scholarly journals Mixing Educational Robotics, Tangibles and Mixed Reality Environments for the Interdisciplinary Learning of Geography and History

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanos Xefteris ◽  
George Palaigeorgiou
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Formal Group ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Embodied Learning ◽  
Interdisciplinary Learning ◽  
Attitude Question ◽  
Mindstorms Ev3

In the present study we present a mixed reality learning environment that aims to become a creative, joyful and efficient interdisciplinary canvas for learning about history and geography and for concurrently fostering computational thinking. The environment makes use of embodied affordances and educational robotics and consists of two parts: an augmented 3D-tangible model of southern Europe with finger-based interaction and a second floor-based augmented robotics track de-picting European landmarks, where students are asked to perform tasks with Mindstorms EV3 robots. The game scenario describes a treasure hunt around Eu-rope and students swap between finger-based and robotics-based interactive sur-faces in two pairs. For the evaluation of our intervention, six groups of four stu-dents played with the environment for approximately 45 minutes each. Data col-lection was performed through pre- and post-knowledge test, attitude question-naire and a semi-formal group interview. Students’ answers showed that the mixed reality environment improved their engagement and motivation and en-hanced their orientation around Europe’s geophysical features. The robotics as-pect consolidated further their computational thinking skills while being highly exciting. The proposed approach was closer to the student’s expectations and in-teractive experiences, successfully exploited embodied learning opportunities and gamified the learning process.

Educational Robotics for Creating Effective Computer Science Learning for All

2021 ◽  
pp. 44-69
Author(s):  
Amy Eguchi
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Underrepresented Minorities ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Learning Tool ◽  
Real Picture ◽  
K 12

President Obama's initiative, “computer science for all,” has been a rallying slogan for promoting computer science in K-12 education. Although the participation of people of color in computer science (CS) has increased in the past several years, it is still drastically low and does not reflect the real picture of our society. This chapter explores how educational robotics as a learning tool can inspire underrepresented minorities including females and students of color to become interested in CS. Supported by Papert's constructionism theory, educational robotics effectively facilitates students' learning of various concepts in CS and STEM. Educational robotics is a learning tool which inspires students' interest in learning. It provides a learning environment that promotes students' learning of various CS concepts and computational thinking skills. Although robots naturally spark students' interests, to make it most effective, teachers are required effortfully to create learning opportunities that are authentic and meaningful for individual students.

Educational Robotics for Creating Effective Computer Science Learning for All

2022 ◽  
pp. 756-781
Author(s):  
Amy Eguchi
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Underrepresented Minorities ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Learning Tool ◽  
Real Picture ◽  
K 12

President Obama's initiative, “computer science for all,” has been a rallying slogan for promoting computer science in K-12 education. Although the participation of people of color in computer science (CS) has increased in the past several years, it is still drastically low and does not reflect the real picture of our society. This chapter explores how educational robotics as a learning tool can inspire underrepresented minorities including females and students of color to become interested in CS. Supported by Papert's constructionism theory, educational robotics effectively facilitates students' learning of various concepts in CS and STEM. Educational robotics is a learning tool which inspires students' interest in learning. It provides a learning environment that promotes students' learning of various CS concepts and computational thinking skills. Although robots naturally spark students' interests, to make it most effective, teachers are required effortfully to create learning opportunities that are authentic and meaningful for individual students.

scholarly journals Robotics to develop computational thinking in early Childhood Education

Comunicar ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (59) ◽  
pp. 63-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana García-Valcárcel-Muñoz-Repiso ◽  
Yen-Air Caballero-González
Keyword(s):  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Kindergarten Students ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Programming Skills ◽  
And Control

The development of programming skills is currently promoting from an early school age, trying to get children to take an active and creative role in the use of technologies. The objective of this article is to verify the repercussion of educational robotics activities on kindergarten students in the acquisition of computational thinking and programming skills. The research design is quasi-experimental, with pre-test and post-test measures, using experimental and control groups. The sample consists of 131 students from the second cycle of early education (between 3 and 6 years old), all from the same Spanish school. Computational thinking is measured through three dimensions: sequences (algorithms), action-instruction correspondence and debugging. The intervention sessions, as well as the structure of the challenges that were used in the pre- and post-test evaluations, were designed based on the reference program of robotics studies called “TangibleK”. The intervention, carried out doing learning activities using educational robotics resources, presents positive results in relation to the computational thinking skills achieved. The differences between the pre-test and the post-test in the experimental and control groups are statistically significant, in that children engaged in robotics program achieves a greater advance in the three dimensions of computational competence through this method. Actualmente se promueve el desarrollo de habilidades de programación desde una edad escolar temprana, tratando de que los niños adquieran un rol activo y creativo en el uso de las tecnologías. El objetivo de este trabajo es comprobar la repercusión del desarrollo de actividades de robótica educativa en la adquisición de habilidades de pensamiento computacional y programación en escolares de educación infantil. El diseño de la investigación es de tipo cuasi-experimental, con medidas pretest y postest, utilizando grupo experimental y control. La muestra la conforman 131 estudiantes del segundo ciclo de educación infantil (entre 3 y 6 años de edad) de un centro educativo español. El pensamiento computacional se mide a través de tres dimensiones: secuencias (algoritmos), correspondencia acción-instrucción y depuración. Las sesiones de intervención, así como la estructura de los retos que se utilizaron en las evaluaciones pre y postest fueron diseñadas tomando como base el programa de estudios en robótica denominado «TangibleK». La intervención, centrada en actividades de aprendizaje mediante recursos de robótica educativa, presenta resultados positivos en relación a las habilidades de pensamiento computacional logradas. Las diferencias encontradas entre el pre y postest en el grupo experimental son estadísticamente significativas y superiores a las presentadas en el grupo control, de modo que se concluye que los niños que realizan el programa de robótica consiguen un mayor avance en las tres dimensiones de la competencia computacional.

