Roobopoli: A Project to Learn Robotics by a Constructionism-Based Approach

Abstract

The technological growth follows an exponential trend, and we will hit the knee in the curve in 2029. From that time, challenges will rapidly change, and the job demand will ask for profiles that we can only partially predict. Therefore, there is the need to adapt educational programs to exponential growth as soon as possible to provide children of today (alias future citizens) with the necessary basic skills and the ability to easily combine them to face any challenge the future will pose. We consider computational thinking and robotics as fundamental skills since students should be provided with transversal critical thinking and be technologically-aware to meet job demands. Thus, i) we designed Roobopoli, a project focused on the direct experience of robotics, and ii) we propose an educational procedure to teach robotics by exploiting Roobopoli through a constructionism-based approach. We tested our approach both in formal and informal educational settings by involving students heterogeneous in age, skills, and personal attitudes. The engagement and the interest manifested by participants prove that the constructionism-based approach, in general, and Roobopoli, in particular, are positively accepted by students to learn robotics and to develop computational thinking. In this article, we will present both Roobopoli and the performed experiments by pointing out lessons learned.