The Use of Different Kinds of Robots to Spark Student Interest in Learning Computational Thinking

Abstract

Educational robots have been used in schools for STEM education and for teaching students programming and computational thinking (CT) for many years. The look and feel of traditional robots for educational purposes such as LEGO Mindstorms and NXT have been mostly engineering-oriented. Not until recently, have robotic products such as Dash & Dot utilized physical appearance which were cute and kid-friendly. This study compared the effects of using two kinds of robots– Dash & Dot and LEGO NXT, in terms of students' performance, student's attitudes about learning activities, and how different genders respond to various robots. A Quasi-Experimental Design was conducted. The participants consisted of 106 6th graders from four classes of students. Two classes were designated as the experimental groups which used Dash & Dot robots,). The other two classes of students were the control groups which used NXT robots. With respect to students' attitudes toward learning, the study showed no significant difference between experimental and control groups. With respect to learning programming skills, it was found that females in the experimental group prefer to use robots. Females showed a definite preference for using the Dash & Dot robots.