Teaching K-12 students robotics programming in collaboration with the robotics club

Abstract

We present the result of a study in which a summer K-12 robotics course has been taught by a college professor and three student members from the Vaughn College's Robotics Club. Our aim was to provide an enjoyable teaching and learning environment similar to a "Big Brothers" program so that high school students can learn robotics programming more efficiently. We present details on the approach we have taken as well as K-12 student feedback made through the comments on the course survey. Finally, we discuss the future works that may be able to improve the teaching approach. The participants for the summer robotics course were students ranging from junior high school to senior high school. Prior to attending the summer program, most of the students did not have experience regarding robotics and generally did not know how to build and program a robot. After completing the five-week summer program, their interests in robotics had a dramatic increase. Most students were excited about coming back next summer to gain a more advanced understanding about robotics.