Examining the Efficacy of a LEGO Robotics Training for Volunteer Mentors and K-12 Teachers

摘要

Abstract Examining the Efficacy of LEGO Robotics Training and User- Guides for K-12 TeachersOver the last decade, LEGO Mindstorms platform has been widely used to promote inquiry-based science and math learning and engineering design among K-12 students through theFIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics contests. Moreover, participation in an after-school FLLcompetition preparation provides K-12 students access to opportunities to explore and interactwith advanced tools and devices used by engineers and technologists. Many university-basedSTEM outreach programs and build-it-yourself websites offer a multitude of training workshops,user-guides, and building and programming instructions to support robotics coaches so that theycan prepare and mentor their student teams. These workshops are generally open to teachers atall levels of expertise and aim to introduce teachers to building and programming skills usingLEGO Mindstorms kit. Even with this plethora of resources and an extensive literaturedemonstrating example uses of robotics to teach K-12 level STEM concepts, the full potential forexplicitly exploring STEM principles using robotics-based activities remains largely untapped inK-12 schools.The goal of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of LEGO robotics training and user-guidesin enabling teachers to successfully learn to build, program, and operate LEGO robots. The paperwill present the results of a study that utilized low-intensity resources (e.g., a short trainingworkshop, user-guides, and building and programming instructions) to assess the skills gained byK-12 teachers with various levels of education, teaching, and prior robotics expertise.Specifically, during a daylong workshop conducted in September 2011, 15 teachers were given ashort training that introduced them to build and program a mobile robot by following a LEGODigital Designer robot construction guide and a LEGO NXT robot programming guide. Next, theparticipants were tasked with building, programming, and operating a pre-designed robot byfollowing the written software and hardware user guides. Following the initial task completion,they were given a challenge that required additional construction and programming so that theirrobot could perform a given task. During the study, the progress of building each robot by theteachers was monitored, video-recorded, and graded on its novelty, complexity, and functionalityof the robot design and the software program. In addition, the study assessed teachers’engineering design and creativity skills. Evaluations were also given at the end of the session toassess each teacher’s difficulty in learning or using any aspect of the LEGO hardware andsoftware.This paper will provide: our motivation to investigate the effectiveness of LEGO Mindstormsrobotics training; descriptions of the study and associated assessment method; statistical analysis,discussion of and reflection on the effectiveness of the training, and recommendations for futurework.