CSbots: Designing a Robot for the CS1 classroom

Tom LauwersIllah Nourbakhsh

Emily Hamner

Who we are

• Not CS educators

• Not traditional roboticists

• Focus on developing robotic technologies for education

Our Approach

• Design to align with curricular needs

• Involve educators, students

• Multiple cycles

Focus on CS1

• Robots may enable novel learning interactions

• CS1 suffers from retention and enrollment problems

Robots in CS Education

Challenges

• Expensive

• Delayed feedback

• Matching capabilities to concepts

Approaching CS1

• Initial Evaluation

• Alpha Cycle– Design– Pilot– Evaluation

• Next Steps: Beta Cycle

Faculty Survey

• Ground our curricular designs in current classroom realities.

• Ensure that enough educators are able and willing to use robots as an educational tool.

• 33 university and 4 community college CS1 professors participated in phone interviews.

• Responses to open ended questions were coded by the frequency of conceptual expression.

• 12% could make major changes without oversight, 69% could make minor changes

• 91% expect students to be able to complete assignments at home

• The primary languages are Java and C++

• Positive response to using robots in CS1

Survey Results

Design

• Curriculum• Robot• Software

Framework/API

• Key Design Principle: Alignment

Curriculum Design

• Design Draws From:– Faculty survey– Textbook survey– Prior partner curricula and partner input

• Decisions:– Modular curriculum– Focus on Java

Robot Design

• iRobot Create+Qwerk

• Audio speaker• Webcam • Wireless• “Kitchen sink”• $800

Software Environment

2007-2008 Pilots

• Two pilot programs at community colleges– Full curriculum– CCAC: 72 students, 8 robots.– CCAC students were evaluated for

learning, interest, retention

• 7 High School Teachers– One robot each– Test existing and create new

assignments

CCAC Retention Rates

CCAC Class Grades

CCAC Student Interest

CCAC Student Interest

Favorite assignments

0.00%10.00%20.00%30.00%40.00%50.00%60.00%70.00%80.00%90.00%

Assignment

favorite same ascurrentfun also

simple better

challenge better

High School Results

• Pilot teachers involved students in testing

• Summer 2008 workshop attracted 24 new teachers

• Workshop rated highly• 21 teachers took home

a robot

Beta Cycle

• Designed new robot– Features derived from

alpha cycle experiences– Update curriculum,

software

• On-going pilots• Evaluation results

by next SIGCSE!

Optimal Feature Set

• Low-cost - one robot per student• Multimodal

– Light, audio, motion w/ position awareness, analog sensors, obstacle detection

• Fully Integrated• Attractive

Design: The Finch

And…..they cost us $80 to make

Pilots

• What to do with 100 robots?

Pilots

• What to do with 100 robots?– Loan one to every CS1 and CS2 student at CCAC– Loan one to every interested high school teacher– Loan one to three college professors– Offer cash prizes to CMU students to create cool demo

programs

Next Steps

• Evaluate current CCAC pilot

• Gather feedback from high school and college educators

• Gamma cycle!

Questions, Comments?

We’d like to thank , , and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations for their support.

This material is based partially upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0632887

If interested in collaborating: tlauwers@gmail.com