Action Research on Flipped Robotics Instruction

Robotics and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) has become a growing field as technology continues to advance. Now, many schools have robotics programs to meet this interest in the hope of preparing and educating students with the knowledge and skills to not only participate and compete in robotics competitions but also to prepare them for future careers. There is a large interest in robotics among students and schools as it is a fun, engaging and hands on activity. Robotics however, does require a lot of time and resources, as students need to learn a variety of skills and information before they can apply their learning in designing, creating, programming and driving their robots. To better address the time and resources required for robotics I created a flipped instructional setting where students learn on their own prior to class from instructional modules and then review and apply their learning during in class activities. The purpose of this action research was to assess the effectiveness of a flipped classroom setting on the robotics team at a public school on Oahu. The effectiveness of this flipped classroom instruction was assessed through class observations as well as through assessing student work and progress. This paper examined the process that was used to develop this flipped classroom instruction

Robotics in the classroom: The effectiveness of robotics based curriculum in STEM education

Students learn best when they are engaged and are able to interact with their environment. They can build their own definition of concepts and themes, which are more meaningful because they are related to their own experiences and memories (Kolb, 1984). Simply put it all comes down to constructivism, which means a person builds knowledge and meaning from interactions between their experiences and ideas (the environment they work/play in and the people and objects they interact with). The purpose of this study is to find out how a middle school and high school constructivist robotics curriculum impacts students’ conceptual understanding of electrical circuit concepts

ROBOSIM: An intelligent simulator for robotic systems

The purpose of this paper is to present an update of an intelligent robotics simulator package, ROBOSIM, first introduced at Technology 2000 in 1990. ROBOSIM is used for three-dimensional geometrical modeling of robot manipulators and various objects in their workspace, and for the simulation of action sequences performed by the manipulators. Geometric modeling of robot manipulators has an expanding area of interest because it can aid the design and usage of robots in a number of ways, including: design and testing of manipulators, robot action planning, on-line control of robot manipulators, telerobotic user interface, and training and education. NASA developed ROBOSIM between 1985-88 to facilitate the development of robotics, and used the package to develop robotics for welding, coating, and space operations. ROBOSIM has been further developed for academic use by its co-developer Vanderbilt University, and has been in both classroom and laboratory environments for teaching complex robotic concepts. Plans are being formulated to make ROBOSIM available to all U.S. engineering/engineering technology schools (over three hundred total with an estimated 10,000+ users per year)

Impact Of robotics on the motivation and socio-affectivity of secondary school students

There is broad consideration that ICT is a resource that promotes more meaningful learning, allowing students to acquire a set of skills considered key. These competencies allow him to face new challenges and solve difficulties both associated with the educational process and the context in which this student is located, making him more able to adapt the knowledge, skills and values acquired to reality. This article raises this issue by emphasizing the potentials of ICT in the classroom, in particular robotics, for both teachers and students. This means accepting that ICT has made changes to classroom interaction but, above all, in the methodology that vertebrates the teaching-learning process. The main objective of this study is to know whether the motivation and interest of students is increased when using robotics in the classroom as a technique integrated into active methodologies focused on digital use and management while knowing more positive socio-affective relationships are established between students. The methodological process adopted in the study responds to the quantitative paradigm. A sample of 150 secondary school students was used, who were given a questionnaire to learn about their perception of the use of educational robotics. The results have shown how the use of robotics increases motivation in the teaching-learning process and how the relationships between students have acquired positive value. The results of the study also allow for a broader reflection of the educational community on an issue of interest to adapt teaching-learning processes to current needs: does the implementation of robotics in the teaching-learning process facilitate student training in different areas of knowledge and promote mechanisms that increase motivation

Utilization of Robotics in Higher Education

The use of technology in the classroom has evolved from the most primitive to the widespread use of personal computers. One of the trends in technological advancements to enter the classroom is the use of robotics. The relationship between robotics and education spans many years. This paper details Papert’s Constructionism theory defining learning as being more effective when students are “constructing” or “doing” activities that are personally meaningful. Research includes assessment of experiences of this method of teaching Information Technology through robotics at such institutions as West Point, Reykjavik University and University of South Florida. Based on the experiences reported at the various institutions, authors conclude with recommendations to Bryant College as the college launches an integration of the utilization of robotic components into the Information Technology curriculum to more effectively introduce students to Information Technology concepts

