Materials for Enabling Hands-On Robotics and STEM Education

We describe our approach to enabling hands-on experiential robotics for all ages through the introduction of a robot programming workbook and robot test-bed. We describe the vision and motivation for the project, and then the details of the robot hardware, software, and the accompanying workbook and textbook materials. Together, these resources are aimed at providing free, detailed, and readily accessible materials to K-12 and university educators and students for direct immersion in hands-on robotics. Introduction and Motivation It has long been recognized that experiential, hands-on education provides superior motivation for learning new material, by providing real-world meaning to the otherwise abstract knowledge. Robotics has been shown to be a superb tool for hands-on learning, not only of robotics itself, but of general topics in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Given the current shortage of student interest in STEM topics, and an undersupply of a trained workforce in those areas, increasing attention has been paid to developing innovative tools for improved teaching of STEM, including through robotics. A broad spectrum of avenues for pursuing robotics at the pre-university level exists; some of the most visible are FIRST (2) LEGO Mindstorms (5), and Botball (1). Increasingly, high schools across the country are providing elective robotics courses as well as after-school programs. Gradually, middle schools are starting to get involved as well. However, significant barriers still exist to making robotics accessible to pre-university students and teachers. In this paper, we describe our vision for making robotics accessible to all pre-university K-12 ages, as well as the materials and tools we are developing toward making that vision possible.