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Teaching with LEGO mindstorms robots: Effects on learning environment and attitudes toward science
Abstract
Robotics equipment became the new approach to provide students with hands-on experience while learning STEM subjects. This study implemented a 15-day robotics program in 6th grade classrooms within three magnet schools. The goal was to understand students' and teachers' perceptions of their classes, their attitudes toward robotics and effect of robotics on student motivation. My Class Inventory (MCI), Test of Science-Related Attitude Elementary version (TOSRA2), Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI), interviews, and observations were used in this study. According to our results, students perceived more friction, less satisfaction from their classroom environment, while their enjoyment of science lessons decrease. It is important to consider teachers personal beliefs and attitudes, while implementing new content and pedagogy such as robotics in their classroom. This study suggests different factors summarized in the conclusion for a successful implementation of robotics program in the future.
Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global Database: Jim, C. K. W. (2010). Teaching with LEGO mindstorms robots: Effects on learning environment and attitudes toward science (Order No. 1489918). ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (851128461).
... Educational robotics activities are a pedagogical tool that has a positive impact on the development of STEM skills and arouses curiosity (Mead et al., 2012). Some studies show that robotics is an effective tool for the acquisition and development of basic knowledge and skills related to STEM (Barreto & Benitti, 2012;Eguchi, 2010;Jim, 2010;Mataric et al., 2007). Most studies that investigated robotics activities found that students create better learning environments for mathematics and science lessons and learning is more motivating (Robinson, 2005;Rogers & Portsmore, 2004). ...
Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education plays a vital role in order to prepare students for the twenty-first century economy. Unfortunately, people with disabilities in countries throughout the world are vastly underrepresented in scientific and technological fields. Closing the gap in the STEM is vital for improving fairness and opportunities for the people with disabilities. The STEM industry is critical in a world where there are various environmental, health, and development issues. It is essential not only for increasing productivity and competitiveness, but also for ensuring individual and societal well-being. The STEM workforce is expected to rise exponentially in the future year in today’s burgeoning knowledge-intensive economy. This chapter explores a current state-of-the-art literature review on the use of assistive robots in STEM education people with disabilities.
... Robotics has been used in education for different purposes, such as computational thinking skills (Chalmers, 2018;Chen et al., 2017;Leonard et al., 2016a;Taylor & Baek, 2019), programming skills, attitude towards programming, and programming motivation (Ortiz et al., 2015;Taylor & Baek, 2019), behavioral patterns (Kim et al., 2015;Kucuk & Sisman, 2017), creative behaviour (Nemiro et al., 2017), problemsolving skills (Li et al., 2016;Ortiz et al., 2015), robotics performance (Chen et al., 2017;Taylor & Baek, 2019), and attitude towards robots (Castro et al., 2018;Reich-Stiebert et al., 2019). Additionally, robotics has become a new perspective for teaching STEM subjects with hands-on experience and an effective tool for facilitating students' STEM learning (Eguchi, 2017;Jim, 2010). Robotics-based pedagogy provides at least five key advantages over traditional pedagogy in teaching the theory and practice of STEM; (a) robotics could integrate STEM topics in a multidisciplinary fashion, (b) efficiently transforms abstract concepts into concrete learning modules for students, (c) combines the STEM theory with its practice, (d) provides hands-on learning that is active and engaging, and (e) offers a highly enjoyable and motivating learning environment (Chung et al., 2014). ...
Creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration are thought to be the core skills that will enable students to be successful in the future. Economic and social development of a nation is associated with the individuals’ such new skills, which are commonly referred as the twenty-first-century skills. However, the educational methods used in transmitting knowledge from teachers to students are not capable enough to bring up such competent individuals. The “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” (STEM) education is a promising approach to help students gain those skills and robotics offers opportunities to integrate STEM education. This study aims to investigate the effects of robotics summer camps with STEM activities on students’ perception and attitudes towards STEM. The researchers organized two robotics summer camps in 2017 and 2018 with 48 students. Data were collected by using the STEM Perception Test and STEM Attitude Test. The pre-test post-test quasi-experimental design without a control group was used in the study. Wilcoxon’s Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks tests showed that students’ perceptions towards STEM increased at the first robotics camp; however, students’ attitudes towards STEM did not change significantly in both robotics camps. Furthermore, mathematics sub-dimension of STEM perception at the first camp and science sub-dimension of STEM attitude at the second camp significantly increased.
