Abstract
While activities aimed to attract the interest of secondary school students in robotics are common, activities designed to promote the interest of younger children are rather sparse. However, younger children from families with parents not working in technical domain have a little chance to be introduced to robotics entertainingly. To fill this gap, we propose a two-stage approach by organizing both programming and technology workshops for children by a volunteering group called “wITches”, followed by a robotic competition “Robosoutěž” aimed at children who are already familiar with basic concepts. We describe the proposed approach and investigate the effect of both stages on the number of students, their gender composition and their decisions of the field of study. The gathered data indicate that while the second, robotic competition stage is vital in persuading the children to proceed to study technology and robotics, the first, workshop stage is truly crucial to allow them to enter the field at all. In particular, for more than 70% of the participants, the workshops were the first opportunity to be introduced to robotics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Robosoutěž final, 2017: https://youtu.be/g6IvknPzqxw.
- 2.
Propagation video, Robosoutěž, 2017: https://youtu.be/DQZ1gp2ZCjY.
References
Cejka, E., Rogers, C., Portsmore, M.: Kindergarten robotics: Using robotics to motivate math, science, and engineering literacy in elementary school. Int. J. Eng. Educ. 22(4), 711 (2006)
Filippov, S., Ten, N., Fradkov, A., Shirokolobov, I.: Robotics education in Saint Petersburg secondary school. In: International Conference on Robotics and Education RiE 2017, pp. 38–49. Springer (2017)
Lepuschitz, W., Koppensteiner, G., Merdan, M.: Offering multiple entry-points into STEM for young people. In: Robotics in Education, pp. 41–52. Springer (2017)
Samuels, P., Poppa, S.: Developing extended real and virtual robotics enhancement classes with years 10–13. In: Robotics in Education, pp. 69–81. Springer (2017)
First: First Lego League. http://www.firstlegoleague.org/. Accessed 18 Jan 2018
Robotika.cz: Robotics contests in Czechia. https://robotika.cz/competitions/
Cristoforis, P.D., Pedre, S., Nitsche, M., Fischer, T., Pessacg, F., Pietro, C.D.: A behavior-based approach for educational robotics activities. IEEE Trans. Educ. 56(1), 61–66 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2012.2220359
Hernandez-Barrera, A.: Teaching introduction to robotics: Using a blend of problem-and project-based learning approaches. In: IEEE SOUTHEASTCON 2014, pp. 1–5. IEEE (2014)
Microsoft: Why Europe’s girls aren’t studying STEM. https://ncmedia.azureedge.net/ncmedia/2017/03/ms_stem_whitepaper.pdf. Accessed 18 Jan 2018
Jiang, M., Li, Y., Zheng, J., Han, X.: J. Comput. Educ. 4(2), 127 (2017)
wITches: Short video about Ozobot workshop by wITches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woBhVurHpw0. Accessed 18 Jan 2018
Hussain, S., Lindh, J., Shukur, G.: The effect of LEGO training on pupils’ school performance in mathematics, problem solving ability and attitude: Swedish data. J. Educ. Tech. Soc. 9(3), 182–194 (2006)
Lindh, J., Holgersson, T.: Does LEGO training stimulate pupils’ ability to solve logical problems? Comput. Educ. 49(4), 1097–1111 (2007)
LEGO: LEGO Mindstorms NXT Education Kit User Guide. https://www.generationrobots.com/media/Lego-Mindstorms-NXT-Education-Kit.pdf. Accessed 31 Jan 2018
Ministry of Education of Czechia: University student statisics. http://www.msmt.cz/vzdelavani/skolstvi-v-cr/statistika-skolstvi/data-o-studentech-poprve-zapsanych-a-absolventech-vysokych?lang=1. Accessed 18 Jan 2018
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the CSF project 17-27006Y.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Brejchová, K., Hodná, J., Halodová, L., Minaeva, A., Hlinovský, M., Krajník, T. (2019). Two-Stage Approach for Long-Term Motivation of Children to Study Robotics. In: Lepuschitz, W., Merdan, M., Koppensteiner, G., Balogh, R., Obdržálek, D. (eds) Robotics in Education. RiE 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 829. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97085-1_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97085-1_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97084-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97085-1
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)