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CSbots: Designing a Robot for the CS1 classroom

CSbots: Designing a Robot for the CS1 classroom. Tom Lauwers Illah Nourbakhsh Emily Hamner. Who we are. Not CS educators Not traditional roboticists Focus on developing robotic technologies for education. Our Approach. Design to align with curricular needs Involve educators, students

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CSbots: Designing a Robot for the CS1 classroom

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  1. CSbots: Designing a Robot for the CS1 classroom Tom Lauwers Illah Nourbakhsh Emily Hamner

  2. Who we are • Not CS educators • Not traditional roboticists • Focus on developing robotic technologies for education

  3. Our Approach • Design to align with curricular needs • Involve educators, students • Multiple cycles

  4. Focus on CS1 • Robots may enable novel learning interactions • CS1 suffers from retention and enrollment problems

  5. Robots in CS Education

  6. Challenges • Expensive • Delayed feedback • Matching capabilities to concepts

  7. Approaching CS1 • Initial Evaluation • Alpha Cycle • Design • Pilot • Evaluation • Next Steps: Beta Cycle

  8. Faculty Survey • Ground our curricular designs in current classroom realities. • Ensure that enough educators are able and willing to use robots as an educational tool. • 33 university and 4 community college CS1 professors participated in phone interviews. • Responses to open ended questions were coded by the frequency of conceptual expression.

  9. Survey Results • 12% could make major changes without oversight, 69% could make minor changes • 91% expect students to be able to complete assignments at home • The primary languages are Java and C++ • Positive response to using robots in CS1

  10. Design • Curriculum • Robot • Software Framework/API • Key Design Principle: Alignment

  11. Curriculum Design • Design Draws From: • Faculty survey • Textbook survey • Prior partner curricula and partner input • Decisions: • Modular curriculum • Focus on Java

  12. Robot Design • iRobot Create+Qwerk • Audio speaker • Webcam • Wireless • “Kitchen sink” • $800

  13. Software Environment

  14. 2007-2008 Pilots • Two pilot programs at community colleges • Full curriculum • CCAC: 72 students, 8 robots. • CCAC students were evaluated for learning, interest, retention • 7 High School Teachers • One robot each • Test existing and create new assignments

  15. CCAC Retention Rates

  16. CCAC Class Grades

  17. CCAC Student Interest

  18. CCAC Student Interest

  19. High School Results • Pilot teachers involved students in testing • Summer 2008 workshop attracted 24 new teachers • Workshop rated highly • 21 teachers took home a robot

  20. Beta Cycle • Designed new robot • Features derived from alpha cycle experiences • Update curriculum, software • On-going pilots • Evaluation results by next SIGCSE!

  21. Optimal Feature Set • Low-cost - one robot per student • Multimodal • Light, audio, motion w/ position awareness, analog sensors, obstacle detection • Fully Integrated • Attractive

  22. Design: The Finch And…..they cost us $80 to make

  23. Pilots • What to do with 100 robots?

  24. Pilots • What to do with 100 robots? • Loan one to every CS1 and CS2 student at CCAC • Loan one to every interested high school teacher • Loan one to three college professors • Offer cash prizes to CMU students to create cool demo programs

  25. Next Steps • Evaluate current CCAC pilot • Gather feedback from high school and college educators • Gamma cycle!

  26. Questions, Comments? If interested in collaborating: tlauwers@gmail.com This material is based partially upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0632887 We’d like to thank , , and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations for their support.

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