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RoboSTEAM - A Challenge Based Learning Approach for integrating STEAM and develop Computational Thinking

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We live in a digital society that needs new better prepared professionals for the new challenges and opportunities provided by the ICT. Students must learn how to deal with all the issues that emerge in this new context. They should acquire computational thinking skills by integrating STEAM, however this needs for changes in current learning curricula and also new learning approaches. RoboSTEAM project deals with this issue by the application of a Challenge Based Learning approach that uses Robotics and Physical Devices. One of the problems found during the project is the complexity of the application of a Challenge Based Learning approach due to the special needs of each educational institution. Given this situation the present work presents provides a flexible definition of challenge and describes also samples regarding how to use them.
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RoboSTEAM - A Challenge Based Learning Approach for
integrating STEAM and develop Computational Thinking
Miguel Á. Conde, Camino
Fernández
University of León
León, Spain
{mcong,cferll}@unileon.es
Jonny Alves
Colégio Internato dos Carvalhos
Pedroso, Portugal
jonny.alves@cic.pt
María-João Ramos
Agrupamento de Escolas Emídio
Garcia
Bragança, Portugal
f331aepq@gmail.com
Susana Celis-Tena
IES Eras de Renueva
León, Spain
susanact@ieserasderenueva.org
José Gonçalves, José Lima
Instituto Politécnico de Bragaa
Bragança, Portugal
{goncalves, jllima}@ipb.pt
Daniela Reimann
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Karlsruhe, Germany
daniela.reimann@kit.edu
Francisco J. García Peñalvo
University of Salamanca
Salamanca, Spain
fgarcia@usal.es
KEYWORDS
Robotics, Physical Devices, Computational inking, STEAM ,
Challenge Based Learning, Schools Education.
1 Introduction
Digital society has changed our daily lives, the way we access to
the information, the way we interact with others, the way we
Ilkka Jormanainen
University of Eastern Finland
Joensuu, Finland
ilkka.jormanainen@uef.
ABSTRACT
We live in a digital society that needs new beer prepared
professionals for the new challenges and opportunities provided
by the ICT. Students must learn how to deal with all the issues
that emerge in this new context. ey should acquire
computational thinking skills by integrating STEAM, however
this needs for changes in current learning curricula and also new
learning approaches. RoboSTEAM project deals with this issue by
the application of a Challenge Based Learning approach that uses
Robotics and Physical Devices. One of the problems found during
the project is the complexity of the application of a Challenge
Based Learning approach due to the special needs of each
educational institution. Given this situation the present work
presents provides a exible denition of challenge and describes
also samples regarding how to use them.
Conde, M. Á., Ferández-Llamas, C., Ribeiro Alves, J. F., Ramos, M. J., Celis Tena, S., Gonçalves, J., .Lima, J., Reimann, D., Jormanainen, I., & García-Peñalvo,
F. J. (2019). RoboSTEAM - A Challenge Based Learning Approach for integrating STEAM and develop Computational Thinking. In M. Á. Conde-González, F.
J. Rodríguez-Sedano, C. Ferández-Llamas, & F. J. García-Peñalvo (Eds.), TEEM’19 Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Technological
Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (Leon, Spain, October 16th-18th, 2019) (pp. 24-30). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/3362789.3362893
POST
develop our work, etc. We live in a digital landscape and
professionals should be prepared to provide the beer solutions
for this changeable context. is means, that students need to be
ready for this reality, they should address the new issues that
emerge in the digital society, should know the new information
sources, new devices, new concepts, etc. at is, they should
develop skills in accordance with the new society requirements,
(skills related with ICT) in order to guarantee their employability
[1, 2].
With this in mind the problem is how to facilitate the students
developing such ICT knowledge. at is, they need to develop
skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration,
communication and creativity [3-5]. A knowledge that together
with other technical skills make possible the development of what
is known as "Computational inking".
Computational inking (also known as CT) could be
understood as “it is the study of computers and algorithmic
processes including their principles, their hardware and soware
design, their applications, and their impact on society [6] , it
“involves solving problems, designing systems, and
understanding human behavior, by drawing on the concepts
fundamental to computer science”[7]. e development of CT is
especially relevant in pre-university education [1, 8].
