GREEN ROBOTS, SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND INQUIRING MINDS: YOUNG CHILDREN ENGINEER ROBOTS TO CREATE CITIES OF THE FUTURE

Robotics in schools has been widely acknowledged as enhancing student learning outcomes, particularly motivation, engagement and problem solving. The research literature predominantly makes calls for further research to illuminate issues of sustainability of robotics initiatives beyond the novelty factor, gender differences in sustaining interest, and teacher confidence. And further, robotics has not been overly used in early years classrooms, being more often associated with students in the upper primary and junior secondary years. This paper reports on a two-fold project researching student and teacher learning through embedded robotics curricula. With a focus on sustainable living, Year 1 and Year 7 students explored green cities using programmable robots, with classroom teachers working alongside students and robotics tutors. This paper reports on preliminary data analysis in relation to classroom observations and interview data. These data showed a high level of engagement in robotics activities by the majority of students in both Grade 7 and Grade 1. The Grade 1 children readily engaged in programming their robots and completing set tasks, as did the Grade 7 students. Student awareness of environmental issues increased. Using robots was seen to contribute to student interest and motivation in each lesson. In all robotics sessions, classrooms were lively and student energy was high. Teachers' confidence with using robotics and incorporating them into their regular lessons was strong, but more so for the Grade 7 teacher than the Grade 1 teacher. These findings are discussed in relation to implications for classrooms of the future.