PAPER
AN EARLY START IN ROBOTICS – K-12 CASE-STUDY
An Early Start in Robotics – K-12 Case-Study
doi:10.3991/ijep.v1i1.1611
F. Soares1, C. P. Leão1, S. Santos2, F. Ribeiro1and G. Lopes1
1 University
2 Basic
of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal
School of Castêlo da Maia, Maia, Portugal
Abstract—This paper describes a study carried out with K12 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.
Index Terms—K-12;partnership;questionnaires; robotics.
I.
INTRODUCTION
An innovative teaching/learning experience was tested
in Castêlo da Maia Basic School (CMBS), Portugal, with
students from the 6th grade, running through a partnership
with School of Engineering of University of Minho
(SEUM).
The topic "Robotics" is discussed and developed by a
group of students aged between 11 and 12 years, within
the official school system. This simple fact is itself a curious and unusual element that makes the project unique.
When considering the project results and the social impact
arising from both school responsible and the community,
we are more committed to the idea of novelty. The approach of robotics in education, in this case, yet so far
away from specific areas learned at university, opens a
new precedent and raises several questions, which identified, should not pass without an analysis. The main idea is
not to be ambitious to the point of validating the issue of
robotics in the process of teaching and learning at the
second cycle of basic education. However, the relevance
of teaching robotics and their importance, in pedagogical
terms, regarding the results, must be considered.
To justify and demonstrate the relevance and significance of pedagogic approach of robotics in education is
therefore our basic question. In order to describe the work
developed by a group of elementary school and university
teachers, this article is divided in seven sections. After a
overview of the main issue of this project, in Section, a
brief review on teaching/learning experiences among K12 students in the robotics topic is presented. In the followings sections (3 to 5) the project, the class and the
RoboParty® event at University are presented and described. The questionnaire and the corresponding statistical analysis is discussed in section 6, ending with the
conclusions of this work.
50
II. TEACHING/LEARNING EXPERIENCES
Some K-12 collaborative works have been running in
different graduation courses [1-2]. Nevertheless, it is authors’ believe that similar projects in the topic “Robotics”,
at least in the age group concerned, are not being developed in Portuguese schools.
The approach of Robotics as a subject of study in the
Portuguese basic education is in this circumstance, a novelty. Thus, the lack of work already undertaken in this
context prevents us to perform a comparative study. The
question is to find references and scientific support to the
link between eleven and twelve year’s old children and
their relationship to the object "Robot". Following this
trend, the idea is to present studies showing the importance of the robot in the imaginary plane, in order to understand the role and to what extent will go the influence
of robotics on the young students. What is the impact of
the contact to the robot as a virtual pet or toy or amusing
book hero or electronic game action at the level of the
primary motivations and thus understand what was behind
the decisions taken by the students during the project
development.
While any abstract object decreases the emotional effect
on the individual, the robot is perceived as an abstract
object as if it were a living being. This relationship is very
inquisitive and has already therapeutic applications such
as project Kaspar, a robot that helps autistic children [3],
and other studies that use Lego robots to promote the
communication with adolescents with autism and mental
impairments [4]. The relationship Robot/Child contributes
to improvements in social behavior and communication.
The study on the relationship between robots and preteens as a way of learning course content is developed by
Antonio Barros and Flávia Jr [5]. In their study, they show
optimistic results regarding the use of robotics as a further
element of didactic teaching. The theme of the robot as a
catalyst in the process of teaching and learning is further
deepened by Daniel Schwartz and Sandra Okita [6] that
expose how children understand the concept and role of
memos robot learning.
