Using Robotics to Teach Mathematics: Analysis of a Curriculum Designed and Implemented

We report on a project that investigates the use of engineering as a context in which to learn mathematics through an evaluation of a LEGO-based robotics curriculum. We performed a content analysis of the curriculum in order to identify the types of mathematics topics that students would have an opportunity to learn, and investigated the extent to which those topics were aligned with national mathematics standards. The curriculum had a large percentage of tasks with clear relevance for mathematics and aligned well with the standards at the level of broad, topic areas (e.g., measurement, algebra, etc.). The curriculum was not well aligned at the more specific, topic level (e.g., use of measuring instruments, evaluating expressions, etc.), indicating that level of alignment is an important consideration when designing engineering curricula to teach mathematics. We simultaneously conducted a case study analysis of an implementation of the robotics curriculum in an eighth grade technology classroom to assess whether mathematics ideas were salient as students engaged with the tasks. When prompted by the teacher, especially during whole-class discussion, we observed students bringing in a wide range of formal mathematics ideas. Despite that, because of the multitude and diversity of those mathematics ideas, significant mathematics learning did not occur. These findings suggest that robotics is a promising engineering context in which to engage students in thinking about mathematics, but that further supports are required to effectively enable students’ mastery of the more general mathematical ideas.