Robotics in the Ghanaian classroom

Thesis submitted to the Computer Science, Ashesi University College, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, April 2016Ghana needs more innovative thinkers and problem solvers to ensure sustainable growth for years to come. In the past, there have been revisions made to the Ghana educational curriculum to assist in development. Despite these changes, there still exists the predominant issue of rote learning occurring in the classroom. This leads to students being less independent as thinkers and problem solvers. In recent years there have been studies and papers convinced that Robotics education in the classroom could enhance a student’s critical thinking skills. This study investigates the idea of using robotics in the Ghanaian classroom to garner more critical thinkers and problem solvers. This was done by having a teacher teach a group of students using Lego Mindstorms EV3 kits. The results of the students who took part in the test were analyzed against students who did not take part in the study. The result of the study were used to offer a suggestion for institutions looking to integrate robotics lessons into their classrooms.Ashesi University Colleg

The use of UTAUT and Post Acceptance models to investigate the attitude towards a telepresence robot in an educational setting

(1) Background: In the last decade, various investigations into the field of robotics have created several opportunities for further innovation to be possible in student education. However, despite scientific evidence, there is still strong scepticism surrounding the use of robots in some social fields, such as personal care and education; (2) Methods: In this research, we present a new tool named: HANCON model that was developed merging and extending the constructs of two solid and proven models: the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to examine the factors that may influence the decision to use a telepresence robot as an instrument in educational practice, and the Post Acceptance Model to evaluate acceptability after the actual use of a telepresence robot. The new tool is implemented and used to study the acceptance of a Double telepresence robot by 112 pre-service teachers in an educational setting; (3) Results: The analysis of the experimental results predicts and demonstrate a positive attitude towards the use of telepresence robot in a school setting and confirm the applicability of the model in an educational context; (4) Conclusions: The constructs of the HANCON model could predict and explain the acceptance of social telepresence robots in social contexts

GOOGLE+: A BOOST TO E-LEARNING EDUCATION & TRAINING @ COVENANT UNIVERSITY

Just as the advancement in Information Technology (IT) continues to evolve and change rapidly over the past few decades, the art of learning, acquiring and dispersing knowledge and information have also continued to evolve rapidly. These rapid innovations and improvements in IT were designed with the aim of boosting knowledge and education at just the click of the button. Some of the most outstanding innovations and inventions in the (IT) world, which have influenced education and learning in this decade are found in social networks such as Yahoo, Google, Face book, twitter, You Tube, to mention but a few. However, recent studies conducted in this regard revealed that these current innovations and advancements in IT have constituted grave challenges to the knowledge and learning process. The teachers / lecturers of this century, during the process of seeking to transfer knowledge to their student, are often faced with the dilemma of finding how best to gainfully occupy the minds of their students within and outside the class room environment. The students who more often than not, distracted by incoming messages, videos, picture of friends, or simply text messages from friends via iphones, laptops, i-pods, or even i-pads etc. The respondent instantly cannot resist the urge to quickly read and send back a reply via either of the means mentioned here. Other students who log on to either of the networks for a specific task are easily distracted or carried away by say, a fresh advertisement or alternate information which dramatically catches the attention of the students. Consequently, they are drawn and carried away by the new piece of information that drastically - in most cases - changes their trend of thought before they are fully aware of the harm done by the distraction. While applying the simple survey methods of research, this paper shall examine the findings of an ongoing study with two groups of students who offer University Wide Courses (UWC) here at Covenant University. Results from the pilot study conducted gives us reasons to argue that a resent product by Google simply known as “Google+” may be that much desired formula that teachers and lectures all over the world, need to boost the teaching and learning experiences of both teachers, students and researchers within and outside the classroom environment

Collaborative Robotics: More Than Just Working in Groups

The purpose of this study was to determine what collaborative interventions produce positive effects for students working on collaborative robotics projects for science process skills, collaborative problem solving, and learning motivation. In addition, the study examined the impact students’ prior robotics experience had on science process skills, collaborative problem solving, and learning motivation. The results indicated experience level and collaboration interventions can have impacts on students. Assigned Group Roles had positive effects on students’ motivation and collaborative problem solving. Experience level also had effects upon student learning motivation and collaborative problem solving with the Novice status associated with higher levels as compared with students who had more experience. A collaboration intervention was identified that has the potential to produce positive effects for students in collaborative robotics projects as well as assist classroom educators in the purposeful design of collaborative robotics projects with scientifically based strategies to improve the attitudinal outcomes for students of various robotics experience

Games, Robots, and Robot Games: Complementary Contexts for Introductory Computing Education

Using games to teach introductory computing courses provides another context with which to exploring the possible attraction, retention, and education of a new generation of computer science (CS) students. At Bryn Mawr College, we have been actively exploring these contexts and have identified four that have great promise for use in teaching introductory computing courses: visualization, multimedia, robotics, and, most recently, games. We are currently using and analysing robots and have some preliminary results. We believe that much of what we have learned in using robots in the classroom can be applied to the other contexts, especially gaming. In addition, many aspects of gaming can also be used in an introductory course using robots. This paper will explore robotics, gaming, their interactions, and provide suggestions on how best to proceed in making the most out of games in the classroom