However, developing CT is not easy specially because the
students requires developing such skills from an early age,
something that use to be linked to STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, & Mathematics) education. ese disciplines that
have shown to be necessary in order to have more ecient
workers in our digital society [9, 10]. However, integrating and
fostering STEM or STEAM (if we include the creativity
component) in our current educational landscape is very complex.
is is because it is not easy to summarize all this knowledge in a
set of subjects without an associated loss of quality, and it cannot
be focused only on some subjects or degrees [1]. New learning
approaches are required and in this sense Project [11] or Problem
Based Learning [12] could be an interesting possibility. However,
RoboSTEAM project aims to go beyond these methodologies,
looking for more exible approaches such as Challenge Based
Learning (CBL) [13]. Moreover, as the students require not only
to know how to solve a problem, but to see the solution and even
touch it, a very interesting possibility to engage the students with
this methodology is the use of Physical Devices and Robotics
(PD&R) [14-17].
RoboSTEAM will dene a methodology and a set of tools that
will help learners to develop computational thinking by
using/programming PD&R in pre-university education stages.
e project will also improve teacher education, providing them
with a framework for easy STEAM integration in dierent
educational contexts by providing guidelines for good practices
and lessons learned adapted to dierent contexts. All these
products will have been tested in dierent countries and cross-
validated in dierent higher education institutions [18].
In order to do so the project consortium includes eight
institutions, ve Higher education Institutions and three schools.
e universities are: Universidad de León (ULE), Instituto
Politécnico de Bragança (IPB), Karlsruher Institut Fuer
Technologie (KIT), University of Eastern Findland University
(UEF); and Universidad de Salamanca (USAL). e schools are:
Colégio Internato dos Carvalhos (CIC); Agrupamento de Escolas
Emídio Garcia (AEEG); and IES - Eras de Renueva (IER). It should
be pointed out that the UEF will participate in the project also as
a school, because this institution, represented by the same PIC,
include both the university and primary and secondary schools.
e idea is to test the methodology and tools in these dierent
institutions so it was possible to know if the transnationality of
the project approach.
However, the application of a CBL methodology is not easy
and can be dierent depending on the context. For instance: it is
dierent the application of such methodology in contexts such as
the Spanish than in the Nordic European countries. is means
that is necessary to apply CBL in a exible way and in order to do
show the present paper presents a description of the challenge
concept, a possible template to apply it and the main issues found.
e rest of the paper is structured as follows, next section
presents what Challenge Based Learning is. Section 3, describes
the challenge concept. Section 4 describes the challenge template
and some samples of project challenges. Finally, some conclusions
are posed.
2 Challenge Based Learning
CBL is a flexible methodology that encourages students to
leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-
world problems [13]. CBL is a collaborative methodology. It is
going to involve the students’ groups, but also other peers,
teachers, experts, parents, etc. in order to solve a real problem. A
CBL approach require to propone to the students a big idea, this
idea will be discussed in order to find some main questions. The
students analyze the questions and define a challenge. The
challenge is addressed by the students in a collaborative way and
involving people from their educational contexts and from the
outside [19]. Some authors identify 3 phases in a CBL
methodology [20]:
Engage. Through a process of Essential Questioning the
Learners move from an abstract Big Idea to a concrete and
actionable Challenge.
Investigate. All Learners plan and participate in a journey
that builds the foundation for Solutions and addresses
academic requirements.
Act. Evidence-based Solutions are developed, implemented
with an authentic audience, and then evaluated based on
their results.
Some samples of the application of CBL could be [13, 19, 21-
26]. From these experiments and other it is possible to describe
some advantages of this methodologies [27]:
CBL provide to the students a deeper understanding of
different topics and the possibility to learn how to analyze
the problems in order to pose the better solutions.
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CBL involve learners both in the definition and solution of a
problem.
CBL promotes collaborative working between students from
different disciplines in order to solve a problem. This
collaboration goes beyond their classmates, but includes also
parents, teachers, researchers, experts, etc. This collaboration
could help them in their professional development.
