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roBlocks: a robotic construction kit for mathematics and science education

Published: 02 November 2006 Publication History

Abstract

We describe work in progress on roBlocks, a computational construction kit that encourages users to experiment and play with a collection of sensor, logic and actuator blocks, exposing them to a variety of advanced concepts including kinematics, feedback and distributed control. Its interface presents novice users with a simple, tangible set of robotic blocks, whereas advanced users work with software tools to analyze and rewrite the programs embedded in each block. Early results suggest that roBlocks may be an effective vehicle to expose young people to complex ideas in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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cover image ACM Conferences
ICMI '06: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Multimodal interfaces
November 2006
404 pages
ISBN:159593541X
DOI:10.1145/1180995
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part 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 components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 02 November 2006

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  1. construction kit
  2. robotics education
  3. tangible interface

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  • (2024)Invisibly Entangled: When Children Meet a System of Connected ComponentsProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685483(1-9)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
  • (2024)KiPneu: Designing a Constructive Pneumatic Platform for Biomimicry Learning in STEAM EducationProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661828(441-458)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
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  • (2023)“Be a Lighting Programmer”: Supporting Children Collaborative Learning through Tangible Programming SystemInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2022.216378340:10(2622-2640)Online publication date: 22-Jan-2023
  • (2022)Review on Artificial Intelligence and Robots in STEAM Education for Early Childhood DevelopmentHandbook of Research on Innovative Approaches to Early Childhood Development and School Readiness10.4018/978-1-7998-8649-5.ch019(468-498)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2022
  • (2022)AR-C&P: A Tangible Programming for Children Based Augmented RealityProceedings of the Tenth International Symposium of Chinese CHI10.1145/3565698.3565778(141-150)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2022
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