The Impact of Robotic Activities on Secondary School Students’ Interest in Physics in Kenya

Abstract

Educational robotic activities can be used to support teaching of science subjects. Many secondary school students have little interest in Physics as a subject and hence only a few students select it in preparation of career progression. Robotic activities can be employed to facilitate practical learning in science subjects in general with the Physics subject benefiting the most. In Kenya, there is little research on the role robotic activities can play on learning of these subjects. This study developed robotic activities from educational robots fabricated by the researcher. The activities presented learners in secondary school with diverse opportunities of enriching their learning of Physics as a Science subject. The robotic activities were integrated into Physics topics to give the teaching and learning of this subject a new approach. The integrated robot activities were then introduced to Form 2 students in workshops carried out during weekends which included 3-day activities for the students. In this study 200, form 2 students were selected randomly from 20 schools in Kangema sub-county, Murang’a county in Kenya. The students were issued with questionnaires before and after exposure to the activities through the workshops for purposes of data collection. The quantitative data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that the robotic activities had a significant impact on students’ interest in Physics. The study recommends that the government should facilitate the integration of educational robotic activities in the current secondary school Science curriculum in order to improve interest towards these subjects.