CBL connects the student with the real world in order to
address the challenges.
CBL promote the development of communication skills by
using social and media tools.
However also previous works have shown some drawbacks in
the methodology:
Global projects are often away from the specific contents of
academic subjects [23].
Traditional assessment systems can be a problem for
students, because they may be more focused on assessments
than on learning [12].
Most of the CBL experiments cannot be easily associated to
a specific subject in academic contexts. They used to be
applied to CBL specific designed subjects or to master
projects [25].
Students’ perception about this approach is not clear because
not all the experiments have indicators to evaluate this [26].
The participation of people with different roles may cause
difficulties for students that should adapt their way to work
to this situation [23].
The results of the global projects are typically obtained when
the academic year has finished [21].
There is wide choice of tools to use in CBL experiences so
evaluation is not easy [27].
Some of these drawbacks are also present in the RoboSTEAM
project. RoboSTEAM aims to carry out two pilot stages. e rst
phase includes piloting in 5 schools with students from 12 to 16
applying the methodology and later to carry a pilot stage
exchanging challenges and tools. In order to check if the same
solutions and challenges can be applied in dierent socioeconomic
context. At this moment, this piloting is being designed and one
of the most relevant issue found is to understand what a Challenge
is, and how to dene challenges to be applied in dierent schools,
with time and students background constraints.
3 Challenge concept
One of the main problems we found during the project is the
heterogeneity in the institutions involved in the project and the
problems to understand the challenge concept. Given this context,
it is necessary to describe the challenge concept with dierent
granularity levels, so it can be adapted to the special needs of each
institution. In this case the project team decides to apply the
concept of Challenge, Mina-Challenge and Nano-Challenge
proposed by Nichols et al. [20]. In the next subsections these
concepts will be commented.
3.1 Challenge
It works posing to students a big idea, they should discuss
about it and define some main questions about this idea, from
these questions a challenge is proposed. Students should address
the challenge looking for a collaborative solution that involves
their peers, teachers, experts, etc. After this, the solution, will be
assessed [19]. “Standard Challenges are longer (one month and
longer) and allow considerable latitude for the Learners. Working
together, the Learners identify and investigate Big Ideas, develop
Challenges, do extensive investigation across multiple disciplines
and take full ownership of the process. The Framework is used
from start to finish, including implementation and evaluation of
the Solution in an authentic setting.” [20]
Although in the literature there is not a clear description about
how many hours the students employ to these types of challenges
per day we are considering 4 hours per day, 5 days per week and
4 weeks per month. This means that it should comprise 80
working hours, from which around 40-60 should be at class and
20-40 is personal work of the student. Examples of standard
challenges [28]:
Big Idea: Gender Equality
Main question: How do we achieve gender equality?
Challenge: Build a culture of gender equity!
Later we will have some guiding questions, research, act and
reflect.
3.2 Mini-challenge
Are not so big as a standard challenge and increase the level of
choice and responsibility of a nano-challenge, typical duration is
around 2-4 weeks. These challenges allow learners “to start with
a Big Idea and work through the entire framework. The research
depth and the reach of their Solutions increases and the focus can
be content specific or multidisciplinary. Taking a “show me what
you can do” perspective, Mini Challenges are good for intense
learning experiences that stretch the Learners and prepare them
for longer Challenges”[20]. Regarding duration with 4 hours per
day, 5 days per week model we can talk about a minimum of 40
hours per mini challenges, which 20-30 should be at class and 10-
20 are devoted to students’ personal work. Several mini-
challenges could be the base for a standard challenge.
3.2 Nano-challenge
“Nano Challenges are shorter in length, focus on a particular
content area or skill, have tight boundaries and are more teacher
directed. The Learners typically start with the Challenge without
identifying a Big Idea or Essential Question. The process includes
the Investigation and Act phases, but at a significantly lower level
of intensity and often stop short of implementation with an
external audience. Typically, Nano Challenges are used as
scaffolding leading to more significant Challenges or during
longer Challenges to address specific concepts” [20]. That is,
nano-challenge will be our minimum unit to build challenges, it is
more oriented to a Project based learning approach, it could
involve external people but it is not necessary. Regarding the
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number of hours required by it we are talking between 6-10 hours
of classes and 4-6 of students work. Several nano-challenges can
be used to address a mini-challenge.
