Education Commons^™

Simplification Of Robotics Through Autonomous Navigation, Grant Turner

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

With self-driving vehicles, college campus food delivery, or even automated home vacuuming systems, robotics is undoubtedly becoming more prevalent in everyday society and it can be expected to continue with time. While many people are owners, users, or even just spectators of theses robotic products or services, there seems to be a negative perception of robotics that poses an intimidation factor regarding the attempt to understand the ideas driving technology. This perception tends to view robotics as machines that require rich education to understand the complexity and interworkings of, thus attempts understand the field are neglected.

To combat this line …

Impact Of Robotic Challenges On Fifth Grade Problem Solving, Julie Rankin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This action research project was designed to investigate the impact of educational robotics in a fifth grade rural classroom. The integration of science, technology, engineering, and math in education (STEM) has sparked an increase of robotics in the classroom. The purpose of the study was to determine if problem-solving skills can be impacted through continuing involvement with challenges using various educational robotics and programming tools. The study sought to answer two research questions: (1) How does the introduction of robotics challenges in a fifth-grade classroom impact students’ problem solving skills? (2) How do robotics in the classroom impact student interest …

Is Competition Making A Comeback? Discovering Methods To Keep Female Adolescents Engaged In Stem: A Phenomenological Approach, Kathryn B. Notter

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The decreasing number of women who are graduating in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields continues to be a major concern. Despite national support in the form of grants provided by National Science Foundation, National Center for Information and Technology and legislation passed such as the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that encourages women to enter the STEM fields, the number of women actually graduating in these fields is surprisingly low. This research study focuses on a robotics competition and its ability to engage female adolescents in STEM curricula. Data have been collected to help explain why young …