Educational robotics for 21st century skills and promoting interest towards stem

1. EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS
FOR 21ST CENTURY SKILLS
& PROMOTING INTEREST TOWARDS STEM
BY:
CHRISTINA TODOROVA
EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS COORDINATOR
EUROPEAN SOFTWARE INSTITUTE – CENTER EASTERN EUROPE
tina@esicenter.bg
+ 359 883 421 983
www.esicenter.bg
www.esIrobot.org
European Software Institute
– Center Eastern Europe
esIrobot

2. CREATIVITY
WITH THE
ESI,TANK
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT:
 Children get to touch & see electronics. WhiteBox is GREAT!
 Includes creativity sessions, aiming to motivate children to think about
robotics in everyday life and as a tool to solve problems.
 Includes girls & boys;
 Promotes creativity, digital fluency, communication & collaboration;
ESI,TANK
• Arduino-based
• Cheap
• WhiteBox
• Hardly ever breaks
• Safe for children
• Replaceable parts
• Very fun
• Impressive looking
SCRATCH
• Visual programming
• Vast community
• Colorful
• Free
• Fun

3. Check out esI,tank on GITHUB : www.github.com/esirobot/practical-robotics-workshop-tank-with-USB-cable
“Mircho” is number one

4. “I’ll hold this, you connect those”
“Teamwork in action”

5. “We made a tank that kills back pain!”
Robotics for back pain:

6. “That’s it, I’m asking my dad to buy me wires – they’re awesome!”
Girl power

7. “Here, I’ll hold your hand so you could connect those…”
Teamwork at its best…

8. “Cheating on exams | Examination | Tutoring”
Applications of robots:

9. “Invite her to play football with us after school!”
After a NAO demo:

10. Students liked the educational workshops activities and were inspiredto do moreeducational robotics
activities in future.
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Neither
Agree Nor
Disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
Blank
The problems we had to solve
were:
Interesting 0% 0% 1% 9% 87% 3%
Difficult 40% 24% 18% 8% 7% 4%
Fun 1% 1% 2% 11% 84% 2%
Working with robots was:
Interesting 0% 0% 1% 7% 89% 3%
Difficult 39% 26% 16% 6% 6% 6%
Fun 0% 0% 1% 7% 88% 4%
Data obtained from the post-workshop questionnaires, completed by the participants from 13 educational robotics workshops, performed in 7 schools (public and private) in
Bulgaria with 312 students (142 girls and 170 boys) in the time period from February 16, 2016 until May 31, 2016. The students were between 7 and 14 years old with the majority
of them aged between 9 and 10 years old
This project is funded by the EU Horizon 2020
Project reference No. 665972

11. The majority of the students reported working in a team being interesting, fun and not difficult. Most of the
students manifested positive attitudes towards aspects of teamwork, such as communication and collaboration.
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Neither Agree
Nor Disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
Blank
Working in a team was:
Interesting 1% 1% 5% 14% 75% 4%
Difficult 45% 20% 16% 4% 9% 5%
Fun 2% 1% 4% 14% 76% 4%
During the workshop ...-
I worked as part of a team 2% 0% 5% 11% 78% 4%
I worked on my own 65% 18% 6% 3% 5% 3%
I helped design a robot 6% 3% 10% 20% 56% 5%
I helped create a robot 3% 4% 2% 18% 67% 5%
I helped program a robot 3% 1% 6% 16% 71% 4%
I was able to choose what I wanted to do 14% 7% 18% 15% 42% 4%
I feel that other people did not listen to me 38% 13% 16% 9% 21% 4%
I did most of the work 29% 19% 25% 9% 13% 5%
I was encouraged by my team 7% 5% 14% 22% 49% 3%
I was bored 71% 13% 5% 2% 3% 6%
I liked sharing what I had done with other
people 2% 1% 9% 16% 68% 3%
I helped someone 6% 3% 18% 22% 46% 5%
I gave up too quickly 71% 13% 3% 4% 6% 4%
This project is funded by the EU Horizon 2020
Project reference No. 665972

12. esI,tank teacher workshop
Moldova, Chisinau (9-10 March 2017)
This training was part of the pilot project "Educational Robotics to develop creativity and
increasing pupils' interest in science and mathematics", under the Ministry of Education of
Moldova's Moldova Competitiveness Project, implemented with the support of USAID and the
Government of Sweden.