3 Challenge template and Sample
In order to facilitate the denition of a Challenge, Mini-
challenge and Nano-challenge by the project consortium a
template was provided to them. It includes information about each
of this challenges levels.
In Table 1 it is possible to see the Challenge template. It
includes elds for the author identication and the challenge title,
a eld for the challenge description, the goals and the evaluation.
Table 1: Challenge Template
Author
Institution
Title
Write in this field a title for the challenge
Description
Write in this field the description for the challenge
Goal/s
Describe in this field the goals of the challenge
Evaluation
Describe what you want to evaluate during the pilot and how to
measure the grade of success, the instruments used, etc.
A sample fullled by using this template can be seen in Table
2. In this case it is a challenge that aims improve transportation.
Author and Institution are not lled to simplify the sample.
Table 2: Challenge Sample
Title
Improve Transportation
Description
The use of vehicles that employ fossil fuels has a great impact in
the environment. Propose approaches to reduce this impact
Goal/s
-Improve environment.
-Define the proper research question/s for the problem
you are dealing with.
-Look for successful transportation solutions.
-Built a possible approach.
-Ask your parents, experts and peers looking for the
best solution.
Evaluation
During this challenge we can assess:
-Time employed to solve the challenge
-Degree of success producing a solution
-Number of people involved in the challenge (students,
experts, parents, etc.)
-Perception about STEEM
-Assessment of STEM perception and CT skills before
and after the challenge
e challenge could be divided in Mini-Challenge and Table 3
template should be used for the description.
Table 3: Mini-Challenge Template
Author
Institution
Title
Write in this field a title for the michallenge
Research question or problem addressed
Describe the research question or problem addressed by this
Mini-Challenge
Description
Write in this field the description for the Mini-Challenge
Goal/s
Describe in this field the goals of the Mini-Challenge
Evaluation
Describe what you want to evaluate during the pilot and how to
measure the grade of success, the instruments used, etc.
Table 4. shows an example of Mini-challenge for the previous
challenge.
Table 4: Mini-Challenge Sample
Use mobile robots to improve transportation
Research question or problem addressed
Can we employ mobile robots to reduce the transportation
impact in the environment?
Description
The use of vehicles that employ fossil fuels has a great impact in
the environment. A possible solution to address this problem in
controlled environments can be the use of mobile robots. Think
about how to employ mobile robots to reduce the environmental
impact in transportation
Goal/s
-Study mobile robots
-Study possible ways to apply mobile robots to improve
the environment
-Explore the scenarios were mobile robots can be
applied
-Built a possible approach based on mobile robots
-Ask your parents, experts and peers looking for the
best solution.
Evaluation
Describe what you want to evaluate during the pilot and how to
measure the grade of success, the instruments used, etc.
-Time employed to solve the challenge
-Degree of success producing a solution that employ
mobile robots
-Number of mobile robots used
-Type and number of issues related with mobile robots
navigation solved
-Number of people involved in the challenge (students,
experts, parents, etc.)
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-Perception about STEEM
-Assessment of STEM perception and CT skills before
and after the challenge
Table 5: Nano-Challenge Sample
Author
Institution
Title
Write in this field a title for the michallenge
Specific Issue to deal with
Describe the specific issue to deal with during the nanochallenge
Description
Write in this field the description for the nanochallenge
Goal/s
Describe in this field the goals of the minichallenge
Kits to use
Please describe the kind of kits or technology that can be
employed to solve the nanochallenge
Evaluation
Describe what you want to evaluate during the pilot and how to
measure the grade of success, the instruments used, etc.
Finally, the Mini-Challenge could be decomposed in one or
several Nano-Challenges (see the description template in Table 5).