III. THE PROJECT
Before developing the approach made to the subject
Robotics, it must be clarified how this approach arises in
the specific context of basic education, given that the
curriculum of the various disciplines does not address or
even remotely close to the theme "Robotics". The introduction to the subject was included in the curriculum of
Project Area discipline. According to Law No. 6 / 2001 of
18th January, Project Area discipline is aimed to improving the quality of teaching in particular, to design, implement and develop interdisciplinary projects. In this con-
http://www.i-jep.org
PAPER
AN EARLY START IN ROBOTICS – K-12 CASE-STUDY
text, the lack of book manuals or specific curriculum provides teachers and students an extraordinary freedom of
action. Throughout this one year project, students develop
their project on Robotics with the assistance and support
of teachers, from school and university, and parents.
The class was divided in nine groups. The project
started with a two-hour seminar organized and moderated
by students and performed by a teacher from the university with an exhibition of different types of robots. Then,
each group defined a particular topic: Robotics at Home
andat Space, Robotics in Medicine and in Industry, Sensors, Nano-robotics, Programming Robots, Telecommunications and Robotic Toys.
Group work was carried out not only in the classroom
and in the library with the support of many teachers but
also at home with support from parents.Teachers in charge
of the Project Area discipline planned and provided the
conditions to meet the resource needs required to achieve
project goals.
A. Skills
Project Area teachers selected the following skills to be
developed within the teaching/learning process:
Developing Social Skills (communication, teamwork,
conflict management, decision making, evaluation
...);
Learning by doing;
Connecting theory to practice;
Promoting the multiple capabilities of the student;
Learning to solve problems, based on existing resources and situations;
Developing research and intervention skills, promoting the articulation of different disciplinary knowledge;
Developing written expression, oral, technological
and artistic skills;
Developing skills for selecting and processing information;
Developing curiosity, initiative, persistence, responsibility and creativity;
Creating working methodologies by establishing
milestones and priorities.
Developing strategies for individual and group work;
Listening to others and make value judgments.
Increasing self-esteem and self-confidence;
Developing the skills of self-and peer assessment.
The correct choice of skills provided a solid and broad
base of work, which was fundamental to the directives of
the work performed.
B. Materials and Resources
For this project the school board provided a space for
storing materials. The fact that the project had a dedicated
space where students could develop and store all kind of
materials needed to perform the activity was very important, if not decisive, to the project development. The materials used were from various sources, among others:
school request, offer or gift, temporary loan.
Some of the employed materials (new or recycled) as
well as informatics means were:
iJEP – Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2011
Materials: stewardship materials, appliances, electrical
and electronic obsolete equipment, electric cables, printed
boards unusable, tin, soldering irons, obsolete computers,
newspapers, magazines.
Resources: network computer school and unlimited access to the internet, library and all the resources available
to media library, multimedia projector and interactive
whiteboard.
The close collaboration between school and family was
central to the implementation of this project.
C. Interdisciplinary
The Project Area is an interdisciplinary subject. It aims
to create a space of common thought among all disciplines. Sharing and benefiting from this cross implementation, all subjects taught in 6th grade, actively cooperated
trying to find specific content in their curricula that would
adapt in any way to the robot. By integrating robotics for
various contents was intended to fundamentally expand
the discussion of the topic and theme Robotics to diverse
areas of knowledge; every teacher could support the class
curriculum and keep students motivated and interested.
On the subject of robotics the following disciplinary articulation was implemented:
-Portuguese Language: in the understanding of the
meaning of new words by preparing the class for a whole
new scientific specific lexicon, in reading texts and writing papers. It stressed the importance of communication in
robotic systems, even if it is a communication between
human/machine.
-Foreign Language - English: translation and interpretation of content in English written papers or on Internet
sites by identification and interpretation of a whole new
English lexicon.
-History: A brief summary of the recent history of robotics and its role in the exploration of human imagination.
-Mathematics: Weights, measures, reference the importance of the mathematical domain in the apprehension of
future scientific knowledge, particularly in the discipline
of physics (highlighting the importance of applied mathematics and its role in science).
-Life Sciences: The use of robots in scientific exploration land (eg, robots or underwater volcanoes) and in
space exploration (eg shuttle robot arm). Reference to
robots and their interaction with the environment when the
approach of living beings and their interaction with the
environment.
