Motivating secondary school students towards STEM careers through robotic artefact making Erasmus Project

Project Title

Motivating secondary school students towards STEM careers through robotic artefact making

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

RoboScientists project aims to inspire secondary school students in making STEM fields a career choice, by introducing them in robotic artefacts’ creation. The students were encouraged to construct their own robotic artefacts, exploring at the same time the underpinning subject topics (i.e. mechanics, electronics, programming) and the underlying concepts of physics and other STEM related disciplines. To scaffold their “educational adventures” a set of project scenarios, videos, supporting materials and technical tutorials were designed. The project focused also on teachers’ professional development in STEM teaching and supported them in updating their teaching skills and designing engaging and interesting learning experiences for their students by using different technologies for robotic artefact creation.

Another innovative aspect of the project was the embodiment of the idea of the STEM Clubs. This concept is very popular in the UK and the United States of America but still not very popular in secondary schools in European countries. Instead of simply promoting this concept, the project aimed at training teachers on how to establish STEM Clubs and challenge students’ active participation.

This project aimed at engaging school students (13-18 years old) which demonstrate low interest in STEM and keep distance to STEM related disciplines. In creative ways, by developing the robotics technology it is following the Maker Movement trend in education (Schon, 2015), a global trend that encourages young people to be creative with technology. The objectives of the project were:
-Motivation of school students to develop their knowledge and practical skills in STEM related disciplines (like electronics, mechanics, programming) which are sought on European labour markets.
– Encourage student involvement in physics and other STEM disciplines by providing them links for practical use and creative applications.
– Offering teachers the opportunity to update their teaching practices and allowing them to become better qualified in motivating students’ engagement in STEM related subjects.
– Offering teachers the opportunity to update their technical skills through the introduction to robotics technology and preparing open source software for robot control.
– Encouraging secondary school students (13-18 years old) to continue their studies in STEM at tertiary level education and to possibly pursue a career in this field.
– Encouraging equal opportunities in STEM education for boys and girls.

The 150 students from partner countries (Poland, Greece and Latvia) and 19 teachers participated in the project.

During the realization of the project, following activities were carried out:
* The educational materials for teachers were prepared to support them during realization of robotic lessons at schools and to help them to update their technical skills. They consist of:
1. Technical tutorial for teachers, which provided them with the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge in the fields of electronics, mechanics, software and microcontroller programming. To make the material easier to understand, the tutorials were enriched with a number of examples using block programming language (Snap4Arduino) and text programming language (C++).
2. Guidelines for teachers for six interdisciplinary robotic projects were prepared. These guidelines consist of the pedagogical considerations and practical ways of project realizations.
3. The RoboScientists teacher training curriculum, which details the pedagogical framework of the RoboScientists project. It focuses on the pedagogical methodologies which can be practised in the classroom by the teachers and the process of introducing the projects in the class. The teacher’s guidelines help to prepare for robotics lessons, methodology as well as other practical tasks to become familiar with the proposed learning materials and the robotic construction process.
4. The RoboScientists guide for developing an in-school STEM Club was prepared to support teachers in the STEM Club establishment. The guide also includes tips on how to organize the STEM Club from a logistic and substantive side.
* The prepared educational materials for students:
1. Most of the projects consist of several levels of difficulty to better match the material to the level and needs of the group of students. This solution made it possible to implement the project to a wide group of students from different countries. The projects are interdisciplinary in nature and allow students to explore various aspects/topics in STEM. The projects come along with worksheets for students and other supportive educational resources that can be used by them in order to carry out the projects (i.e. video guides, half-baked solutions, solution files).
2. The additional resources were developed to support the on-line education in the COVID-19 pandemia challenging times for hands-on and project-based practices. For this reason, resources that facilitate the crafting process were developed as well as circuit diagrams.
* The three learning activities were organized (two of them stationary and one on-line) with the staff from the participating organizations and schools. The aims of these activities were to familiarize participants with the robotics technology and to teach how to introduce the robotics projects in the classroom. During the last learning activity (C3), the teachers were familiarized with the establishing STEM clubs at secondary schools.
* At the end of the project, the “Robotic in education” conference was organized via MS Teams and connected with the workshop. About 240 people participated in the conference and workshops.
* The three multiple events were organized in Greece (on-line), Latvia (on-line) and Cyprus (stationary) to disseminate the project outputs to academia, school community and policymakers.
* The five STEM clubs were established at partner’s schools. The STEM clubs are actively developed by teachers and students. Graduates of the schools, included in the project, support the work of the clubs despite starting their studies.

The project had a significant impact on the partner schools. Most of them had no prior experience with robotic technology and students previously found STEM subjects boring. The project made it possible to change the approach of both students and teachers. Students noticed that knowledge from several subjects can be combined to create practical projects. The teachers found that they were able to realize practical classes and STEM clubs. Their knowledge and skills have increased significantly. Through dissemination events, conferences and articles, we interested other schools in the implementation of robotic projects.

Project Website

http://www.roboscientists.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 238947,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

POLITECHNIKA WARSZAWSKA & Country: PL

Project Partners

• FREDERICK UNIVERSITY
• Zespol Szkol nr 2 im. Eugeniusza Kwiatkowskiego w Debicy
• LATVIJAS UNIVERSITATE
• XXXI Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Ludwika Zamenhofa
• ENGINO.NET LTD
• RIGAS DOMES IZGLITIBAS KULTURAS UN SPORTA DEPARTAMENTS
• 1 EPAL KORYDALLOY