A Gender-Related Analysis of a Robots' Math Class

thing robot programming activities for learning in the classroom is one way to drive interest and engagement in the STEMfield among students, especialv girls. And this is afield that is particularlycharacterized by an underrepresentation of women. Accordingly, man; countries are increasingly integrating activities related to computer science concepts into their education systems. The EU also sets the goal of considering the connections between STEM disciplines in schools and having students gain experience with robots as well. The use of robots jbr teaching purposes creates opportunities for motivating and meaningid mathematics lessons that are linked to the jindamental concepts of computer science. Mathematics teaching in such a context offers possibilitiesfor an experimental andproblem-oriented approachto the content and a deep insight into mathematical concepts. Research in this area shows that the use ofrobots canpromoteunderstandingofmathematicalconcepts,change attitudes and motivation, and develop netacognitive and problem-solving skills. However, as for gender differences in this context, little is known to date. Addressing this gap, for this work, we investigated learners' peiformance, mathematical and computational ideas and experiences. problem-solving strategies, and help used in an ER (Educational Robotics) activity. In addition, the learners' mathematical competence and computational thinking skills as well as possible correlationsof these measures with the learners'perfbrmanceon an ER activity were examined. For these purposes, an ER activity on the topicofplane geometric figures was designed, which wascarriedoutina6"'grade(1i12years) class (n=24) ofan Austrian middle school in thecity ofSalzburg using the TI-Innovator Rover. The comparison of sixfemale and six male student groups, each consistingoftwo students, made it possible to address the above research questions. For this purpose, a mixed-methods approach was chosen. Qualitativedata, consistingofthe audio recordingsof the student groups'conversations during the ER activity, the constructionsmade on the posters, the student notes, and the saved programs, form the basis for thematic analysis. The quantitative data include the number oftasks solved during the ER activity by the student groups, the mathematics grade ofthe last school yearby the students, and the results ofa test on the students'computationalthinking skills with the related self-assessments. Appropriate quantitative methods for analysis include the Wilcoxon rank-sum test (Mann-Whitney test), the Welch Two Sample t-test, and Kendall's tau and Pearson's correlation coefficient to test for differences and correlations. The main results indicate that groups with female students perform better while showing high engagement in the activity, exhibit a more systematic approach to problem-solving and at the same time use less intensive helpftom the teachers than their male counterparts in this class. The paper concludes by givingfitture directions for researchand the limitsof the present work.