-Visual and Technological Education: Collaborative
practice in carrying out project activities. Support and
implementation of all program content in building robots
and conducting the final exposure.Stressed the importance
of handicrafts as a primary form of getting work.Approach
to the concept of "Design" in robotics.
-Physical Education: Increase awareness of the importance of teamwork and inform about the existence of several championship robotics where robots created by teams
operated and perform activities such as soccer and other
sports. Enhancement of group work.Basics of human
locomotion, Hygiene and Safety, beats, rhythm.
- Music Education: To raise awareness of the influence
of the robot in the collective imagination of the letters
patent of a vast musical repertoire that marked the last
51
PAPER
AN EARLY START IN ROBOTICS – K-12 CASE-STUDY
decades of the twentieth century. Exhibition of musical
robots that react to sound stimuli triggering or multicolored lights creating movements to the music.Sound sensors.The dancing championships by Sony robots in Japan
The close interaction between music and robotics.
Interdisciplinary was from our point of view achieved,
and was formalized in the various meetings of the class
council. The results of this interactive content, was rated
excellent at the last meeting of the class council by all
representatives. It is not always easy to combine extra
disciplinary concepts in curricula as they have an extensive timetable. However, from the beginning there was
empathy to the subject. The uniqueness of the approach of
Robotics in the Project Area for a 6th year acted as an
active target involving all the teachers. When considering
involving students in a project or in an innovative idea, it
is also important that teachers must be motivated and feel
involved. In this particular case, we consider to be a success, given the results obtained.
D. Activities Planning
The project carries on during the school year divided in
three terms. The planned activities were divided as follows:
During the 1st Term (September 09 to December 09):
Identifying the scope of the problem: Robotics;
Identification of problems: creation of working
groups and sub-themes.
Planning of work: Defining the competencies of the
activities of the materials and schedule of work;
Fieldwork: Research information about the subtopics;
Organization of a colloquium on the theme of robotics held on December 3rd in the auditorium of EB 2,3
do Castêlo da Maia by Dr. Gil Lopes, from University of Minho, as guest speaker.
During 2nd Term (January 10 to March 10):
Treatment of data collecting and research;
Planning/organization and participation in the event
at University of Minho (Guimarães pole)
RoboParty®;
Integration of all activities in the Comenius Project
approved in the teaching;
Completion of written assignments;
Participation of various groups in the activity "Cradle
of Ideas”.
During 3rd Term (April 10 to June 10):
Development of a robot;
Perform a presentation on robotics;
Reflection on skills acquired;
Assessment of work: Self-and peer assessment.
IV. CLASS CHARACTERIZATION
The target groups consisted of a class of 28 students, 12
boys and 16 girls with a mean age of 11 years. Most of
them came together from preschool. This fact might have
encouraged the interaction in group work. All students
live with their families. Almost all of them have older
brothers and sisters, some finalists in high school. Their
parents are around the average age between 40-45
years.Most of the parents have a higher graduation course.
They support their children in studies at home. 26 out of
52
the 28 students aim to take a university course. It is worth
mention that this class is the one with more prizes of
Honor and Excellence in the previous school year.
The family support provided by parents is clearly a contribution to the choices and interests of students. The fact
of having older brothers and sisters in high educational
levels may also have influenced the attitudes of the class.
FORTNIGHT AT UNIVERSITY – ROBOPARTY®
EVENT
At Easter time, K-12 students spent a fortnight (from
Friday to Sunday) in SEUM, participating in RoboParty®
event (http://www.roboparty.org/en/).
Junior RoboCups and other robotic events in Europe
and in the rest of the World are based on competition
whereas the RoboParty® event is of a pedagogical type. In
other words, for robotic competitions youngsters take their
already built robot to the competition in order to participate in the event by competing for better rankings. In most
cases they were not the builders or programmers of their
own robots, just know how to turn it on/off. At
RoboParty® they learn how to build and program a specific robot during the whole event. Tests, fine tuning,
optimization and algorithm improvement is made when
they put their robots to test on group trials with no competition sentiment, just for the sake of getting to know their
robot better and to get the most out of it [7-9].