... Attitudes could refer to an overall evaluation of groups, people, and objects within our social world. The process of reporting an attitude involves making choices relating to liking versus disliking, or it could be favoring versus disfavoring (Jim, 2010). There is plenty of evidence proposing that attitude presents a positive influence on learning and cognition (Korkmaz, 2016;Hwang et al., 2012). ...
The study employed will employ LEGO Mindstorms Ev3 robotics in the learning environment of the computer curriculum of the 3rd level of Saudi Arabia middle schools to examine whether this kind of learning environment enhances computational thinking skills and learning programming concepts and attitude toward learning. The study will conduct in Riyadh of 60 student participants will be selected through purposive sampling techniques to participate in a quasi-experimental study. Before the implementation of the experimental study, a preliminary study will be conducted through a descriptive survey among students who are randomly selected of middle schools in Saudi Arabia to respond to computational thinking tests and attitude questionnaires to determine their level of CT and their attitude toward learning programming. After that, the researcher will do the experimental study with both groups. The T-test will be conducted to compare both groups' scores for CT, and test for programming skills form their books and questionnaires for students' attitude toward learning to program with LEGO Mindstorms Ev3. However, the results of the pre-test and post-test will help to reveal the differences between both groups in this study. Furthermore, the result will help to build a framework for implementing CT with LEGO Mindstorms robotics in learning programming in the computer curriculum of Saudi Arabia middle schools.
... Robotics and STEM relations are not limited with the study of STEM careers. Robotics became the new approach to provide students with hands on experience while learning science subjects (Jim, 2010). Williams et al. (2008) stated that the summer robotics camp, they designed for their study, enhanced middle school students' physics content knowledge. ...
Educational usage of the robotics has accelerated recently because of educational potential of robotics has been recognized by educators and popularity of international robotics tournaments. Many university and schools prepare technology and robotics related summer schools for children. LEGO Mindstorms NXT is the most popular and commonly used robotics set for educational purposes. These robot sets rooted to Seymour Papert’s LOGO studies which have much influence Instructional Technology in 1960’s. This study aims to present a literature review on educational potential of LEGO Mindstorms NXT robotics sets. Robotics mainly used in education for supporting the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. Most of the related studies resulted with positive effects of the robotics activities in STEM education. Robotics also used in education to increase some skills of the children such as discovery learning, critical thinking and social skills.
... They should not give direct solutions, but they should evaluate the children's performance and offer an appropriate amount of support. Jim (2010) has observed that frustration and stress can build up very quickly when robots fail to perform as expected. The instructors should keep students active through their support, derailing anxiety or boredom and maintaining a flow state (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). ...
The aim of this study is to explore critical design issues for educational robotics training camps and to describe how these factors should be implemented in the development of such camps. For this purpose, two robotics training camps were organized for elementary school students. The first camp had 30 children attendees, and the second had 22. As a research methodology, a multiple-case design approach was used. Interviews with children and instructors, observations, field notes, and camp evaluation forms were used as data collection methods. The data were analyzed by qualitative data analysis techniques and categorized into themes: instruction, group issues, competition, coaching, technical issues, challenges, and camp duration. Prominent findings indicate that instruction strategies for a robotics camp should be designed from simple to complex. The most effective and enjoyable part of the camps were the project studies, which should be highly encouraged. Robotics training camps should provide children a chance to practice what they have learned in school. Group size should allow for every child in the group to have tasks assigned at all times.
