Roberta - learning with robots

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Roberta - learning with robots
logo
legal form Educational initiative
founding October 20, 2002
founder Fraunhofer IAIS
Seat Saint Augustine
motto Create enthusiasm and curiosity for technology and natural sciences (MINT)
main emphasis Encourage children, especially girls, in technology and IT
method Certification of teaching staff, creation of didactic materials, gender-appropriate course design, establishment of a network
Action space Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England, Italy, Sweden, France, Japan, Brazil
Volunteers over 1000 Roberta teachers
Website www.roberta-home.de

Roberta is a training concept to arouse interest in technology, natural sciences and IT in children and young people - especially girls . Open Roberta is a project within the Roberta Initiative to make programming more accessible with the help of the NEPO programming language .

history

Roberta was registered with the German Patent and Trademark Office as a brand name for the Fraunhofer Society in 2005 . Since the end of the project phases funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from 2002 to 2006 and the project phases funded by the European Union (Science and Society) from 2005 to 2008, the project “Roberta - girls conquer robots” and “Roberta - goes EU ”in the Fraunhofer IAIS initiative“ Roberta - Learning with Robots ”.

motivation

There is a shortage of more than 170,000 STEM specialists in Germany - the FAZ reported in April 2016, citing various studies. At the same time, the number of graduates in Germany is below the European average. Interest in technical subjects and professions is particularly low among women (proportion of women in the 1st semester of technical subjects in the winter semester 2005/2006 in IT and mechanical engineering around 17%, in electrical engineering 9%). Even at school age, only less than four percent of girls can imagine a career in engineering.

approach

Robots are attractive to many people and they are fun to construct. Robotics offers a playful approach to technology by touching it and trying it out. With the help of didactically and technically adapted robots, children already learn basic knowledge of the construction of robots up to their programming within a day. By designing, constructing, programming and testing mobile autonomous robots, they learn that technology is fun, learn how technical systems are developed and acquire knowledge in computer science, electrical engineering, mechanics and robotics. The construction and use of robots ideally combines many elements of technical knowledge from computer science to mechatronics, which are helpful for an understanding of technological problems through to philosophical questions - such as the intelligence and autonomy of artifacts .

The attractiveness of robots helps to overcome inhibitions, the playful use of them promotes the reduction of skepticism towards technology and the fascination of their development arouses interest and willingness to learn. In addition, active interaction with them promotes technical and media skills.

concept

The Roberta concept consists of four components:

  1. Roberta courses: are aimed primarily at children / adolescents between the ages of 10 and 16. Courses for this age group were scientifically monitored and evaluated. In the Roberta network, however, there are also Roberta courses aimed at both young and old. Roberta courses can only be given by trained and certified Roberta teachers
  2. Roberta learning and teaching materials: are reference and reference work for Roberta teachers who prepare or hold Roberta courses. In addition to the basic volumes, some advanced volumes expand the concept with in-depth experiments, new models and other programming languages. In addition to the Roberta series, registered teachers can find additional teaching and learning materials on the Roberta portal.
  3. Roberta-Teacher-Trainings: are used to train designated Roberta-Teachers, the teacher-trainings are designed for 1.5 days and last for max. Limited to 12 people per training. Participation is chargeable and participants are registered on the Roberta portal. The prerequisite for participation is a pedagogical and didactic background of the participants. Roberta teacher training courses are held exclusively by accredited Roberta coaches. In addition to the basic training courses, there are advanced training courses as well as training courses for the use of Java, NXC and Android.
  4. Roberta network: The RobertaRegioZentren (RRZ) are an essential part of the Roberta network. Roberta teachers are assigned to a RobertaRegioZentrum who are trained and certified in the course of establishing an RRZ. In addition, RRZ keep a pool (at least 10) so-called Roberta boxes ready, which are made available to the connected Roberta teachers to hold courses. In addition to RobertaRegioZentren, so-called Open Roberta Coding Hubs have also been installed nationwide in places such as libraries, universities or associations. With extracurricular activities, the Open Roberta Coding Hubs offer children and young people an additional opportunity to learn how to use and program robots and microcontrollers.
  5. Open Roberta : A freely available, cloud-based graphic programming environment that makes learning to program easy - from the first steps to programming intelligent robots with a wide range of sensors and capabilities. Since the platform can be used via most common Internet browsers, neither specific computer configurations nor software or security updates are required.

Since 2010, most of Roberta's activities have been shown on the Roberta portal (www.roberta-home.de). On the website you will find contact options and further information on the RobertaRegioZentren and Open Roberta Coding Hubs.

Results

The feedback from more than 500 participants (86% of whom are girls) recorded by the accompanying research by the University of Bremen confirm that the Roberta courses arouse interest, encourage willingness to learn and strengthen self-confidence. The courses make learning fun for girls: 95% of the participants enjoyed the courses, 92% would recommend the course to friends, and 77% would like more courses. In the case of courses that are separated according to the sexes, the results are even better (98%, 94%, 85%). The courses strengthen the girls' self-confidence: even after a two-hour “trial course”, the girls believe more than before that they can become computer experts if they want to.

These results were confirmed by the MoMoTech study carried out by the Academy of Engineering Sciences ( acatech ) in 2010 : Roberta is a project that tends to appeal to younger adolescents and children. It has a high affective effect and thus promotes the technical self-image through successful handling of complex technology (robotics). Due to the lack of negative effects, Roberta appears to be a model project with a high impact, due to the high level of professionalism in the preparation.

A scientific evaluation of the educational funding program "eEducation Berlin Masterplan" by the Technical University of Berlin in 2014 came to the conclusion that "Roberta" enriches school lessons through the use of digital media, is very popular with schoolchildren and does not focus on the design of the individual lesson restricts. The respondents want the project to be continued because of its media-educational benefits. In view of the positive results, the author of the study emphasizes the role of the Roberta initiative as a “master plan lead project” and “master plan media project”.

Robots and microcontrollers

Robots come to life in the Open Roberta Lab. With the help of the colorful NEPO programming language, you can easily assemble the programs for the bots yourself. If you don't have a robot or microcontroller, you can use the Open Roberta SIM to test the NEPO programs directly in the Internet browser. The SIM is for EV3 and NXT from LEGO MINDSTORMS or for the mini-computers BBC: Microbit and Calliope mini.

literature

  • Beate Jost, Thorsten Leimbach: Roberta - Basics. 1st edition. Fraunhofer Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8396-0763-3 .
  • A. Tempelhoff, T. Leimbach, B. Jost: Which robot is the smartest? - Interdisciplinary programming in class with "Open Roberta". In: Pedagogy. Edition 02, year 2016, pp. 36–41. ISSN  0933-422X

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ nab .: In Germany there is a shortage of more than 170,000 MINT workers. In: FAZ.net . May 31, 2016, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Federal Statistical Office 2006
  3. ↑ OECD 2012: Education at a Glance 2012
  4. ↑ MoMoTech study (PDF; 1.8 MB)
  5. ↑ Neufert 2014: The "eEducation Berlin Masterplan" doi: 10.14279 / depositonce-3909 (PDF; 27.8 MB)
  6. ↑ Welcome to the world of the Open Roberta robots!

Web links