Tables 6 and 7 show two examples of possible Nano-
Challenges for the Mini-Challenge dened in Table 4. Both Nano-
Challenges addressed robotics navigation problems that can be
employed to improve transportation.
It is clear that the denition of the challenge in these dierent
levels can help designing the project pilots considering the
requirements of each school, but it is also important to describe
the kits to be used to address the Nano-Challenges which is
described in [29].
4 Conclusions
The development of CT skills and the integration of STEAM is a
critical issue in our current educational landscape. The traditional
learning plans and activities cannot easily integrate them. In this
situation new learning approaches are necessary, and
RoboSTEAM posed one of them.
RoboSTEAM project aims developing CT and integrating
STEM by the application of a CBL approach that uses PD&R.
However, it is not easy, several issues emerging while designing
the pilots. Such as:
e subject where the pilot is going to take place.
Something that depends in each school (some are related
to technology, some to arts, some have mixed proles,
etc.)
e number of hours to apply to the methodology.
Depending on the country it is mandatory to teach the
content planned for a specic subject, so it is necessary to
t in the CBL approach with the subject goals and
schedule. Some partners will be able to employ several
days, other only some hours. is have been addressd
with the description of the dierent challenge types.
Understanding the challenge concept is not easy. We have
tried to overcome this by clarifying the challenge concept.
Depending on the students prole and technological
background, tools to address the challenges should be
adapted. e idea is to use robotics kits, but it is necessary
to support the students to use them properly, so kits so be
well described.
All this complexity is currently being dealt by RoboSTEAM
project and the project team should continuous working on it
during the next project activities. e piloting results will be also
published.
Table 6: Nano-Challenge Sample - Robot following lines
Title
Follow lines with a mobile robot to facilitate
autonomous navigation
Specific Issue to deal with
Use or built a robot that was able to follow a line
Description
The use of vehicles that employ fossil fuels has a great impact in
the environment. A possible solution to address this problem in
controlled environments can be the use of mobile robots.
However, a successful use of mobile robots with transport
proposes should explore the navigation problems and one of the
most common is how to use a robot to follow a line.
Goal/s
-Study mobile robots
-Study navigation issues in mobile robots
-Study possible ways facilitate that a mobile robot
follow a line
-Explore the scenarios were mobile robots can be
applied
-Built a possible approach of a mobile robot that
follows a line
-Ask your parents, experts and peers looking for the
best solution.
Kits to use
It is possible to use mRobot
Evaluation
Describe what you want to evaluate during the pilot and how to
measure the grade of success, the instruments used, etc.
-Time employed to solve the challenge
-Degree of success using or building a robot that follow
a line
-Robot accuracy following the line
-Number of mobile robots used
-Number of people involved in the challenge (students,
experts, parents, etc.)
-Perception about STEEM
-Assesment of STEM skills and CT skills before and
after the challenge
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Table 7: Nano-Challenge Sample - Robot Avoiding
Obstacles
Title
Avoid obstacles with a mobile robot to facilitate
autonomous navigation
Specific Issue to deal with
Use or built a robot that was able to avoid obstacles
Description
The use of vehicles that employ fossil fuels has a great impact in
the environment. A possible solution to address this problem in
controlled environments can be the use of mobile robots.
However, a successful use of mobile robots with transport
proposes should explore the navigation problems and one of
them is to avoid obstacles.
Goal/s
-Study mobile robots
-Study navigation issues in mobile robots
-Study possible ways to facilitate that a mobile robot
follow avoid an obstacle
-Explore the scenarios were mobile robots can be
applied
-Built a possible approach of a mobile robot that avoid
obstacles
-Ask your parents, experts and peers looking for the
best solution.
Kits to use
It is possible to use mRobot
Evaluation
Describe what you want to evaluate during the pilot and how to
measure the grade of success, the instruments used, etc.
-Time employed to solve the challenge
-Degree of success using or building a robot that avoids
obstacles
-Time required to complete navigate through an
scenario with obstacles
-Number of mobile robots used
-Number of people involved in the challenge (students,
experts, parents, etc.)