This chapter reviews the recent research on motivation, beliefs, values, and goals, focusing on developmental and educational psychology. The authors divide the chapter into four major sections: theories focused on expectancies for success (self-efficacy theory and control theory), theories focused on task value (theories focused on intrinsic motivation, self-determination, flow, interest, and goals), theories that integrate expectancies and values (attribution theory, the expectancy-value models of Eccles et al., Feather, and Heckhausen, and self-worth theory), and theories integrating motivation and cognition (social cognitive theories of self-regulation and motivation, the work by Winne & Marx, Borkowski et al., Pintrich et al., and theories of motivation and volition). The authors end the chapter with a discussion of how to integrate theories of self-regulation and expectancy-value models of motivation and suggest new directions for future research.
This paper suggests that robotics can provide a vehicle for guiding primary and secondary school children toward an effective understanding of programming and engineering principles. It observes that children find robotics stimulating and motivating, and that their interest in, and focus on, ‘making the robot do what I want’ leads them ‘via the back door’ to learn about programming and engineering in a way that is both well-grounded and generaliseable.
These observations arise from empirical studies of children participating in robotics competitions: we conducted observations and interviews with all the participating teams at two robotics events (one regional, one international), and we followed one young robotics team in a case study. The children had almost all built their robots using LEGO MindStorms for specific competitions, with soccer, rescue and dance events. The children typically worked in teams, building robots as an extra-curricular activity supported by a teacher/mentor. The children came from a variety of educational and social backgrounds.
The paper considers what makes robotics motivating to children, including children who are not considered ‘technically oriented’. It describes learning that has emerged from children's experiences in building and programming robots. It describes examples of children learning subjects that they previously considered difficult and inaccessible, in order to solve problems in robotics. It describes examples of children identifying and understanding principles, concepts, and elements of practice that are fundamental to programming and engineering. It describes further how secondary school students working in teams learned that this programming and engineering knowledge has a social context.
The Robot Roadshow Program is designed to increase the interest of elementary school children in technical disciplines, specifically math and science. The program focuses on children from schools categorized as rural or underserved, which often have limited access to advanced tech-nical resources. We developed the program using robots as a vehicle to get children excited about tech-nical disciplines. We have found that while robots are universally captivating for all school age chil-dren, they dramatically peak the interest of K-6, graders. During the 2002-2003 school year, more than 1200 children, mostly from ru-ral and underserved Kansas schools, have participated in the program.
Despite the growing popularity of robotics competitions such as FIRST LEGO League, robotics activities are typically not found in regular K-12 classrooms. We speculate that, among other reasons, limited adoption is due to the lack of empirical evidence demonstrating the effect of robotics activities on curricular goals. This paper presents a mixed methods study exploring the impact of a summer robotics camp on middle school students' physics content knowledge and scientific inquiry skills. It was found that the camp enhanced students' physics content knowledge but failed to improve their skills in conducting scientific inquiry. Qualitative data provided an explanation of the findings.
This paper considers ‘Introduction to Engineering Design–Mobile Robotics,’ a first year course in the undergraduate engineering programme at Trinity College. A highlight of the course is a team-based semester-long project in which students design and build fire-fighting robots and participate in the international robot competition. Course contents, hands-on learning experiences, and assessment methods are described. Course assessment and evaluation showed that it exposed first-year students to practical and philosophical dimensions of engineering design, successfully addressed many basic ABET outcomes, and elicited a positive student reaction.
This paper reports the results of a study of the relationship of robotics activity to the use of science literacy skills and the development of systems understanding in middle school students. Twenty-six 11–12-year-olds (22 males and 4 females) attending an intensive robotics course offered at a summer camp for academically advanced students participated in the research. This study analyzes how students utilized thinking skills and science process skills characteristic of scientifically literate individuals to solve a robotics challenge. In addition, a pre/post test revealed that course participants increased their systems understanding, t (21) = 22.47, p < .05. It is argued that the affordances of the robotics environment coupled with a pedagogical approach emphasizing open-ended, extended inquiry prompts the utilization of science literacy-based thinking and science process skills and leads to increased systems understanding. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 373–394, 2008
This paper presents an innovative approach to introducing pre-service early childhood teachers to math, science and technology education. The approach involves the creation of partnerships between pre-service early childhood and engineering students to conceive, develop, implement and evaluate curriculum in the area of math, science and technology by using robotics and the engineering design process. In this paper we first present the theoretical framework for the creation of these partnerships. We then introduce an experience done at Tufts University in which three different forms of partnership models evolved: the collaborators model, the external consultants model and the developers model. We also present different case studies from this experience and finally we conclude with some remarks and observations for making this work scalable and sustainable in other settings and universities.