Fig. 1 shows the Roboparty environment. The idea is
that, by taking a hands-on approach to learning, K-12
students learned by doing rather than through lectures and
memorization. RoboParty® is an educational event that
gathers teams of four students, during 3 days/2 nights to
teach how to build autonomous mobile robots in a simple
and entertaining way, supported by qualified tutors.
Initially, a short course was given to teach the first steps
in electronics, robot programming and mechanical construction. Afterwards, a robotic kit developed by the company SAR (Soluções de Automação e Robótica,
www.sarobotica.pt/) and by Minho University was supplied to be assembled (Fig. 2) by the participants (mechanics, electronics and programming), belonging to the
team at the end of the event.
Fig.3 shows some of the robots assembled and decorated for participating in the dance competition.
Notice that, female and male K-12 students show a different behavior when asked about the course that, at the
moment, they would like to take (Fig. 8): engineering the
first choice for 87.5% and 43.5% for male and female
students, respectively, opposing to the choice of arts only
by the female students (43.5%).
It was interested to observe that the K-12 students that
mentioned that they would like to take an engineering
course, 61.5% mentioned that the most positive aspect of
the RoboParty® was to build the robot.
The tutors, University students, followed team's work
closely in all stages in order to assure that every robot
worked properly at the end.
In parallel, there were entertainment activities such as
sports, music, Internet, games, parties. Students stayed
overnight in the venue as in a non-stop LAN party with
educational and pedagogical aims. Rules of important
national and international robotic competitions were previously explained.
V.
http://www.i-jep.org
PAPER
AN EARLY START IN ROBOTICS – K-12 CASE-STUDY
Figure 1. Roboparty event
naire paper sheet during a period of around 5 to 10 minutes.
The questionnaire has four main parts: (1) student characterization (age and gender), (2) evaluation of the
RoboParty® participation (general opinion, expectations,
rating the experience, work done, among others), (3) University (information concerned to the students future area
of study), (4) Project Area theme (students’ importance,
difficulties, areas of interest). It was, essentially, composed by closed questions, still with some open questions
of spontaneous response. This choice took into account
not only the age of the respondents but also in order to
uniform and facilitate the analysis The statistical analysis
of the questionnaires was done using SPSS software (Version 17.0) [10].
A. K-12 students’ characterization
A group of 26 students responded to the challenge, with
an average around 11.38 years old (std. deviation of 0.5),
61.5% were female. It is important to state that for 81% of
the K-12 students it was the first time that they participated in this type of experience against 9.5% who participated in this initiative for the third time (2 K-12 students).
Figure 2. Soldering the components to build the robot
Figure 3. Roboparty event – some robots assembled
To perform all these activities, the help of a group of
undergraduate engineering students was very important.
They helped not only to take care of the K-12 students
during the fortnight period, but also and most important,
help in dissemination of concepts, skills and strategies
through robotics.
VI. K-12 STUDENTS' ATTITUDE EVALUATION
To better understand and analyze what motivated K-12
students to build and study robots, to participate in the
RoboParty® and how they see the university environment,
a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was
applied directly to the K-12 students at the end of the
academic year (June 2010).They were distributed to the
students and conducted in a traditional classroom where
each student wrote his/her answer directly in the question-
iJEP – Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2011
B. RoboParty® and Project activities K-12 students’
analysis results
In general, K-12 students are completely and very satisfied with the RoboParty® (86.4 and 13.6%, respectively).Similar behavior when asked if the RoboParty®
exceeded their expectations: 68.2% completely and 31.8%
very much.
