Igor M. Verner
Abstract
By designing, building, and operating autonomous robots students learn key engineering subjects and develop systems-thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills. Such events as the Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest (TCFFHRC) offer rich opportunities for students to apply their skills by requiring design, and implementation of autonomous robots that are tested during competition. Started in 2003, the TCFFHRC Robotics Olympiad offers junior-high and high school students, working alone or in teams, to demonstrate their knowledge by taking a challenging 50-minute written examination in four key areas related to robotics: mechanics, sensors, software, and electronics. The Olympiad comprises a second evaluation medium that supplements a regular contest survey, which has been in place since 1999. The contest survey solicits information about motivation and progress in subject areas from all contest participants--a large and diverse group that includes junior-high and high school students, working engineers, university students, and team supervisors/guides. As a further evaluation step, we have conducted supplementary case studies of courses and curricula at Trinity College and at the Technion. Assessment indicates that the TCFFHRC has achieved its primary goal: to foster and improve robotics education on an international scale.
- Acroname. 2005. Acroname products. Web page last assessed April 2005 <http://www.acroname.com/>.Google Scholar
- Ahlgren, D. J. 2001. Fire-fighting robots and first-year engineering design: Trinity College experience. In Proceedings of the ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (Reno, NV).Google Scholar
- Ahlgren, D. and Verner, I. 2002 An international view of robotics as an educational medium. In Proceedings of the Inernational Conference on Engineering Education (Manchester, UK).Google Scholar
- Australian. 2005. Australian Science Olympiads. Web page last assessed April 2005 < http://www.aso.edu.au>.Google Scholar
- Braitenberg, V. 1984. Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 1984.Google Scholar
- Gleason. 2005. Gleason Research. Web page last assessed April 2005 http://www.gleasonresearch.com/Google Scholar
- Harel, I. and Papert, S. eds. 1991. Constructionism. Ablex, Norwood, NJ. 1991.Google Scholar
- International. 2005. International Science Olympiads. Web page last assessed April 2005 <http://olympiads.win.tue.nl/>.Google Scholar
- Kafal, Y. and Resnick, M. eds. 1996. Constructionism in Practice: Design, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ. 1996.Google Scholar
- Kolb, D. 1984. Experiential Learning. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 1984.Google Scholar
- Leifer, L. 1995. Evaluating product-based-learning education. http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/~leifer/publications/Osaka95/Osaka95.html.Google Scholar
- Martin, F. 2001. Robotic Explorations, A Hands-on Introduction to Engineering. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. 2001. Google Scholar
- Murphy, R. 2001. Competing for a robotics education. IEEE Robotics & Automation Mag. 8, 3 (2001), 44-55.Google Scholar
- Pack, D., Avanzato, R., Ahlgren, D., and Verner, I. 2004. Fire-fighting mobile robotics and interdisciplinary design - Comparative perspectives. IEEE Trans. on Education 47, 3 (2004), 369-376. Google Scholar
- Parks, D., Onwuegbuzie, A., and Cash, S. 2003. Development of a measure for predicting learning advancement through cooperative education: Reliability and validity of the PLACE scale. J. Cooperative Education 36, 1 (2003), 23-31.Google Scholar
- Science Olympiad. 2005. National Science Olympiad. Web page last assessed April 2005. <http://www.soinc.org/>.Google Scholar
- Sharp. 2005. Electronics components. Web page last assessed April 2005. <http://sharp-world.com/products/device/ctlg/esite23/table/>.Google Scholar
- Sklar, E., Parsons, S., and Stone, P. 2004. RoboCup in higher education: A preliminary report. In RoboCup 2003. D. Polani et al. eds. Lecture Notes on Artificial Intelligence 3020, Springer Verlag, New York, 296-307.Google Scholar
- Trinity College. 2005. Fire fighting robot contest. Web page last assessed April 2005. <http://www.trincoll.edu/events/robot/>.Google Scholar
- Verner, I., and Waks, S. 2000. Educational features of robot contests: The RoboCup'98 survey. Advanced Robotics 14, 1 (2000), 65-74.Google Scholar
- Verner, I. and Ahlgren, D. 2002. Fire-fighting robot contest: Curricula in college and high school. ASEE J. Engineering Education 91, 3 (2002), 355-359.Google Scholar
- Verner, I. and Hershiko, E. 2003. School graduation project in robot design: A case study of team learning experiences and outcomes. J. Technology Education 14, 2 (2003), 40-55.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Robot contest as a laboratory for experiential engineering education
Recommendations
Computer science olympiad: exploring computer science through competition
SIGCSE 08Generating interest in specialized areas of Computer Science (CS) is one of the goals of the department of Computer and Information Science at Spelman College as with most departments. Achieving this goal in a new, exciting, and innovative manner ...
Computer science olympiad: exploring computer science through competition
SIGCSE '08: Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science educationGenerating interest in specialized areas of Computer Science (CS) is one of the goals of the department of Computer and Information Science at Spelman College as with most departments. Achieving this goal in a new, exciting, and innovative manner ...
Reflections on iCODE: using web technology and hands-on projects to engage urban youth in computer science and engineering
More than 200 middle school and high school students from underserved urban communities in Boston, Lowell, and Lawrence, Massachusetts, participated in after-school and summer enrichment programs over a three-year period, using hands-on learning ...
Comments