Search results for "Educational robotic"
showing 10 items of 24 documents
Robotics and Virtual Worlds: An Experiential Learning Lab
2013
Aim of the study was to investigate the cognitive processes involved and stimulated by educational robotics (LEGO® robots and Kodu Game Lab) in lower secondary school students. Results showed that LEGO® and KGL artifacts involve specific cognitive and academic skills. In particular the use of LEGO® is related to deductive reasoning, speed of processing visual targets, reading comprehension and geometrical problem solving; the use of KGL is related to visual-spatial working memory, updating skills and reading comprehension. Both technologies, moreover, are effective in the improvement of visual-spatial working memory. Implications for Human-Robot Interaction and BICA challenge are discussed.
Teaching Physics Concepts Using Educational Robotics
2019
This paper reports a study included in the national project PROMISE funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. It examines the application of an educational robotics laboratory with secondary school students for learning concept about physics. In the paper we describe the didactic strategies that have been implemented during the activities and we give some qualitative outcomes related to effectiveness of the laboratory. Indeed we observed interesting results in students both in term of learning and of interest and participation. The importance of teacher involvement in this type of intervention will also be discussed.
The Acquisition of Computational Thinking through Mentoring: An Exploratory Study
2020
Educational robotics are commonly present in kindergarten and primary school classrooms, particularly Bee-bot. Its ease of use allows the introduction of computer programming to young children in educational contexts from a science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) perspective. Despite this rise, there are still few investigations that collect evidence on the effectiveness of robotic interventions. Although mentoring experiences with robotics had been carried out in educational contexts, this work explores their effect on the acquisition of computational thinking skills through mentoring. Participants from the second grade, aged seven through eight years, were exposed …
A social humanoid robot as a playfellow for vocabulary enhancement
2018
We introduce a system that exploits a Pepper humanoid robot acting as a playfellow in a word-play game. The robot can play a portmanteau game by directly interacting with children, and it exploits a conversation engine, a portmanteau creation engine, and a definition engine. The humanoid can play the role of either an answerer or a generator of new words.
A Playful Experiential Learning System With Educational Robotics
2020
This article reports on two studies that aimed to evaluate the effective impact of educational robotics in learning concepts related to Physics and Geography. The reported studies involved two courses from an upper secondary school and two courses from a lower secondary school. Upper secondary school classes studied topics of motion physics, and lower secondary school classes explored issues related to geography. In each grade, there was an “experimental group” that carried out their study using robotics and cooperative learning and a “control group” that studied the same concepts without robots. Students in both classes were subjected to tests before and after the robotics laboratory, to c…
Educational Robotics to Improve Mathematical and Metacognitive Skills
2017
This paper describes the use of robotic kits as tools in developing mathematical and metacognitive skills, as the planning, reasoning and problem solving capabilities in young students. A sample of 30 students involved in an extracurricular laboratory based on robotics activities (10 meetings; three hours each, once a week). Quantitative and qualitative data showed that robotics activities may be intended as a new metacognitive environment that allows students to improve the attitude in mathematics, or increase the propensity to reflect on themselves and on their own learning, and higher-level control components, such as forecasting, planning, monitoring and evaluation exercises and problem…
Educational Robotics: Evaluating the Role of Computational Thinking in Attaining 21st Century Skills
2022
Abstract Educational Robotics (ER) has gained prominence in the literature on Computational Thinking (CT) because of its modularity, a feature that potentially facilitates the development of abstract thinking through complex robotic parts. The field of robotics encompasses the characteristics of technology, intelligence, embodiment, and interaction, and these characteristics can serve as means of instruction for CT. Essential 21st Century Skills include decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and the use of algorithms; which are fundamental to effective problem-solving skills. Although CT is believed to be the key to developing 21st Century Skills, its role in doing so is significa…
Il Protocollo RE4BES per il potenziamento delle abilità cognitive, emotive e sociali di un bambino con disturbo dello spettro autistico
2020
The study reports an intervention study on a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The intervention was conducted using some activities included in the RE4BES protocol, a collection of guidelines for the implementation of educational robots intervention for children and young people with special educational eeeds. To assess the efficacy of the intervention, an A-B-A quasi-experimental design was used, in which the involved child was repeatedly evaluated before, during and after treatment. The results showed that robotics activities produced significant changes in his fine motor skills, verbal and preverbal skills, social reciprocity and emotional expression. Furthermore, it was possible to o…
Exploring the development of mental rotation and computational skills in elementary students through educational robotics
2022
Abstract Interest in educational robotics has increased over the last decade. Through various approaches, robots are being used in the teaching and learning of different subjects at distinct education levels. The present study investigates the effects of an educational robotic intervention on the mental rotation and computational thinking assessment in a 3rd grade classroom. To this end, we carried out a quasi-experimental study involving 24 third-grade students. From an embodied approach, we have designed a two-hour intervention providing students with a physical environment to perform tangible programming on Bee-bot. The results revealed that this educational robotic proposal aimed at map…
The Robotic Construction Kit as a Tool for Cognitive Stimulation in Children and Adolescents: The RE4BES Protocol
2019
Through numerous experiences, the robotics has been demonstrated to have good potential in the field of strengthening social skills in children with Special Educational Needs and in particular with autism spectrum disorder. There are still not many experimental studies on the cognitive enhancement and social skills of children with special needs conducted with robotics construction kits that, requiring both the construction of the robot body and the programming of its “mind“, bring into play a multiplicity of cognitive and social skills. For the aforementioned reasons our team from the University of Palermo and from the Center MetaIntelligenze ONLUS developed the treatment protocol RE4BES, …