IniRobot : a pedagogical kit to initiate children to concepts of robotics and computer science

We present the IniRobot pedagogical kit, conceived and deployed within French and Swiss primary schools for the initiation to robotics and computer science. It provides a microworld for learning, and takes an enquiry-based educational approach, where kids are led to construct their understanding through practicing an active investigation methodology within teams. It is based on the use of the Thymio II robotic platform. The paper presents the detailed pedagogical objectives and a first measure of results showing that children acquired several robotics-related concepts.

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Morgane Solène Denise Chevalier, Gordana Gerber, Stéphane Magnenat, Francesco Mondada, Fanny Riedo
Roboptics Edition, 2015
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https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/207526?ln=en

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A Programming Workshop using the Robot "Thymio II": The Effect on the Understanding by Children

Michael Bonani, Stéphane Magnenat, Francesco Mondada, Fanny Riedo

Robots are both fascinating objects for the general public and devices whose conception, understanding and pro- gramming involve many fields. This unique combination makes them an ideal tool for introducing science and technology to children. This paper presents the outcome of a programming workshop held on the occasion of the 2011 EPFL Robotics Festival. This workshop introduced programming using the robot “Thymio II”. The participants enjoyed this workshop very much, and their attitudes suggest that the public is attracted to such events out of interest rather than pure fun or educational concerns. Children appreciated the supervision, characterized by a high staff-per-child ratio of 1/3. We also show that in an hour of tutorial, children were able to acquire concepts such as the sensor or the loading of a program on the robot because they practised these enough. More theoretical and less practised concepts, such as the sensory-motor loop or the programming details, were not well understood. These findings now enable us to create better edutainment material.

IEEE2012

When Children Teach a Robot to Write: An Autonomous Teachable Humanoid Which Uses Simulated Handwriting

Pierre Dillenbourg, Deanna Hood, Séverin Lemaignan

This article presents a novel robotic partner which children can teach handwriting. The system relies on the learning by teaching paradigm to build an interaction, so as to stimulate meta-cognition, empathy and increased self-esteem in the child user. We hypothesise that use of a humanoid robot in such a system could not just engage an unmotivated student, but could also present the opportunity for children to experience physically-induced benefits encountered during human-led handwriting interventions, such as motor mimicry. By leveraging simulated handwriting on a synchronised tablet display, a nao humanoid robot with limited fine motor capabilities has been configured as a suitably embodied handwriting partner. Statistical shape models derived from principal component analysis of a dataset of adult-written letter trajectories allow the robot to draw purposefully deformed letters. By incorporating feedback from user demonstrations, the system is then able to learn the optimal parameters for the appropriate shape models. Preliminary in situ studies have been conducted with primary school classes to obtain insight into children’s use of the novel system. Children aged 6-8 successfully engaged with the robot and improved its writing to a level which they were satisfied with. The validation of the interaction represents a significant step towards an innovative use for robotics which addresses a widespread and socially meaningful challenge in education.

2015

Classification of Children's Handwriting Errors for the Design of an Educational Co-writer Robotic Peer

Shruti Chandra, Pierre Dillenbourg, Ana Paiva

In this paper, we propose a taxonomy of handwriting errors exhibited by children as a way to build adequate strategies for integration with a co-writing peer. The exploration includes the collection of letters written by children in an initial study, which were then revised in a second study. The second study also analyses the "peer-learning" (PL) and "peer-tutoring" (PT) learning methods in an educational scenario, where a pair of children perform a collaborative writing activity in the presence of a robot facilitator. The data obtained in the first two studies allowed us to create a "taxonomy of handwriting errors". A set of writing errors were selected and implemented in an educational activity for validation. This activity constituted a third study, wherein we systematically induced the errors into a Nao robot's handwriting using the {PT} method - A teacher-child corrects the handwriting errors of the learner-robot. The preliminary results suggest that the children in general showed awareness to the writing errors and were able to perceive the writing abilities of the robot.

2017

Robotics

Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of electronics and communication, computer science and engineering. Robotics involves the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of rob

Computer science

Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to applied

Robot

A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the contro