Experiences from Using Gamification and IoT-based Educational Tools in High Schools towards Energy Savings

Raising awareness among young people, and especially students, on the relevance of behavior change for achieving energy savings is increasingly being considered as a key enabler towards long-term and cost-effective energy efficiency policies. However, the way to successfully apply educational interventions focused on such targets inside schools is still an open question. In this paper, we present our approach for enabling IoT-based energy savings and sustainability awareness lectures and promoting data-driven energy-saving behaviors focused on a high school audience. We present our experiences toward the successful application of sets of educational tools and software over a real-world Internet of Things (IoT) deployment. We discuss the use of gamification and competition as a very effective end-user engagement mechanism for school audiences. We also present the design of an IoT-based hands-on lab activity, integrated within a high school computer science curricula utilizing IoT devices and data produced inside the school building, along with the Node-RED platform. We describe the tools used, the organization of the educational activities and related goals. We report on the experience carried out in both directions in a high school in Italy and conclude by discussing the results in terms of achieved energy savings within an observation period.Comment: to be presented at 2019 European Conference on Ambient Intelligenc

STEM Learning and Career Orientation via IoT Hands-on Activities in Secondary Education

This work studies the influence of IoT-driven educational activities and tools (software, hardware and educational material) in STEM education as well as their role as STEM related career enablers to young boys and girls. The study builds on previous related results and applies to over 60 young students that are involved in hands-on learning activities in the context of a summer school. The analysis is based on especially designed close-ended and open-ended questionnaires as well as in-class observations and focuses on age and gender aspects. The results confirm the overall positive stance of the students on the educational activities and show that the provided tools under consideration are well accepted and effectively used. Furthermore, students’ choices regarding prospective future careers reveal that their views on STEM fields and related professions have significantly been enriched through their participation in the summer school