A behavior-based approach for Educational Robotics activities

PABLO DE CRISTÓFORIS; SOL PEDRE; MATÍAS NITSCHE; THOMAS FISCHER; FACUNDO PESSACG; CARLOS DI PIETRO

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2013 vol. 56 p. 61 - 66

0018-9359

Educational Robotics proposes the use of robots as a teaching resource that allows inexperienced students to approach fields other than specifically robotics. Over the last years, these activities have grown substantially in K-12 classrooms and also in outreach experiences to interest students in STEM undergraduate programs. A key problem in Educational Robotics is to have an adequate easy-to-use interface between inexpert public and robots. In this work, a behavior-based application for programming robots and the design of robotic-centered courses and other outreach activities is presented. Evaluation data on the application show that over 90% of students find it easy to use. These activities are part of a comprehensive outreach program conducted by the Exact and Natural Science Faculty of University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (FCEN-UBA). Statistical data show that since 2009 over 35% of new students at the FCEN-UBA had participated in some outreach activity, showing a significant impact of these activities in student enrollment at STEM-relatedcareers.