Ac 2010-457: Using Robobooks to Teach Middle School Engineering and Robotics

This paper reports on the initial testing and use of an innovative curriculum delivery tool called RoboBooks. RoboBooks is an interactive, digital workbook environment that integrates robotics-programming environments with reporting and analysis tools. The team developed an innovative middle school curriculum designed to introduce students to the engineering design process by asking them to create a LEGO robotic shopping cart of the future. The curriculum built upon the principal investigators’ prior work in this area, and addressed the need for scaffolding students through the robotics programming to reduce the technical/troubleshooting load on the teacher. The team hosted a weeklong teacher professional development program to introduce teachers to teaching engineering design with the RoboBooks tool. The paper reports on the teachers’ engineering design self-efficacy using a validated survey tool in a pre-test/ posttest design.