Robots in K-12 Education

Demo, G. Barbara; Moro, Michele; Pina, Alfredo; Arlegui, Javier

doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-0182-6

Cited by 29 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In previous projects using earlier versions of the curriculum, 17 Overall, the curriculum has worked best in the informal environments. This may be attributed to the amount of time spent on the curriculum during intensive summer camp experiences whereas there is a great range of class time devoted to the curriculum in the formal environment.…”

Section: Discussion and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming a Middle and High School Robotics Curriculum

McKay¹,

Lowes²,

Tirthali³

et al.

2013 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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She has led several national and statewide K-14 teacher professional development and curriculum development programs in STEM education. McKay is co-PI and Project Director for the NSF-funded Build IT Scale Up project to develop and disseminate an innovative underwater robotics curriculum for middle and high school students. She is a former practicing engineer with high school science and mathematics teaching experience.

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Section: Discussion and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming a Middle and High School Robotics Curriculum

McKay¹,

Lowes²,

Tirthali³

et al.

2013 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In research on previous projects using earlier versions of the curriculum, 62 teacher content knowledge and confidence in teaching the content area were shown to be significant factors in explaining the variance in student post-test scores. That was not the case in this analysis, which indicated that teacher/educator knowledge of the topic was not correlated with student post-test scores for any topic except programming.…”

Section: Discussion Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Robotics offers an exciting and engaging context for students to learn science and engineering concepts and skills, 33,34,35,36,37,38,39 as well as an educational strategy to increase students' excitement and motivation for STEM areas. 40,41,42,43,44,45 It also offers students an opportunity to practice 21st century skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity and innovation. 46,47,48,49,50 Robotics has been demonstrated as an effective vehicle to teach STEM concepts at many levels.…”

Section: Instructional Design Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…40,41,42,43,44,45 It also offers students an opportunity to practice 21st century skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity and innovation. 46,47,48,49,50 Robotics has been demonstrated as an effective vehicle to teach STEM concepts at many levels. The theoretical foundation for using robotics in education has been put forth by Jonassen, 51 who described cognitive tools or "mindtools" that can enhance the learning process.…”

Section: Instructional Design Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Student Learning of STEM Concepts Using a Challenge-based Robotics Curriculum

McKay¹,

Lowes²,

Tirthali³

et al.

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings

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This paper examines pre-and post-student learning of science, programming, and engineering concepts using a tightly integrated robotics curriculum that challenges student teams to design, build, program, test, and redesign robots as part of a series of increasingly sophisticated design challenges. Data from over 750 middle school and high school youth from both in-school and out-of-school environments during the third year of implementation of a national scale-up project indicate that student post-test scores for the science and programming concept areas increased, but only to just above 50 percent of the total possible scores. Although a large majority of students found the curriculum highly enjoyable and felt they had learned, and teachers agreed, the degree of learning was not reflected in the assessment scores. Furthermore, although educators felt that the curriculum had helped their students learn engineering design through hands-on activities, student results did not show increases in learning of the Engineering Design Process. This suggests that more explicit instruction in science and programming content and the engineering design process may be required for deeper learning.

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Increasing gender diversity in engineering using soft robotics

Jackson

Mentzer

Kramer‐Bottiglio

2021

J of Engineering Edu

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Background There is a well‐known gender disparity in the engineering field. Three of the most important factors related to the participation of women in engineering are differences in perceived societal relevance, technical self‐efficacy, and tinkering self‐efficacy. Purpose/Hypothesis Soft robotics is a relatively new engineering application with the potential to address these three factors. We investigated whether participation in a soft robotics design experience would improve students'—especially girls'—perceptions of engineering in contrast to a traditional, rigid robotics experience. Design/Method Soft robotics curriculum materials were developed for high‐school engineering classes using design‐based research. Seven teachers delivered soft and rigid robotics lessons; then 293 students reported their perceptions of motivation, interest, and self‐efficacy following the lessons and retrospectively. We examined the relationship between gender and lesson type and differences in perceptions of engineering over time. Results The soft and rigid robotics experiences promoted engineering interest and general, experimental, tinkering, and design self‐efficacy. Girls' perceptions of tinkering self‐efficacy particularly benefitted from the soft robotics lesson, mitigating gender differences. A robustness check compared the outcomes of different statistical models and verified the stability of the findings. Conclusions Soft robot design experiences emphasize materiality and iterative design, which contribute to enhanced tinkering self‐efficacy. The use of soft robotics in education represents a promising opportunity to integrate authentic engineering experiences, broaden perceptions of engineering, and support the development of future engineers.

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Robots in K-12 Education

Cited by 29 publications

References 6 publications

Transforming a Middle and High School Robotics Curriculum

Transforming a Middle and High School Robotics Curriculum

Student Learning of STEM Concepts Using a Challenge-based Robotics Curriculum

Increasing gender diversity in engineering using soft robotics

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