This paper presents a study about learning and the problem solving process identified among junior high school pupils participating
in robotics projects in the Lego Mindstorm environment. The research was guided by the following questions: (1) How do pupils
come up with inventive solutions to problems in the context of robotics activities? (2) What type of knowledge pupils address
in working on robotics projects? and (3) How do pupils regard or exploit informal instruction of concepts in science, technology
and problem solving within a project-based program? Data collection was made through observations in the class, interviews
with the pupils, observations of the artifacts the pupils had constructed, and analyses of their reflections on each project.
The study revealed that the pupils had often come up with inventive solutions to problems they tackled by intuitively using
diverse kinds of heuristic searches. However, they encountered difficulties in reflecting on the problem solving process they
had used. In robotics projects, the pupils deal primarily with qualitative knowledge, namely, the ability to identify specific
phenomena in a system or factors that affect system performance. The study also showed that pupils are likely to benefit from
implementing informal instruction on concepts in science, technology and problem solving into a project-based program. This
type of instruction should take place in the context of pupils’ work on their projects, and adopt a qualitative approach rather
than try to communicate in the class procedural knowledge learned by rote.
Little research has been conducted on how students work when they are required to plan, build and evaluate artefacts in technology rich learning environments such as those supported by tools including flow charts, Labview programming and Lego construction. In this study, activity theory was used as an analytic tool to examine the social construction of meaning. There was a focus on the effect of teachers’ goals and the rules they enacted upon student use of the flow chart planning tool, and the tools of the programming language Labview and Lego construction. It was found that the articulation of a teacher’s goals via rules and divisions of labour helped to form distinct communities of learning and influenced the development of different problem solving strategies. The use of the planning tool flow charting was associated with continuity of approach, integration of problem solutions including appreciation of the nexus between construction and programming, and greater educational transformation. Students who flow charted defined problems in a more holistic way and demonstrated more methodical, insightful and integrated approaches to their use of tools. The findings have implications for teaching in design dominated learning environments.
Science educators advocate hands on experiences and the use of manipulatives as important for children's conceptual development. Consequently, the utilisation of Lego robotic technologies in teaching and learning has become more prevalent in school science classrooms. It is important to investigate their value as educational tools, particularly their role in helping children develop conceptual understanding of scientific principles. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of robotic technology with elementary age children, specifically focusing on the children's conceptual development concerning gear function and mechanical advantage. Our results indicate the robot sessions helped develop the students' understanding of gear function in relation to direction of turning, relative speed, and number of revolutions. However, when we examine the children's understanding around the concept of mechanical advantage, we still see the majority of children unable to provide an accurate explanation. The children had difficulty explaining the reasons underpinning their gear arrangement choices for making their robots fast or powerful. The results suggest that providing students with physical experiences is not enough for students to 'discover' the relationship of gears to a vehicle's power and speed. A guided inquiry instructional approach is important during the early stages of developing a conceptual understanding of mechanical advantage.
This study examined the impact of robotics and geospatial technologies interventions on middle school youth’s learning of and attitudes toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Two interventions were tested. The first was a 40-hour intensive robotics/GPS/GIS summer camp; the second was a 3-hour event modeled on the camp experiences and intended to provide an introduction to these technologies. Results showed that the longer intervention led to significantly greater learning than a control group not receiving the instruction, whereas the short-term intervention primarily impacted youth attitude and motivation. Although the short-term intervention did not have the learning advantages of a more intensive robotics camp, it can serve a key role in getting youth excited about technology and encouraging them to seek out additional opportunities to explore topics in greater detail, which can result in improved learning.