-Perception about STEEM
-Assessment of STEM perception and CT skills before
and after the challenge
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper is supported by ROBOSTEAM Erasmus+ KA201
Project with reference 2018-1-ES01-KA201-050939
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... A busca por maneiras diferentes de aprendizado vem gerando diversas metodologias durante os anos, um exemplo recente de proposta de ensino está na ideia do STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics), sendo que a proposta de ensino faz com que os estudantes adquiram o processo de pensamento crítico e diálogo para desenvolver soluções aos problemas. Um exemplo de aplicação desta metodologiaé disposta em RoboSTEAM [17] de 2019 desenvolvido na Universidade de Salamanca. O trabalho utiliza de STEAM para o desenvolvimento de pensamento computacional por meio da proposta de desafios de níveis variados para as práticas dos estudantes. ...
... Um estudo de caso [18] da proposta [17] anterioré feito com a execução prática dos desafios sugeridos como passos ao desafio de melhorar o trânsito. Sua execução foi feita durante um Summer Camp com a participação de dois professores, quatro monitores e 16 participantes com duração de cinco dias. ...
... Sua execução foi feita durante um Summer Camp com a participação de dois professores, quatro monitores e 16 participantes com duração de cinco dias. Na explicação do desafio [17] apresentadas as reduções do problema para as categorizações indicadas; Challenge(Como melhorar o trânsito?), Mini Challenge(Hipótese de utilização de Robôs móveis como meio de melhorar o trânsito) e Nano Challenge(Fazer robôs móveis seguirem linhas para facilitar seu funcionamento). ...
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A motivação para o aprendizado do aluno em cursos de Tecnologia da Informação (TI), muitas vezes não permeia disciplinas importantes voltadas à Arquitetura de Computadores. Este trabalho busca apresentar uma metodologia de atividade com foco em práticas e discussões como forma de apresentar conteúdos de forma exploratória. Tinkercad Circuits, uma plataforma de simulação e prototipagem é utilizada para desenvolver as atividades com objetivo de apresentar conceitos de portas lógicas, conteúdo importante dentro da Arquitetura de Computadores. Foi executado um teste com alunos ingressantes da graduação em Ciência da Computação da PUC Minas no campus Coração Eucarístico. A experiência obteve resultados positivos, que indicam um caminho promissor a ser explorado como alternativa aos meios comuns de ensino/aprendizado.
... This involves not only understanding the theoretical underpinnings of each discipline but also mastering the practical skills needed to apply these concepts in innovative ways. Providing guidelines for best practices ensures that educators can effectively incorporate STEAM principles into their teaching (Conde et al., 2019). Saleh (2016) and the Carnegie Science Center (2015) have identified several educational objectives in STEAM education. ...
... Furthermore, implementing STEAM necessitates training teachers to improve their abilities, as well as providing them with cognitive and skill frameworks for integration into various educational contexts. Offering guidelines for best practices ensures that educators can effectively incorporate STEAM principles into their teaching, making education more dynamic and relevant to the needs of the 21st century (Conde et al., 2019). ...
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This paper aimed to investigate the perceptions of mathematics teachers in Saudi Arabia regarding the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) approach. A sample of 350 teachers from the Eastern Province completed a 40-item survey on their STEAM perceptions and teaching requirements. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses revealed overall positive perspectives, with 78.6% strongly agreeing that STEAM transforms classrooms into creative environments. However, just 58.4% felt it enabled active learning, and 67.4% were unsure about systemic support. Significant differences emerged based on teacher gender and qualifications, but not experience levels or stages. While largely optimistic attitudes exist toward STEAM's value, persistent resourcing, competency, and policy barriers likely impede classroom adoption. Recommendations encompass boosting investments in STEAM infrastructure, aligned teacher professional development, specialized materials and tools, and integration support across subjects. Further research incorporating mixed methods, expanded samples, and longitudinal tracking can delineate evidence-based strategies to catalyze effective STEAM adoption. The study recommended enhancing the effectiveness of the STEAM approach in education, especially in mathematics.
... All activities within CBL are focused on collaboration, creativity, experimentation, asking questions, developing deeper subject area knowledge, and taking action to solve real-world challenges [12,22,84]. CBL official guide [64] has a description of the entire framework. ...
