ERIC Number: EJ1182988
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Jul
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1360-2357
EISSN: N/A
Lines, Roamers, and Squares: Oh My! Using Floor Robots to Enhance Hispanic Students' Understanding of Programming
Casey, J. Elizabeth; Gill, Puneet; Pennington, Lisa; Mireles, Selina V.
Education and Information Technologies, v23 n4 p1531-1546 Jul 2018
Teaching programming and coding skills in K-12 classrooms is becoming a part of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs across the United States. Often, these opportunities are available through extra-curricular activities such as Robotics club, math club, STEM club, etc. Increasing STEM opportunities for students who are English language learners, culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and/or students from underserved backgrounds is vital. In a pilot study prior to a larger, grant-funded study on the effects of metacognitive strategy instruction on elementary students' academic performance, the principal investigator (PI) developed an activity with a corresponding assessment instrument. The PI initially incorporated floor-robots into an activity in two fifth grade science classrooms. Pre/post survey analysis provided encouraging results. To follow up on the initial results, the PI and co-principal investigators (co-PIs) introduced floor-robots into eight additional fourth and fifth grade science classrooms over an additional school year, as well as in an after-school setting, to determine how floor-robots might be used effectively to engage elementary students in STEM learning. The investigators introduced over 257 elementary students to three types of floor-robots, and this provided students with opportunities to have hands-on access to programming and coding robots for specific purposes. Of the 257 students who interacted with the floor-robots, approximately 103 were provided with pre/post surveys on RoamerĀ®, one of the floor-robots. Additional data analysis provided surprising and encouraging results.
Descriptors: Programming, Coding, Elementary Secondary Education, STEM Education, Robotics, Grade 5, Science Instruction, Grade 4, After School Programs, Elementary School Students, Experiential Learning, Pretests Posttests, Hispanic American Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A