This paper reports on a pilot study that examined the use of a science and technology curriculum based on robotics to increase the achievement scores of youth ages 9-11 in an after school program. The study examined and compared the pretest and posttest scores of youth in the robotics intervention with youth in a control group. The results revealed that youth in the robotics intervention had a significant increase in mean scores on the posttest and that the control group had no significant change in scores from the pretest to the posttest. In addition, the results of the study indicated that the evaluation instrument used to measure achievement was valid and reliable for this study.
This paper presents evaluation research studying Danish children's attitudes towards robotic technologies. The purpose of the paper is to focus on children's contextualisation and evaluation of different robotic technologies and discuss an approach combining contextual and technical issues in a learning context. It appears from this study that children know pretty much about robots, and they distinguish between different kinds of robots, and their attitudes towards robots is rather complex. It seems that children evaluate robots from four elements of technology, which consist of technical perspectives, sociological perspectives, knowledge perspectives and cultural perspectives. The paper is based on comparisons between two groups of children aged 9-14 with different experiences of building a robot. One group participated in the robotic competition First Lego League (FLL), which goal is to give children positive attitudes towards science and technology, including robots. The other group of children (coming from the same geographic area) did not participate in FLL.
A recent guest-edited issue of this journal (Volume 6, Number 3, 1980) summarizes the considerable interest evident since the late 1960s in the conceptualization, assessment, and study of student perceptions of psychological characteristics of their classroom learning environment. This issue and several other recent key overviews (Moos, 1979; Walberg, 1979; Fraser, 1981; Fraser and Walberg, 1981) have firmly established classroom environment as a thriving field of study.When used as criterion variables in prior curriculum evaluation research, student perceptions of classroom environment characteristics have differentiated revealingly, usefully, and appreaciably between classrooms following alternative curriculum materials or instructional strategies (Anderson, Walberg, and Welch, 1969; Levin, 1980). In addition, other studies have established the criterion validity of classroom environment perceptions in differentiating between classrooms varying in class size (Walberg, 1969), grade level (Welch, 1979), and subject matter (Anderson, 1971a; Hearn and Moos, 1978), and between classrooms in five different types of schools (urban, rural, suburban, vocational, alternative) (Trickett, 1978). The strongest tradition in past research on classroom learning environment, however, has involved investigation of the predictive validity of student perceptions (i.e., the ability to predict student cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning outcomes).
This paper describes a project carried out within the University of Sunderland’s Department of Computing, Engineering and Technology during the 2008/9 academic year to investigate the potential for the use of LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots in the teaching of basic programming skills to undergraduate students. The project’s initial proposal and context is discussed, with potential benefits identified and feedback methods outlined. The paper then describes of students and evaluates the student feedback and results obtained. In addition, a number of spin-off projects are the operational issues encountered when the project was implemented for two separate cohorts described which have provided additional benefits to students, the department and local schoolchildren. The paper concludes by outlining future work which is being carried out at the University of Sunderland as a result of this project.
In this study, 149 low-income, ethnically heterogeneous, fourth- and fifth-grade students completed self-report surveys in the fall and spring of 1 academic year. We examined classroom climate (satisfaction, cohesion, friction, task difficulty, and competition) and school belonging in relation to language arts and math and science self-efficacy, taking into account initial self-efficacy. Results revealed that greater satisfaction and school belonging, as well as less friction, were associated with higher language arts self-efficacy; school belonging emerged as the most important contextual influence when all classroom and school environmental variables were examined together. Less difficulty was the only contextual variable associated with higher math and science self-efficacy. These results suggest that student perceptions of the classroom and school environment are important to consider in relation to academic outcomes and that they have differential influences depending on the subject. Findings and implications for teachers and schools are discussed.
This article deals with three major instances in the history of the LEGO Company. First, it investigates the transference from wood to plastics as the main material used in creating LEGO toys, and also the innovations in plastic molding machines that influenced the interlocking mechanism of the LEGO bricks. Second, this article deals with a rather unfortunate episode from the LEGO history, namely, the period between the late 1990s and the early twenty‐first century when the LEGO Company felt the need to extend its brand image through diversifying its product range. Unfortunately, this led to a confusing, rather than a strong brand image and resulted in heavy financial losses in 2003 and 2004. Third, this article looks into recent attempts by the LEGO Company to bring the fans into the company in order to revive the LEGO brand and its products. This part focuses on Mindstorms 2.0 and Mindstorms NXT, especially, in order to illustrate the increase in user involvement in LEGO product development.
