Moon Rover Challenge. An educational space robotics resource to teach programming and promote space careers at secondary education levels

Abstract

Nowadays, space educational activities are essential in schools, in order to show the importance of space research and exploration in our daily and future life. Space related activities provides teachers tools and a fascinating context to get students involved in different disciplines which are ‘difficult’ for them. In addition, programming is one of the most important skills in technological areas. Space technology is full of programming, algorithms, and code. However, students’ perception is different because they think coding is difficult and they will not be able to program a satellite or a rover, so they are not very interested and motivated to learn to program. A widely useful tool to motivate students to learn programming is educational robotics, which uses physical robots and block-based programming interfaces to attract their attention. However, these robots are not accessible for all schools, and it is difficult to use robots in the online environment created by COVID-19. Therefore, online tools are becoming more and more important in education, because they make activities more flexible and accessible for schools and students. In this paper, we show an educational resource that used space robotics as a context achieving two main objectives: to promote space careers and teach and motivate high school students to learn how to program. We also show our conclusions and lessons learned, after implementing this project in two different situations. The students’ challenge is to control a Moon rover, which is on the Moon surface in order to fulfil a space mission. The activities can be performed completely online using an online simulation tool and block-based programming language. We tested the educational material in an online event with many high school pupils and also in a face-to-face lesson with pupils studying a technical module. The experiences and feedbacks were positive and allowed us to improve the initial activities. Moreover, the results show students are more interested in space careers after completing the challenge. Space robotics give us a perfect opportunity to introduce subjects such as programming, robotics, and technology to students. These areas will be essential in the future and we have to change perception of the space industry because it is fundamental for the development of space exploration and our society