Many researches show that students have difficulties in understanding graphics in kinematics. Some authors argue that we can use different instructional strategies to reduce these difficulties. Based on these studies, we developed and applied a didactic sequence using educational robotics to teach graphic analysis in movements in a dimension with…

The main purpose of the study was to investigate K-2 children's development of computational thinking skills through an activity with Blue-Bot, a floor programmable robot. Twenty children between six and seven years old participated in the study. Children were engaged in problem-solving activities with the Blue-Bot to learn how to program it and…

This study investigates the effectiveness of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) speaker as a device used for interactions in a foreign language (L2), and a tracking eye installed on the speaker to reduce L2 anxiety. L2 anxiety is an urgent issue since the anxiety derived from a fear of being judged, being negatively evaluated, or being rejected by…

Educational robotics has been regarded as an effective instructional tool over the past decade. Many studies have tested the role of robots in supporting educational classroom activities. However, reliable empirical evidence confirming the effectiveness of educational robots remains limited. Therefore, this study developed an educational…

In this paper, we present two studies examining how high school students learn to program in a mobile, social programming environment that we have developed and deployed ("IPRO"). IPRO is delivered, with an associated curriculum, as an iPod Touch app and is freely and publicly available. We find that the affordances of mobility and…

The haptic paddle is a force-feedback joystick used at several universities in teaching System Dynamics, a core mechanical engineering undergraduate course where students learn to model dynamic systems in several domains. A second goal of the haptic paddle is to increase the accessibility of robotics and haptics by providing a low-cost device for…

This article describes an outreach program to broaden participation in computing to include more students with visual impairments. The precollege workshops target students in grades 7-12 and engage students with robotics programming. The use of robotics at the precollege level has become popular in part due to the availability of Lego Mindstorm…

This paper reports the results of a study of the relationship of robotics activity to the use of science literacy skills and the development of systems understanding in middle school students. Twenty-six 11-12-year-olds (22 males and 4 females) attending an intensive robotics course offered at a summer camp for academically advanced students…

A course was developed to introduce students at a community college to four major areas of emphasis in emerging technologies: FORTH programming language, elementary electronic theory, robotics, and artificial intelligence. After a needs assessment indicated the importance of such a course, a pretest focusing on the four areas was given to students…