This article presents a constructionist approach to introducing technology, in particular robotics, in the early childhood classroom. The authors demonstrate how this approach is well suited, since the four basic tenets of constructionism have a long-standing tradition in early childhood education: (a) learning by designing meaningful projects to share in the community, (b) using concrete objects to build and explore the world, (c) the identification of powerful ideas that are both personally and epistemologically significant, and (d) the importance of self-reflection as part of the learning process. This article introduces a methodology for teaching preservice teachers to integrate technology in the classroom. It also describes four different experiences in which preservice teachers designed and integrated robotic projects done with LEGO Mindstorms and ROBOLAB to engage their young students in exploring and learning new concepts and ways of thinking.
The Learning Environment Inventory (LEI) measures student perceptions of the social climate of high school classrooms. The My Class Inventory (MCI), a simplified version of the LEI, is suitable for younger children 8 to 12 years of age. This manual is a revised version of a 1976 manual (previously revised in 1971). In addition to its many editorial changes, the present manual includes a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of research involving use of the LEI and MCI in numerous countries, instructions for administration and hand scoring of the two instruments, and new and expanded material related to the MCI. In particular, the version of the MCI included here is slightly different from the previous one. More comprehensive statistical information about the MCI is provided, and published research involving the MCI is reviewed. The contents of this manual include a description of the initial development of the LEI and MCI; extensive normative and validation statistics for each instrument; reviews of relevant research using these instruments; and suggestions for ways in which teachers, researchers, and curriculum evaluators might make use of the scales. Copies of the LEI and MCI, together with administration and scoring instructions, are provided in the appendices. (Author/PN)
The global economy has "flattened" the world in terms of skills and technology. A new workforce of problem-solvers, innovators, and inventors who are self-reliant and able to think logically is one of the critical foundations that drive innovative capacity in a state. The K-12 (kindergarten through grade 12) education system, with the support of postsecondary education, the business sector, foundations, and government, must ensure that: (1) all students graduate from high school with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competencies; and (2) a greater number of students graduate from high school as potential professionals in STEM fields. In this document, it is recommended that governors adopt policy tools in three areas to build a comprehensive STEM policy agenda: (1) aligning rigorous and relevant K-12 STEM education requirements to the expectations (inputs) of postsecondary education and the workplace; (2) developing statewide capacity for improved K-12 STEM teaching and learning to implement that aligned STEM education and work system; and (3) supporting new models that focus on rigor and relevance to ensure that every student is STEM literate upon graduation from high school and a greater number of students move onto postsecondary education and training in STEM disciplines. (Contains 2 figures and 58 endnotes.)
This study investigated the favorite subject to teach and enjoyment of teaching of 490 elementary school teachers (K–5) from two rural school districts in the southeastern United States. Reading and language arts were consistently ranked among the favorite and most enjoyed subjects to teach, whereas science and writing were consistently ranked among the least favorite and least enjoyed subjects to teach. However, the complexity of teachers' attitudes was evidenced by interactions with grade level and attitude measure that existed with mathematics, writing, and social studies. Further, primary-level teachers, compared to upper elementary teachers, were found to be more subject generalists in terms of their relative enjoyment for teaching all subjects. Implications for teacher preparation and policies related to elementary school teaching assignments are discussed.
The creation of specialized Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) schools over the past decades has largely been related to economic, political, and educational concerns. The recent America COMPETES Act (200716.
2007 . H. R. 2272: America COMPETES Act, 110 Cong View all references), for example, intends to strengthen public secondary educational opportunities in science, technology, and mathematics by creating additional statewide specialized high schools. Specialized STEM schools have often served the interests and needs of students, who are gifted, talented, and motivated in STEM fields, and today such schools are also often expected to inform and enhance pedagogical practices in public education. The purpose of this article is to (a) present the history of specialized STEM schools and the National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology; (b) consider the efficacy of these schools; and (c) explore the possibilities for research and inquiry within these schools to enhance understanding of gifted and STEM education.
