Whimsically adopting the first-person viewpoint of a robot, this article describes a four-phase program integrating robotics into the school curriculum in Coffeyville, Kansas: (1) Awareness, (2) Simple Programming, (3) Advanced Programming, and (4) Application of Robotics in Society. (TE)

"VICA Skills USA Championships" (Bamford) describes the competitions and events of the 1995 National Vocational Industrial Clubs of America Leadership and Skills Conference. "Student Robotics Contest" (Vandenberg) describes an annual competition that invites students to demonstrate their creativity and knowledge of robotics.…

Provides insight into the exciting future of robotics. Includes a student quiz and possible student outcomes. (JOW)

Provides an overview of robots that retrieve World Wide Web documents and index data and then store it in a database. Nine robot-generated databases are described, including record content, services, search features, and sample search results; and sidebars discuss the controversy about Web robots and other resource discovery tools. (LRW)

In this article we describe a programming framework called Pyro, which provides a set of abstractions that allows students to write platform-independent robot programs. This project is unique because of its focus on the pedagogical implications of teaching mobile robotics via a top-down approach. We describe the background of the project, its…

Robots make a wonderful context for teaching students about many concepts important to technological literacy. They can provide an authentic context and produce high levels of motivation. According to Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (STL) (ITEA, 2000, 2002), there are six core concepts that should be…

"Where does the Sun go at night?" or "Why don't the Australians fall off?" are typical of the innocent questions that children ask. A new "Earth and Beyond" primary science learning programme from the University of Bradford is piloting some exciting ways to engage children with these questions and providing…

In this article we describe an approach to the design of learning objects (LOs) suitable to support learning in complex domains. We briefly discuss, from an educational point of view, the methodological choices underlying the design of LOs to be used as didactical materials in a distributed Web-based environment, presently under development,…

For the last four years, Soenderholm School, near the town of Aalborg, Northjutland, Denmark, has had an optional subject in the seventh grade called First "Lego" League (FLL). FLL is an international contest which aims to advance pupils' scientific interest. The task is for participants to build and program a "Lego" robot able…

In this quasi-experimental study, 142 fifth and sixth grade students at a suburban elementary school in Northwest Washington State participated in a week-long, 10-hour project using the "LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System" (RIS). Partners constructed and programmed one robot from visually-based LEGO instructions and a second of…

Provides an introduction to robotic technology, and describes current robot models. Three ways of using robots in education are discussed--as exemplars of other processes, as objects of instruction, and as prosthetic aids--and selection criteria are outlined. (17 references) (CLB)

Because of the impetus on how to improve productivity in companies, the demand for graduating industrial engineers continues to be strong from a variety of sources. Starting salary offers for graduates have been averaging $26,784. Enrollments in industrial engineering programs are increasing (with 3,923 graduates in 1984). (JN)

Despite falling prices and more varied applications, the diffusion of industrial robots is taking place at a slower pace than expected. There are not only technical snags but also social barriers to be overcome--displacement of workers, deskilling of certain operations, and changes in work methods. (Author/CT)

This paper presents a call for development of a robotic extension of self to give handicapped students control of the environment, a logical offshoot of mainstreaming. Usefulness and performance requirements of a robotic extension are discussed and a research agenda presented. (MT)

A series of articles looks at computerization and unions in Australia, France, and India; bargaining agreements about technological innovation in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States; and the effects of technology on the labor force in the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, and the United States. (SK)