... In the report from the implementation project [50], it was presented that students using CBL felt that they had learned more than what was required of them, were part of solving a big problem, and worked harder than they normally do [50]. Thus, the interest in CBL has been increasing over the years [12,22,84], and currently, CBL is being used all around the world from basic to higher education, promoting transversal competencies and collaboration among the students [33]. ...
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Despite recent high interest among researchers and practitioners in learning programming, even the most dedicated learners can struggle to find motivation for studying and practicing programming. Therefore, in recent years, several strategies ( e.g. , educational games, flipped classrooms, and visual programming languages) have been employed to increase students’ engagement in programming studies. However, despite these efforts, no approach has proven efficient enough to sufficiently motivate these learners, and the community continues to search for novel strategies to enhance programming learners’ motivation. Building upon this, our study explores the use of unplugged gamification ( i.e. , gamification implemented without digital technology) combined with challenge-based learning during a programming workshop. Using Grounded Theory methods and data collected from focus groups, we analyzed and interpreted the perceptions of 24 programming learners regarding the gamified workshop. Learners reported experiencing collaboration while learning, with some indicating increased effort to obtain rewards, while others seemed to forget about the rewards altogether. Our findings provide valuable insights for computing teachers and researchers into how unplugged gamification combined with challenge-based learning is perceived by programming learners.
... The creation of didactic models by students has been shown to facilitate the learning of complex concepts, generate discussions, and increase enthusiasm (Pérez et al., 2018). However, implementing STEAM-based learning can be challenging due to the diverse needs of educational institutions (Conde et al., 2019). ...
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span lang="EN-US">This study aims to implement the STEAM (Science Technology, Engineering Art Mathematics) based learning in the bachelor of mechanical engineering at the Universitas Sebelas Maret. Integrating STEAM learning in engineering students in design development improves students' understanding of mechanical engineering through projects, challenges, and milestones. This article focusses on how to integrate instructional project into learning-based area and evaluate how far their understanding of. In this article a descriptive approach was used. It aims to explain a phenomenon or social reality by describing variables related to a subject and unit of analysis. 33 university students studying mechanical engineering formed the study population. This study aims to provide an overview of the effectiveness of the STEAM-based learning process applied to the project design topic through descriptive research. The data indicate that learning has improved, and students are now learning more cases and actively gaining knowledge than in the past. Further details about the topic are discussed in this article.</span
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Educational Robotics has had an important impact in recent years as it offers a number of advantages for students. The inclusion of robotics in any educational stage requires teachers with adequate predisposition and training, making it necessary to know the opinions of pre-service teachers. The aim of our study is to analyze the perceptions and self-confidence of 109 pre-service primary education teachers before and after an intervention based on educational robotics and challenge-based learning to teach scientific and mathematical content, in their third academic year. A quasi-experimental design was used involving pretest and posttest, using the nonparametric Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon U tests. The results showed a significant improvement in the overall mean self-confidence. In addition, the intervention led to a more positive perception of the benefits and possibilities of robotics for teaching of scientific and mathematical content, although it also increased the difficulties of implementation due to the lack of training in this digital resource. It is concluded that interventions are required based on educational robotics that allow pre-service teachers to gain the necessary self-confidence and perception to facilitate its introduction for the teaching of scientific and mathematical content.
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BACICH, L.; HOLANDA, L.. EDUCAÇÃO STEAM Reflexões sobre a implementação em sala de aula, conexões com a BNCC e a formação de professores. São Paulo: Tríade Educacional, 2022.
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Perceptions of Science and Mathematics Teachers at Najran City about STEAM and its Relationship to Some Variables Abstract: The study aims to define perceptions of science and mathematics teachers at Najran city about STEAM and its relationship to gender, specialization, school level and experience using descriptive design. The sample of the study consisted of (221) science and mathematics teachers in the public schools at Najran in Saudi Arabia. To collect data, the study used a questionnaire. The results of the study showed that the sample of the study knowledge level of STEM advantages was high (M = 4.17). It also showed that the most important requirements to employee (STEAM) in teaching from the study sample point of view are to train teachers and educational supervisors on the optimal use of this strategy and provide technical requirements, classroom equipment and the appropriate educational environment. The study suggests designing in-service training programs by the ministry of education for science and mathematics teachers that include the advantages of (STEAM) and how to employ it in the learning and teaching processes. Key Words: Perceptions, Science and Mathematics Teachers, STEAM.