This study examines inservice elementary school teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and practical knowledge toward inquiry-based science instruction and the influence of an inquiry-based elementary science course on teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and practical knowledge regarding inquiry. Both surveys and a case study were administered to the 14 elementary school teachers before and after completing a three-credit elementary science methods course that was inquiry-based. The findings showed that the teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and practical knowledge about inquiry were clearly influenced by the course. Through this course, the teachers developed fairly positive beliefs and attitudes that promoted inquiry instruction. The majority of participants also improved their knowledge and skills of conducting inquiry as they successfully practiced inquiry-instruction in their science teachings.
Student perceptions of classroom environment can provide useful criteria for evaluating educational alternatives. The My Class
Inventory (MCI) was used with 588 3rd- to 5th-grade students in Texas in evaluating the effectiveness of instruction using
a textbook, science kits, or a combination of both. Various analyses attested to the factorial validity and reliability of
the MCI and suggested that using science kits was associated with a more positive learning environment in terms of student
satisfaction and cohesiveness. Higher student satisfaction was found in classrooms with greater cohesiveness and less friction
and competition. Qualitative data generally supported the findings from surveys.
Researchers agree that science education should begin at childhood, due to its contribution to later cognitive skill development. However, in most cases only a small portion of kindergarten and elementary school activities is related to science. Given the tremendous impact teachers have on children and on the success or failure of their curriculum, teachers' efficacy belief toward science teaching (TEBTST) should be of significant concern. It is suggested herein that in order to improve TEBTST, the science curriculum should be developed not only from the perspective of the child's needs, but will explicitly consider the teachers' needs as well. Such an approach is described in this study, and is labeled as the Inquiry Events (IE) teaching method. This method involves relating to an open-ended problem situated in real life, that encourages investigation of a variety of issues—ethical, economic, scientific, etc.—which both kindergarten and elementary school teachers are accustomed to considering. The method encourages teachers to relate to these daily situations by introducing scientific questions, which they would ordinarily ignore or omit. Using the STEBI (Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument) questionnaire before and after a 4-day workshop introducing the IE method, it was found that IE improved TEBTST and increased their confidence in teaching science.
This paper describes key success factors for the implementation and development of a LEGO robotics engineering outreach program for elementary school students in West Texas. The outreach program not only aims at getting young students excited about engineering but at the same time aims at improving retention rates among electrical and computer engineering freshman-level college students by involving them as paid mentors. It particularly takes into consideration the rural character of West Texas, which provides hardly any electrical and computer engineering job opportunities, and the fact that a university with a college of engineering serves as academic hub for the area.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of one year of regular "LEGO" training on pupils' performances in schools. The underlying pedagogical perspective is the constructivist theory, where the main idea is that knowledge is constructed in the mind of the pupil by active learning. The investigation has been made in two steps. The first step was before the training and the second after training. For both cases we have constructed and included control groups. A logistic model is applied to the data under consideration to investigate whether the LEGO training leads to improving pupil's performance in the schools. To analyse the opinion studies, GLM for matched pair models and the Quasi symmetry methods have been used. Preliminary results show better performances in mathematics for the trained group in grade five, and pupils who are good at mathematics tend to be more engaged and seem to be more successful when working with LEGO. The study has also shown that pupils have different learning styles in their approach to LEGO training. The role of the teacher, as a mediator of knowledge and skills, was crucial for coping with problems related to this kind of technology. The teacher must be able to support the pupils and to make them understand the LEGO Dacta material on a deeper level.
The use of mixed methods designs for conducting research has become a major trend in social science research. Renowned methodological experts Janice Morse and Linda Niehaus present a guide to intermediate and experienced researchers on the possibilities inherent in mixed method research. They offer the basic principles of conducting this kind of study, then examine a wide variety of design options available to the researcher, including their strengths and weaknesses and when to use them. Providing examples from a variety of disciplines, examining potential threats to validity, and showing the relationship between method and theory, the book will be a valuable addition to the methodologistâs library and a useful text in courses in research design.
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