What about ROBOTS?
What is Educational Robotics?
It is a modern technological branch of automation, which has as its object the study, design and operation of robots, as well as the research for their further development.
What is a robot?
According to the US Robot Institute, "a robot is a reprogrammable multifunctional control device designed to move materials, components, tools, and specialized devices through variables, programmed movements to perform a series of tasks”.
A robot consists of two systems, the mechanical one (which includes the drive system) and
the electronic one (which also includes its reprogrammable memory).
How educational robotics was born:
Living in a time of rapid developments where technology is in a continuous process and modern human barely succeeds in following it, the learning process cannot be left intact.
Some professions will become more automated in the coming years. However, technological changes will improve some others and create new jobs and opportunities. The future will not be a battle of people with machines, but an opportunity for people to operate these machines and thus make their work more interesting and their lives better.
The development of automation will increase the complexity of tasks. Many jobs that today do not require special qualifications will either be out of the box or will be automated. The result of this change will be the development through education of new learning environments that will be directly related to these new jobs. 75% of new professions will be based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Timeline of Robotics
1980: Seymour Aubrey Papert (1928-2016), South African mathematician, computer scientist and educator and member of MIT, catalyzes the work of Professor Jean Piaget and establishes constructivism or constructionism, proposing different ways of educating students in schools.
According to the theory of constructivist learning, students construct mental models to understand the world around them. Constructivism supports student-centered learning, in which students use information they already know to gain more knowledge. Students learn by participating in synthetic projects, where they make connections between different ideas and areas of knowledge.
In this process, teachers support and facilitate students, rather than guiding them with lectures or step-by-step guidance. In addition, constructivism believes that learning can occur more effectively when people are actively involved in the construction of material objects, in the real world. In this sense, constructivism is linked to experiential learning and is based on Jean Piaget's epistemological theory of constructivism.
The law of two thirds is also important. It explains that it is not possible for a teacher to have at his disposal 2/3 of the school hour (2/3 of 45 minutes is 30 minutes) and 25 students only 15 minutes to highlight their special characteristics, ie each student has less than a minute.
1998: LEGO Mindstorms is a LEGO product line that combines programmable bricks with electrical machines, sensors, LEGO bricks and LEGO technical components, suitable for the robot user to build and other automated or interactive systems. The first retail version of the LEGO Mindstorms was released in 1998 and was marketed under the Robotics Invention System (RIS).
The original version of Mindstorms Robotics Invention System contained two cameras, two touch sensors and a light sensor. LEGO Mindstorms can be used to build an embedded system model with computer-controlled electromechanical parts.
Many types of real-time systems, from elevator controllers to industrial robots, can be configured using Mindstorms.
Mindstorms kits are used as educational tools, initially through a collaboration between LEGO and MIT Media Laboratory. The educational version of the products is called LEGO Mindstorms for Schools, and comes with the graphic programming software ROBOLAB, developed at Tufts University, using National Instruments LabVIEW as the programming machine (software). From 1998 until today the evolution of this educational robotics platform is inconceivable
2004: The Singapore-based World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is founded. The World Robotics Olympiad is a non-profit organization. All proceeds from sponsorships and fees are invested to support the organization's mission, which is to promote educational robotics and STEM training worldwide.
The World Robot Olympiad aims to bring together young people from all over the world every year, in order to develop their skills in creativity and problem solving. This is done by organizing competitive and educational competitions in educational robotics, which each year is hosted by a different country. The first country to organize an Educational Robotics Olympiad was China in 2004. Greece participated for the first time in the Olympics in 2009.
2005: A project is launched to build a device for controlling interactive drawing programs by students, which would be cheaper than other original systems available at the time. Founders Massimo Banzi and David Cueartielles named the design after Ivrea's Arduin and began producing boards at a small factory in Ivrea, a town in the province of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, where Olivetti was based.
The Arduino design is a branch of the Wiring platform for open source software and is programmed using a Wiring-based language (syntax and libraries), similar to C ++ with simplifications and changes, as well as an integrated development environment (IDE). It soon occupies a large part of the educational market as well as the World Robot Olympiad competitions.
2008: The Organization of Educational Robotics and Science (World Robot Olympiad Hellas) is founded in Greece. The purpose of the organization is to be the vehicle connecting the educational community of our country with the Olympiad of Educational Robotics. Acting as the official National Organizer in the school year 2008-2009, it organizes the first Panhellenic Qualifying Competition of the Educational Robotics Olympiad, in the Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens.
In November 2009, our country takes part for the first time in the Olympics of educational robotics hosted by the Pohang University in South Korea. With vehicle competitions, we take the first step towards the introduction of the STEM methodology (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) in education, introducing to the Greek educational community the core of STEM, educational robotics.
Our competitions are used as an incentive for the creation and operation of a comprehensive program, in order to increase the active interest of the school community towards educational robotics, as well as the wider modernization of Greek schools, through their supply of educational equipment robotics.
In addition, triggered by the competitions, World Robot Olympiad Hellas creates and maintains an active community of pan-Hellenic scope. It works voluntarily and takes care of the continuous training and support of teachers, through free training seminars (online and offline), integrated printed guides and lesson plans.
2015: The first Panhellenic Competition of Educational Robotics for primary school students in Greece was organized, with the theme "My city". With the competing teams using Scratch (MIT Development) as software.
From then until today, every year the World Robot Olympiad Hellas organizes two separate competitions for all educational levels: the Panhellenic Educational Robotics Competition (September-February) and the WRO Educational Robotics Olympiad (March-July). The two competitions start from the regions and end in Athens for the final. The competitions are addressed to the educational community as a whole, in primary and secondary education.
Since 2021 in all Kindergartens, Primary Schools, High Schools of Greece, robotics has been introduced in the timetable and in the educational process as in many other countries.
What are the benefits
of Educational Robotics for children?
A. They learn to work in teams
B. They discover talents and interests that they did not know they had
C. They learn to handle technology responsibly
D. They practice their creative and critical thinking
E. Stimulates students' interest
Educational robotics enables students to work in teams, to think and construct as engineers, and to experience experientially. Emphasis is placed on fascinating practice and not on dry theory.
�Robotics provides opportunities for skill development, encouraging students to engage interactively with topics related to science, math, engineering and technology. It also develops the child's imagination and motor skills, offers the necessary familiarity with technology, and helps the child to acquire from a young age "positive", mathematical thinking.
Thank you for your attention!
Eva Anastasopoulou