13. VISUALIZING MATHEMATICS
WITH THE
MATHBOT
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT:
 Aligned with Bulgaria’s national educational program in mathematics for
the fourth grade;
 Could be transferred and adapted to work with other robotic kits, such as
LEGO
 Includes girls & boys;
 Promotes digital fluency, communication & collaboration;
 Exercises, teaches and visualizes important mathematical concepts;
MATHBOT
• The Finch robot by BirdBrain
Technologies
• Hardly ever breaks
• Safe for children
• Lots of sensors
• Very cute
• Very fun
SCRATCH
• Visual programming
• Vast community
• Colorful
• Free
• Fun

14. Students are programming a sequence of actions, including movement & light.
Sequence of actions

15. “We are the masters of geometry, from now until the end of time!”
Fun with angles 

16. Measuring angles like pros for the first time.
Measuring angles

17. Programming the robot to draw a line of a certain length, measuring and
recording it.
Team in action

18. Students are playing a game involving the elements of a circle by programming
the robot & recording their findings, documenting every experiment.
Elements of a circle

19. Students liked the educational workshops activities and were inspiredto do moreeducational robotics
activities in future.
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Neither
Agree Nor
Disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
Blank
The problems we had to solve
were:
Interesting 1% 0% 2% 9% 88% 1%
Difficult 39% 20% 28% 8% 3% 2%
Fun 2% 0% 3% 10% 83% 2%
Working with robots was:
Interesting 1% 0% 0% 8% 89% 2%
Difficult 42% 23% 22% 8% 5% 2%
Fun 2% 1% 0% 8% 89% 1%
Data obtained from the post-workshop questionnaires, completed by the participants from 5 educational robotics workshops, performed in 1 public school in Bulgaria with
132 students (52% girls and 48% boys) in the time period from November 1, 2016 until December 10, 2016. The students were between 9 and 11 years old.
How many stars? 4.93 out of 5
This project is funded by the EU Horizon 2020
Project reference No. 665972

20. The majority of students reported working in a team being interesting, fun and not difficult. Most of the students
manifested positive attitudes towards aspects of teamwork, such as communication and collaboration.
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Neither Agree
Nor Disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
Blank
Working in a team was:
Interesting 3% 0% 8% 16% 71% 2%
Difficult 44% 22% 15% 8% 7% 4%
Fun 5% 1% 7% 16% 68% 4%
During the workshop…
I solved a problem 9% 5% 23% 15% 45% 3%
I worked as part of a team 4% 2% 5% 14% 73% 2%
I worked on my own 64% 12% 14% 2% 7% 2%
I built a robot 45% 11% 8% 5% 20% 12%
I programmed a robot 2% 1% 2% 4% 89% 2%
I was good at listening 2% 2% 15% 27% 50% 3%
I gave up quickly 80% 12% 3% 1% 3% 2%
I worked hard 3% 3% 8% 21% 64% 2%
I was bored 74% 12% 7% 5% 1% 2%
I helped someone 6% 2% 20% 24% 48% 1%
This project is funded by the EU Horizon 2020
Project reference No. 665972

21. THANK YOU!
CHRISTINA TODOROVA
EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS COORDINATOR
EUROPEAN SOFTWARE INSTITUTE – CENTER EASTERN EUROPE
tina@esicenter.bg
+ 359 883 421 983
www.esicenter.bg
www.esIrobot.org
European Software Institute
– Center Eastern Europe
esIrobot