Teaching with Robots: a Service-Learning Approach to Mentor Training
5
Teaching with Robots: a Service-Learning Approach to Mentor Training R. Brook Osborne, Antony J. Thomas, and Jeffrey Forbes Dept. of Computer Science Duke University Durham, NC 27708-0129 [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]ABSTRACT This paper describes a program in which undergraduates mentor teams of local middle and high school students on robotics projects. These teams learn and apply the scientific, mathematical, and computing fundamentals behind the construction of robots and the design of control algorithms. The mentors play a crucial role in the effectiveness of the program. Mentor training has evolved over the five-year life of the program from ad-hoc preparation to a service-learning course where students learn both the technical skills required to design, construct, and test, mobile robots and the pedagogical techniques necessary to mentor middle and high school students. We provide an overview of the program and some evaluation results. Categories and Subject Descriptors K.3.2 [Computers and Education]: Computers and Information Science Education General Terms Human Factors. Keywords Service-learning, robotics, outreach. 1. INTRODUCTION In describing the elements of a successful outreach program, Dodds and Karp note that, “Undergraduate involvement is not merely helpful, but crucial to maintain a dynamic, long-term outreach program [3].” Since September 2004, undergraduate students from Duke University have mentored middle and high school students from Durham Public Schools as part of Duke RoboCupJunior, a project-oriented and team-based academic enrichment program. Mentors work closely with a team of 3-4 students and help develop new lesson plans. Experienced mentors can work as teaching fellows and produce new project materials and evaluate program activities. Each year, a particularly capable teaching fellow takes the lead of the program and serves as program coordinator, managing all program activities, connecting with teachers and parents, and developing a vision for the program. Our goal in outreach is to foster interest and improve competence in STEM disciplines, specifically computing. Robotics is a popular domain for attracting students to computing and engineering [7]. Developing mobile robots is an intellectual endeavor that can excite students of all ages and backgrounds [6]. Seeing a program realized in robot behavior can be a fascinating experience in which ideas and computer code meet the physical world. Robots can be used in education to motivate further study in mathematics and computing [7], demonstrate the interplay between technology and society [4], and broaden participation among underrepresented groups [14]. The intersection of a traditional learning environment with the real world application of newly acquired knowledge makes this program a unique experience for the undergraduate students who serve as mentors. The program provides exceptional opportunities for young students who would likely not otherwise be exposed to the endless possibilities found within robotics. This reciprocal payoff differentiates Duke RoboCupJunior from other similar robotics and engineering curricula. 2. ROBOCUPJUNIOR RoboCupJunior is an international endeavor aimed at pre-college students that seeks to cultivate interest in science and technology through a multifaceted and unconventional approach to competition [11]. RoboCup promotes cooperation and the exchange of ideas among researchers from various universities and organizations while encouraging clever and practical solutions to challenging situations [1]. RoboCupJunior seeks to engage primary and secondary school students through one of three competitions: soccer, rescue and dance. Soccer calls for mobile robots to compete in a two-on-two tournament that mirrors the RoboCup competitions. In rescue, robots race to rescue “victims” from mock disaster scenarios. The third competition, dance, requires students to design and construct robots that move in conjunction with their own choreographed dance. RoboCupJunior is a formative learning experience for students from a variety of backgrounds, helping to develop skills and interests while fostering academic creativity [10]. Figure 1: RoboCupJunior Dance, Rescue, & Soccer The Duke RoboCupJunior program is a collaboration between the Duke Department of Computer Science and Durham Public Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. SIGCSE’10, March 10–13, 2010, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Copyright 2010 ACM 978-1-60558-885-8/10/03...$10.00.
