Chris Rogers's research while affiliated with Tufts University and other places

... We are designing a pilot study with students this autumn to evaluate their learning outcome and get feedback to improve our platform. We plan to separate students into two groups, one group use our platform to learn AR and another group learn the same concepts through an online platform we designed before (Zhang et al. 2021). The learning outcome of RL would be measured through a set of preand post-test. ...

... They provide students with a few images of example builds, some guidance to get them started, and activity specific background knowledge. However, they do not provide step-by-step instructions or dictate the creation of a single "correct" solution [29]. For this activity, students used two different placemat instructions showed in Figure 2. The goal of using the placemat instructions was to support students in getting started with the RL activities without telling them exactly what to do and how to do it. ...

... Although AI covers a wide range of topics, robotics is the only topic in the field that currently plays a major role in the pre-college classroom. Numerous examples point to the use of hands-on robotics activities for teaching physical science (Portsmore, Rogers, Lau, & Danahy, 2003;Williams, Ma, Prejean, & Ford, 2007;Hobbs, Perova, Verner, & Rogers, 2006;Whittier & Robinson, 2007), computer programming (Varnado, 2000;Wedeward & Bruder, 2002), and design (US Foundation for the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, 2008;Melchior, Cohen, Cutter, & Leavitt, 2005;Gorman, 2007;Trinity College, 2008). According to Hood and Hood (2005), the popularity of robotics in pre-college education is due to its effectiveness in increasing the tactile and kinesthetic aspect of learning to meet a wide range of learning objectives. ...

... There is a vast history of using LEGO ® bricks in education. Projects that use the RCX programmable brick have included a wide variety of projects and courses ranging from robot competitions [1][2][3] to laboratory experiments [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] to project based learning [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] . There have also been a few recent publications dealing specifically with computer programming [18][19][20] , which is the focus of the study described herein. ...

... The STOMP program attracts a greater percentage of female fellows, compared to female enrollment at Tufts in engineering (Pickering et al. 2004;STOMP 2014). In a small study, the learning gains for twelve undergraduate engineering students engaged as STOMP fellows for one semester were evaluated using self-assessment on pre/post surveys, pre/post knowledge assessments to directly assess students' knowledge of the engineering design process, and direct behavioral observations; STOMP students were compared to seven students enrolled in an introductory mechanical engineering course focused on robotics to serve as a control (Carberry et al. 2007). While the students' self-assessed attitudes were generally similar between the STOMP students and robotics-course students, the knowledge assessment found that 42% of the STOMP students increased their score compared to only 29% of the robotics-course students. ...

... Integrating engineering also needs teachers who are familiar with their discipline's content and engineering practices (Brand, 2020). Teachers' lack of practical knowledge of integrating engineering, insufficient class time, and a lack of materials, training, space, resources, and administrative support are all barriers to integrating engineering into the classroom (Anderson-Rowland et al., 2003;Cejka & Rogers, 2005;cited in Brand, 2020). Integrated STEM in the classroom needs teachers who are thoroughly knowledgeable about the scientific and mathematics principles that students are asked to apply, and who are equally confident in guiding students through the design process to solve engineering problems. ...

... Over time, STOMP has partnered with 140 teachers, and research showed that over time the teachers gained confidence in implementing engineering in their classrooms. This points to long-term benefits of infusing engineering into K-8 classrooms, which can persist beyond the partnership of the teacher supported by two STOMP fellows (Portsmore 2017). ...

... As such private organizations and universities have collaborated in marketing new equipment / software and sponsored various contests and workshops routinely for K-12 as well as undergraduate students. Notable amongst these are the Lego-Mindstorms / Nxt robots that have widely been used from elementary to college level students in basic understanding of mechanisms to fairly advanced electronic communications and programming 5 . First Lego Robotics 6,7 has drawn wide attention and is continuously gaining in popularity among K-12 students. ...

... The implementation phase lasted for five weeks during which a Force and Motion unit was being taught. The engineering design process, including the steps of determining the problem, researching possible solutions, determining the most suitable solution, making the prototype, and testing the prototype (Wendell et al., 2010), was followed in the study. Robotic coding activities were incorporated into the "researching possible solutions" step of DBSI. ...

... This problem is meant to direct participants to a particular goal, encouraging them to think of constraints and factors of a proposed solution (Morozov et al., 2007). • The jar opener task has participants develop a potential jar opening device that can assist people who only have the use of one hand to open jars Lemons et al., 2009Lemons et al., , 2010aLemons et al., , 2010b. In some studies, participants were able to build physical prototypes of their jar opener using LEGO™ pieces ). ...