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Robotics in education has special relevance in current digital society where students should know how to deal with technology. In this paper, it is presented an educational experiment in the mobile robotics domain. The referred experiment was part of a summer camp, which took place at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança Portugal, being its technological aspects related with mobile robotics. Other than the technological aspects, the students participated in many different cultural and social activities, having the opportunity to know the city of Bragança and also to know different persons, mainly students, professors, researchers and laboratory technicians. The applied approach in the summer camp was a challenge based learning methodology, being involved in the experiment 3 professors, 4 monitors, working with a group of 16 secondary school students. The described experiment was planned as an activity of the RoboSTEAM - Integrating STEAM and Computational Thinking development by using robotics and physical devices ERASMUS+ Project.
Chapter
Several countries have usually adopted several priorities for developing ICT competences from kindergarten to secondary education. Most of them are focused on the development of key competences and/or coding skills. Although coding may be very attractive for young students and a very good practice or experience, it could be more interesting to develop students’ logical thinking skills and problem-solving skills throughout programming approaches or computational thinking. This is a very exciting challenge with lots of possibilities regarding coding, robots, mobile devices, Arduino-based application, game-based learning, and so on. TACCLE 3 – Coding is a European Union Erasmus+ KA2 Programme project that supports primary school staff and others who are teaching computing to 4–14-year-olds. Specifically, TACCLE 3 project has three main objectives: (1) to equip fellow classroom teachers, whatever their level of confidence, with the knowledge and the materials they need to teach coding effectively; (2) to develop a website of easy-to-follow and innovative ideas and resources to aid teachers in teaching coding (they will also find a review of the current academic research and an overview of the resources currently available for teaching coding); and (3) to provide national and international in-service training courses and other staff development events to help support and develop confidence and competences in teaching coding. This chapter explains the work done in TACCLE 3 and the first experiences we have to introduce the computational thinking to the primary school teachers, with a special attention to the use of smart textile objects. https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319935652
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Several countries have usually adopted several priorities for developing ICT competences from kindergarten to secondary education. Most of them are focused on the development of key competences and/or coding skills. Although coding may be very attractive for young students and a very good practice or experience, it could be more interesting to develop students' logical thinking skills and problem-solving skills throughout programming approaches or computational thinking. This is a very exciting challenge with lots of possibilities regarding coding, robots, mobiles devices, Arduino-based application, game-based learning and so on. Thus, it is very important to explore the effect that these experiences have been taking into the pre-university students, both at primary and secondary education, with a special focus on the computational thinking as one of the components inside the toolbox to develop a reflexive and critical education in order to help children to solve problems using the technology with which they will live daily.
Conference Paper
Learning based on challenges arises to place the trainees to take decisions, have closeness to reality and develop useful solutions to community. This method is carried out both industry and education. The main difficulty lies in the fact that planning challenges involve multidisciplinary knowledge, they are usually implemented outside of the curriculum's subject and the effectiveness of the results does not appear immediately. This work adapts the learning methodology based on challenges to a regulated academic subject and integrates the two successful methods Challenge Based Learning and Challenge Based Instruction. Two types of challenges are proposed: a specific challenge in the academic environment and a common challenge based on the management of a knowledge management system of proven effectiveness. It generates a sustainable system that allows you to find more effective solutions to planned challenges as well as to improve the learning process itself.
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Project-based learning is a comprehensive approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in investigation of authentic problems. In this article, we present an argument for why projects have the potential to help people learn; indicate factors in project design that affect motivation and thought; examine difficulties that students and teachers may encounter with projects; and describe how technology can support students and teachers as they work on projects, so that motivation and thought are sustained.