Social Robot to teach coding in primary school

Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT) education is spreading all over the world involving all levels of schools. Software and hardware solutions have been designed and developed to introduce CT at school. In this paper, the first trial of coding activities has been realized using Pepper Social Robot. The idea is to allow pupils to program Pepper; the mission is to guide the robot through a path on a grid sketched on the floor to reach a predefined target. A user test was conducted to evaluate the experience of pupils, in terms of effectiveness, engagement, and cognitive workload in a learning coding activity that involves the social robot Pepper. Pupils appreciated the use of the robot which can interact with them, they were very engaged in the activity and improve their knowledge about coding.