This paper reports on a series of introductory programming workshops, initially targeting female high school students, which utilised Lego Mindstorms robots. Cognitive load theory (CLT) was applied to the instructional design of the workshops, and a controlled experiment was also conducted investigating aspects of the interface. Results indicated…

This paper presents the findings of a study conducted in China to identify the potential benefits of incorporating robotics as an educational tool for 100 primary and 320 secondary school teachers of general technology. The Professional Learning Program was conducted from 2010-2013 in China. The major focus of the program was on the development…

This quantitative study evaluates the impact of using robotics as a content organizer to teach a mathematic concept between math and technology education classes in a middle school of the students beliefs and interests toward STEM concepts. The analysis was based upon pre and post belief and interest survey responses by the participating middle…

Watching a radio-controlled car zip along a sidewalk or street has become a common sight. Within this toy are the basic ingredients of a mobile robot, used by industry for a variety of important and potentially dangerous tasks. In this challenge, students consider modifying an of-the-shelf, radio-controlled car, adapting it for a robotic task.

This article addresses issues in embodied sentence processing from a "cognitive neural systems" approach that combines analysis of the behavior in question, analysis of the known neurophysiological bases of this behavior, and the synthesis of a neuro-computational model of embodied sentence processing that can be applied to and tested in the…

This thesis presents the first steps toward a classification of non-positively curved cube complexes called state complexes. A "state complex" is a configuration space for a "reconfigurable system," i.e., an abstract system in which local movements occur in some discrete manner. Reconfigurable systems can be used to describe, for example,…

While the ready-made Lego[TM] Robotics kits are popular in schools and are used by students at both primary and secondary year levels, using the Picaxe microcontroller (chip) to create simple electronic devices, including robotic devices is less popular. The latter imposes an additional challenge as a result of the need to construct the universal…

The development of telerobotic systems has evolved from Single Operator Single Robot (SOSR) systems to Multiple Operator Multiple Robot (MOMR) systems. The relationship between human operators and robots follows the master-slave control architecture and the requests for controlling robot actuation are completely generated by human operators. …

Technology advancement and human needs have led to integration among many engineering disciplines. Mechatronics engineering is an integrated discipline that focuses on the design and analysis of complete engineering systems. These systems include mechanical, electrical, computer and control subsystems. In this paper, the importance of teaching…

The author has been a witness to the birth of the personal computer culture, with its intense one-on-one relationships with machines, and then to the development of the networked culture, with people using the computer to communicate with each other. In her most recent work on the revolutions in social networking and sociable robotics, she sees a…

This paper describes a system called GENTORO that uses a robot and a handheld projector for supporting children's storytelling activities. GENTORO differs from many existing systems in that children can make a robot play their own story in a physical space augmented by mixed-reality technologies. Pilot studies have been conducted to clarify the…

The increasing internationalization of today's classrooms calls for learning institutions to prepare students for success in an interdependent and technologically-advanced world. Faculty who are competent in multiple 21st century skills are best equipped to engage students in curricula that are relevant, transformative, and engaging across content…

This study explores young children's ability to construct and explain adaptive behaviors of a behaving artifact, an autonomous mobile robot with sensors. A central component of the behavior construction environment is the RoboGan software that supports children's construction of spatiotemporal events with an a-temporal rule structure. Six…

This article features Advanced Competitive Science (ACS), a two-year course introduced by a science teacher, Joe Pouliot, in 2004 at Trinity High School in Manchester, New Hampshire. More than a traditional STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) course, ACS harnesses the excitement of robotics competitions to promote student…

Robotic toys present unique opportunities for teachers of young children to integrate mathematics learning with engaging problem-solving tasks. This article describes a series of tasks using Bee-bots and Pro-bots, developed as part a larger project examining young children's use of robotic toys as tools in developing mathematical and metacognitive…