In average, the K-12 female and male students show
similar behavior when asked to identify what they liked
most in the RoboParty® (p>0.05). This question was done
in accordance with a level of satisfaction: from 1 (the
worst choice) to 5 (best choice). Being in contact to the
university environment was identified by 70% of the students as most positive aspect (Fig. 4a) followed by the
need to build the robot identified by 66.7% of the students
(Fig. 4b), in opposition to the 15.8% that identify the most
negative facet of the RoboParty® as the need to program
the robot (Fig. 4f). Nevertheless, for the six offered
choices, the average evaluation was very positive (around
4.3, almost 5 the best choice).
Concerning the project area “Robotics”, the students
identified the possibility of building a robot as the task
that they like the most: 42.3% as illustrated in Fig. 5,
followed by the possibility to carry out an applied project
(23.1%) and to work in groups (15.4%).
Independently of the gender, the K-12 students’ shows
similar behavior concerning to the degree of difficulty in
performing tasks in the project area (Fig. 6): about 53% of
the students identified the difficulty as medium and only
about 7% identified that had not any difficulties in the
preparation of the robot.
It is worth mention the K-12 students’ perception regarding project area defined skills. When asked “who do
you think worked more in the robot?”, 60.0% of them
identified that all of the group members worked equally
(Fig. 7). Communication, teamwork, conflict management
and decision making were social skills acquired. The role
of the Tutors (University students) was also mentioned
(by 20.0% of the students) as good helpers, having students the responsible of robot’s assembly.
53
PAPER
AN EARLY START IN ROBOTICS – K-12 CASE-STUDY
d
a
b
c
e
f
Figure 4. Obtained results to the question “identify what do you like most in the robotparty” (a) being in contact to the university environment, (b) to
make the robot, (c) work in groups, (d) activities, (e) participate into the contest, (f) to program the robot.
Figure 5. K-12 students’ answer to the question “What did you like the
most in the project area theme?”
54
Figure 6. K-12 students’ answer to the question “Degree of difficulty
in performing tasks in the project area”
http://www.i-jep.org
PAPER
AN EARLY START IN ROBOTICS – K-12 CASE-STUDY
Figure 7. K-12 students’ answer to the question “Who do you think
worked more in the robot?”
Figure 8. K-12 students’ answer to the question “Which course, at this
moment, you would like to take?”
VII. CONCLUSIONS
The choice of Robotics topic was the starting point for a
unique experience that has provided the school community to approach a subject not commonly found in a second cycle of education.
The Project Area subject had the support from the
school board, teachers, parents and also the university
community, allowing ideal conditions for the success of
the teaching and learning process. Students’ behavior and
punctuality has evolved over the three terms, concluding
the 6th grade with class average of 4.4 on a scale from 1 to
5. As regards attitudes, there were also significant
changes, noting an increased commitment and active
participation throughout the school year. During project
development emerged a common identity and language
among students.
This project demystified the idea that robotics to children, is based only on the field of imagination, catalyzed
by icons cartoons or playing video games or virtual pets
and the only physical contact with robots will be in the
field of play as a toy. This opens a new paradigm. It was
proved that a first successful contact with Robots can be
iJEP – Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2011
achieved at elementary schools. Robotics worked as a
catalyst for motivation to study and interest in school as
well in students’ behavior and approval. It is not possible
to deduce that this project had a direct influence on the
grades in a specific curricular unit. However, their soft
skills and their overall motivation towards school environment were significantly improved. 12 years students
were able to weld components in a printed circuit board,
they were able to mount the mechanical parts of the robot,
they manage to program simple line code in the robot
core, and they participate in contests competing with older
students. The project captivated the entire school community and also drew the attention of many elements of civil
community. The students that participated in the project
are about to start a new cycle of study. They will be studying in different schools or classes. So, planning similar
activities with this group will not be possible.
The program benefits students and teachers on both
ends of the spectrum. Basic school students involved in
the program can work with up-to-date themes generally
presented to older students. In addition, Basic-school
teachers can update their knowledge of the subjects and
form a better understanding of project-based learning;
University teachers can promote their graduation engineering courses near prospective students.
