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The effect of robotics activities on students' learning and attitudes

Published: 28 July 2014 Publication History

Abstract

My research investigates students' learning of and attitudes toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in general and Computer Science (CS) in particular during their participation in robotics activities. The research population consists of middle-school students who participated in robotics competitions. The methodology used is both qualitative and quantitative, using questionnaires, observations and interviews. A representational model is used to facilitate the interviews by externalizing the students' understanding of STEM concepts. The revised Bloom Taxonomy was used in the analysis. The research achieved preliminary results for CS and engineering which show that the students can achieve a satisfying level of learning CS and Engineering when they participate in the robotics activities.

References

[1]
Anderson, M., McKenzie, A., Wellman, B., Brown, M., Vrbsky, S. (2011) Affecting Attitudes in First-year Computer Science using Syntax-free Robotics Programming, ACM Inroads, 2(3), 51--57.
[2]
Ausubel, D. (1963) The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning. New York, NY: Grune & Stratton.
[3]
Howland, J., Jonassen, D., & Marra, R. (2011) Meaningful Learning with Technology. (4th Ed.) Pearson Education, Inc.
[4]
Hamner, E., Lauwers, T., Bernstein, D., Stubbs, K., Crowley, K., & Nourbakhsh, I. (2008) Robot Diaries Interim Project Report: Development of a Technology Program for Middle School Girls. Carnegie Mellon Uni. Carnegie Mellon University-RI-TR-08-25.
[5]
Lauwers, T., Nourbakhsh, I., & Hamner, I. (2009) CSbots: Design and Deployment of a Robot Designed for the CS1 Classroom. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 41(1), 428--432.
[6]
Reif, F. (1987) Interpretation of Scientific or Mathematical Concepts: Cognitive Issues and Instructional Implications. Cognitive Science 11, 395--416
[7]
Sullivan, F. R. (2008) Robotics and Science Literacy: Thinking Skills, Science Process Skills and Systems Understanding. The Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 45(3), 373--394.
[8]
Turkle, S. & Papert, S. (1991) Epistemological pluralism, in Harel, I. & Papert, S. (Eds), Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 116--126.
[9]
Verner, I. M. & Ahlgren, D. J. (2004) Robot Contest as a Laboratory for Experiential Engineering Education. ACM Journal on Educational resources in computing 4(2), 1--15.

Cited By

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  • (2024)Robotic Coding Perceptions of Middle School StudentsJournal of Education and Future10.30786/jef.1274671(31-44)Online publication date: 6-Mar-2024
  • (2023)Robotics in STEM Education: Enhancing Engagement, Skills, and Future ReadinessInternational Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology10.48175/IJARSCT-13098(749-759)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2023
  • (2021)Effectiveness of the Proposed Robotics Instructional Design on “Basic Movements” for Online Distance LearningProceedings of the 2021 12th International Conference on E-Education, E-Business, E-Management, and E-Learning10.1145/3450148.3450177(95-104)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2021
  • Show More Cited By

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
ICER '14: Proceedings of the tenth annual conference on International computing education research
July 2014
186 pages
ISBN:9781450327558
DOI:10.1145/2632320
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 28 July 2014

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Author Tags

  1. attitudes
  2. meaningful learning
  3. robotics
  4. stem

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ICER '14
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ICER '14: International Computing Education Research Conference
August 11 - 13, 2014
Scotland, Glasgow, United Kingdom

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ICER '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 17 of 69 submissions, 25%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 189 of 803 submissions, 24%

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ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research
August 3 - 6, 2025
Charlottesville , VA , USA

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Robotic Coding Perceptions of Middle School StudentsJournal of Education and Future10.30786/jef.1274671(31-44)Online publication date: 6-Mar-2024
  • (2023)Robotics in STEM Education: Enhancing Engagement, Skills, and Future ReadinessInternational Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology10.48175/IJARSCT-13098(749-759)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2023
  • (2021)Effectiveness of the Proposed Robotics Instructional Design on “Basic Movements” for Online Distance LearningProceedings of the 2021 12th International Conference on E-Education, E-Business, E-Management, and E-Learning10.1145/3450148.3450177(95-104)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2021
  • (2020)Revisiting the roles of educational robotics in improving learners’ computational thinking skills and their positive behaviourJournal of Physics: Conference Series10.1088/1742-6596/1511/1/0120881511(012088)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2020

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