scholarly journals The Effect of Robotics-Based Storytelling Activities on Primary School Students’ Computational Thinking

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Karin Tengler ◽  
Oliver Kastner-Hauler ◽  
Barbara Sabitzer ◽  
Zsolt Lavicza
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Fourth Graders ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
School Students ◽  
Technological Environment ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Post Test

Robotics is needed as education keeps up with challenges students are facing in a technological environment. A long-term research project focuses on developing a feasible robotics-based learning environment that enables primary school teachers to introduce computer science education. This paper shows educational robotics combining storytelling to promote computational thinking through the method of Tell, Draw, and Code. The study was conducted via pre–post test, using the Beginners Computational Thinking test (BCTt), with third and fourth graders (N = 40) to determine if the integration of robotics-based storytelling activities enhances computational thinking skills. Results show that an increase in computational thinking is evident after the intervention is implemented. The approach of combining stories, texts, and literature with educational robotics seems to be a promising concept to equip students with the required skills.

scholarly journals DuinoBlocks4Kids: Using Free Technology and Low-Cost Materials for the Exercise of Computational Thinking in Primary School via Programming and Educational Robotics

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (02) ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Rubens Lacerda Queiroz ◽  
Fábio Ferrentini Sampaio ◽  
Mônica Pereira Dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Error Detection ◽  
Computer Programming ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Conditional Logic ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Purely Sequential

This paper presents a case study about the development of Computational Thinking in primary school children (3st to 4th grade) via the teaching of programming abilities with the use of educational robotics, free technology and recyclable, low cost materials. We aimed at raising some hypotheses on whether there is a straight relationship between some cognitive aspects of children aged 8-10 (such as the ability to put events and ideas in sequence, the ability to execute mental operations on the basis of concrete experience, among others) and the ability to execute activities that may be linked to the learning of computer programming. The observed results indicated (from the use of a didactic kit developed for the accomplishment of this study) the possibility to develop the following computational thinking skills: abstract thinking ability, understanding of flows of control, Debugging and systematic error detection, iterative thinking, use of conditional logic and problem decomposition.  Regarding the investigations related to cognitive maturity, we found evidence of a correlation between the cognitive characteristics analyzed and the performance of certain tasks related to computer programming, such as the development of purely sequential programs and understanding of processing idea.

Learning Computational Thinking Development in Young Children With Bee-Bot Educational Robotics

2020 ◽  
pp. 289-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stamatios Papadakis ◽  
Michail Kalogiannakis
Keyword(s):  
Learning Experience ◽  
Interactive Media ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Curricular Intervention ◽  
Excellent Tool ◽  
And Robotics

It is widely known that when used intentionally and appropriately, technology and interactive media are effective tools to support learning and development. In recent years, there has been a push to introduce coding and computational thinking in early childhood education, and robotics is an excellent tool to achieve this. This chapter presents some results obtained in the development of a learning experience in computational thinking using Bee-Bot educational robotics. The experience involved 47 preschoolers of a kindergarten in Crete, Greece during the period 2019-2020. The study reports statistically significant learning gains between the initial and final assessment of children's computational thinking skills. It was found that children in the treatment group who engaged in the robotic curricular intervention performed better on CT tests. This finding shows that an enhanced teaching experience using robots was beneficial for improving young children's computational thinking skills. The implications for designing appropriate curricula using robots for kindergarteners are addressed.

scholarly journals Educational Robotics in Primary School: Measuring the Development of Computational Thinking Skills with the Bebras Tasks

Informatics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiazzese ◽  
Arrigo ◽  
Chifari ◽  
Lonati ◽  
Tosto
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Fourth Grade ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
K 12

Research has shown that educational robotics can be an effective tool to increase students’ acquisition of knowledge in the subjects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and promote, at the same time, a progression in the development of computational thinking (CT) skills in K–12 (kindergarten to 12th grade) education. Within this research field, the present study first sought to assess the effect of a robotics laboratory on the acquisition of CT-related skills in primary school children. The study also aimed to compare the magnitude of the effect of the laboratory across third- and fourth-grade students. For the purpose of the study, a quasi-experimental post-test-only design was adopted, and a group of 51 students, from third- and fourth-grade classrooms, participating in the robotics laboratories, were compared to a control group of 32 students from classrooms of the same grades. A set of Bebras tasks was selected as an overall measure of CT skills and was administered to children in both the intervention and control groups. Overall, the results showed that programming robotics artefacts may exert a positive impact on students’ learning of computational thinking skills. Moreover, the effect of the intervention was found to be greater among third-grade children.

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