Both the interaction between parents and the close link
established between School and University are not common elements in traditional education. This forced us to
reflect on the importance of the role of proximity of universities with lower education levels.
The project is covered with elements that directly or indirectly participated in the work over the scholar year,
directly benefiting the students, who thus had contact with
other developing scientific thought.
It worth mention that the beneficiaries were not only the
students involved in this project but all who enjoyed and
shared the knowledge acquired.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are grateful to the K-12 students that participated in this project.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
S.E Powers, B. Brydges, P. Turner, G. Gotham, J.J. Carroll, and
D.G. Bohl “Successful Institutionalization of a K-12 - University
STEM Partnership Program.” In: Proceedings of the 115th Annual
ASEE Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh PA, June, 2008.
M.U. Bers,andM.Portsmoresl, “Teaching Partnerships: Early
Childhood and Engineering Students Teaching Math and Science
Through Robotics”, Journal of Science Education and Technology, vol. 14, No. 1,2005, pp.59–72. doi:10.1007/s10956-0052734-1
B. Robins, K. Dautenhahn, and P. Dickerson, “From Isolation to
Communication: A Case StudyEvaluation of Robot Assisted Play
for Children with Autism with a Minimally ExpressiveHumanoid
Robot”, Second International Conferences on Advances in Computer-HumanInteractions, 2009.
Sandra Costa, Cristina Santos, Filomena Soares, Manuel João
Ferreira and Maria de Fátima Moreira, “Promoting the interaction
amongst autistic adolescents using robots”, EMBC 2010,32nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 31 August – 4
September, 2010.
António F. L. Jacob, andFlávia A. Barros,“Utilizaçãode robôs de
conversação como meio de aprendizagem para crianças e pré adolescentes”, Anais do XXVIII Congresso da SBC, Universidade de
Pernambuco, Brasil, 2008 (in Portuguese).
55
PAPER
AN EARLY START IN ROBOTICS – K-12 CASE-STUDY
[6]
Sandra Y. Okita, and Daniel L Schwartz, “Young Children´s
understanding of animacy and entertainment robots”, International
Journal of Humanoid Robotics (IJHR).vol 3, Issue: 3, 2006 pp.
393-412 (DOI: 10.1142/S0219843606000795).
[7] A. Fernando Ribeiro, "Building a robot to use in school - teachers
and students learning together", 5ª international conference on
Hands on Science, 13-17 October 2008, Olinda, Brasil, ISBN:
978-989-95095-3-5, pp 161-169.
[8] A. Fernando Ribeiro, "New ways to learn science with enjoyment
– Robotics as a challenge", 6ª International Conference on Hands
On Science, Science for All. Quest for Excellence. 27-31 October
2009, Science City, Ahmedabad, India, ISBN: 978-989-95095-59, pp 15-23.
[9] Ribeiro, A. Fernando, Lopes, Gil, "Summer on Campus - Learning
Robotics with fun", in Proceedings of HSci2010 - 7th International
Conference on Hands-on Science, 21-31 July 2010, Creta, Greece
[10] SPSS an IBM Company (n.d.), SPSS 17.0. Available:
http://www.spss.com/ (accessed in December 2010)
C. P. Leão is with the Production System Department,
School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães,
Portugal(e-mail: cpl@dps.uminho.pt).
S. Santos is with Basic School of Castêlo da Maia,
Maia, Portugal(e-mail: samusic@hotmail.com).
F. Ribeiro is with the Industrial Electronics Department, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal(e-mail: fernando@dei.uminho.pt).
G. Lopes is with the Industrial Electronics Department,
School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães,
Portugal(e-mail: gil@dei.uminho.pt).
This work was supported in part by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for funding through the R&D project
PTDC/ESC/68069/2006.
Received, March 21st, 2011.Published as resubmitted by the authors on
April 20th, 2010.
AUTHORS
F. Soares is with the Industrial Electronics Department,
School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães,
Portugal(e-mail: fsoares@dei.uminho.pt).
56
http://www.i-jep.org