The effect of project-based arduino educational robot applications on students' computational thinking skills and their perception of Basic Stem skill levels
Abstract
The
aim of this study is to investigate the effects of project-based arduino
educational robot applications on students' computational thinking skills and
their perception of Stem skill levels. The study group consists of 6th grade
students from 2 different secondary schools from Turkey. Within the scope of
the research, classes were assigned to experimental and control groups
neutrally. There are 15 students in the control group and 18 students in the
experimental group. The experimental study continued for 11 weeks in both
groups. In the experimental group, project-based arduino educational robot
applications were applied in classes whereas in the control group, project
development activities were carried out with block based programming tool. The
research data were collected by using the computer-based skill level scale (α =
0.809) and the Basic STEM Skill Levels scale (α = 940). The mean, standard
deviation, minimum, and maximum, Mann-Withney U tests were used for independent
measurements and the associated measurements were performed on the collected
data. At the end of the research, it was determined that activities based on
block based robotic programming tool did not have a significant effect on both
students' total scores of Stem skills and scores related to factors, but when
computational thinking skills were analyzed, it was found that they contributed
significantly more than the total score and problem solving factor based on
block based programming tool.
Keywords
References
- Akgündüz, D., Aydeniz, M., Çakmakçı, G., Çavaş, B., Çorlu, M., Öner, T., & Özdemir, S. (2015). A report on STEM Education in Turkey: A provisional agenda or a necessity? İstanbul: İstanbul Aydın University STEM Center.
- Altunel, M. (2019). STEM Education and Turkey: Opportunities and Risks, Available at: [https://www.setav.org/perspektif-stem-egitimi-ve-turkiye-firsatlar-ve-riskler/, Retieved: 10.03.2019.]
- Atmatzidou, S., & Demetriadis, S. (2016). Advancing students’ computational thinking skills through educational robotics: A study on age and gender relevant differences. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 75, 661-670.
- Benitti, F. B. V. (2012). Exploring the educational potential of robotics in schools: A systematic review. Computers & Education, 58(3), 978-988.
- Carbonaro, M., Rex, M., & Chambers, J. (2004). Using LEGO robotics in a project-based learning environment. The Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning, 6(1).
- Chaudhary, V., Agrawal, V., Sureka, P., & Sureka, A. (2016, December). An experience report on teaching programming and computational thinking to elementary level children using lego robotics education kit. In 2016 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E) (pp. 38-41). IEEE.
- Chen, G., Shen, J., Barth-Cohen, L., Jiang, S., Huang, X., & Eltoukhy, M. (2017). Assessing elementary students’ computational thinking in everyday reasoning and robotics programming. Computers & Education, 109, 162-175.
- Ching, Y. H., Yang, D., Wang, S., Baek, Y., Swanson, S., & Chittoori, B. (2019). Elementary School Student Development of STEM Attitudes and Perceived Learning in a STEM Integrated Robotics Curriculum. TechTrends, 1-12.
- Demirkol, Z. (2016). Çocuklar için kodlama [Coding for kids], İstanbul: Pusula Pub.
- Erol, O. (2015). The Effect of Scratch Programming Programming on Motivation and Achievement of Information Technology Teachers. (PhD. Thesis), Anadolu University, Institute of Educational Sciences.
