO Mindstorms® in engineering courses

Abstract

It is well known by the educational community that active learning has a greater impact on the effectiveness of the learning process than other methods. It has long been recognized that the most effective learning techniques involve direct, purposeful learning experiences, such as hands-on or field experiences. In particular, computer-controlled models have been a useful aid in teaching programming, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics concepts. This paper describes our experience using LEGO Mindstorms® in three different scenarios: an elementary course on Programming, an advanced-level course on Artificial Intelligence and a third first-level course on Robotics. Our focus in those experiments is not on whether using LEGO kits is better than other methods to learn a programming language, AI algorithms or Robotics, but rather on introducing how this mixture of collaboration, competition and peer learning in a laboratory environment helps the students to increase their motivation and improve their professional skills such as problem solving, team work and leadership.

Inspiring next generation of engineers through service-learning robotics outreach and mentorship programme

“…The activities of these outreaches provide appropriate context for hands-on learning and teaching, and also provides opportunities for the synthesis of both technical 'hard' and people 'soft' skills, since the students are required to communicate and demonstrate technical concepts within the dynamics of a team in a real-life and authentic performance situation. 7 The idea of using university engineering students as mentors and coaches of robotics club is not new. Karp et al 8,9 reported similar approaches in engaging elementary school students to high school students in engineering and also enriching the educational experience of engineering undergraduate thereby improving the retention rates of electrical and computer engineering students.…”

Evaluating the Role of Collaboration Scripts as Group Guiding Tools in Activities of Educational Robotics: Conclusions from Three Case Studies

“…(b) Some of these studies report student roles that are assigned to peers during the activity, such as "programmer', 'constructor', 'researcher', 'Team Manager; (e.g. [3], [17]). (c) Still fewer studies report shifting the roles among peers during the activity [16].…”

A Framework for Learning Programming Using TQM

“…Versatile, simple and motivating potential makes LEGO kits a powerful help in a variety of learning scenarios. According to [37], students sometimes have certain difficulties to reinforce those basic concepts and also cannot focus the entire course contents because of didactic approach. Previous research [38][39] found several factors that often present challenges to collocated pair programming are limited facilities, geographic separation, and scheduling.…”