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Project InterActions: A Multigenerational Robotic Learning Environment

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Abstract

This paper presents Project InterActions, a series of 5-week workshops in which very young learners (4- to 7-year-old children) and their parents come together to build and program a personally meaningful robotic project in the context of a multigenerational robotics-based community of practice. The goal of these family workshops is to teach both parents and children about the mechanical and programming aspects involved in robotics, as well as to initiate them in a learning trajectory with and about technology. Results from this project address different ways in which parents and children learn together and provide insights into how to develop educational interventions that would educate parents, as well as children, in new domains of knowledge and skills such as robotics and new technologies.

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Notes

  1. As of 2006, 37 states have included engineering/technology standards in their educational frameworks.

  2. http://www.ase.tufts.edu/devtech/Project_Inter-Actions/

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Acknowledgements

Many people have made this research possible: The students in the DevTech research group and the CEEO (Center for Educational Engineering Outreach) at Tufts University. In particular, I am grateful to Lindsay Groff, Laura Beals, Kevin Staszowski, and Jason Kahn for their hard work on the project. Thanks to Liliana Orellana for her statistical work and to Clement Chau and Laura Beals for thoughtful comments and edits in the manuscripts. Finally, I would like to thank the LEGO group and Chris Rogers for funding this project. Initial funding was also provided by a FRAC award given by Tufts University.

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  1. Tufts University, 105 College Ave., Medford, MA, 02155, USA

    Marina U. Bers

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  1. Marina U. Bers
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Correspondence to Marina U. Bers.

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Bers, M.U. Project InterActions: A Multigenerational Robotic Learning Environment. J Sci Educ Technol 16, 537–552 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-007-9074-2

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