Prior work has shown that early childhood educators demonstrate a lack of knowledge and understanding about technology and engineering, and about developmentally appropriate pedagogical approaches to bring those disciplines into the classrooms. This paper reports a study in which 32 early childhood educators participated in an intensive three-day…

In this paper, we describe the successful implementation of an afterschool LEGO robotics program for elementary and middle school students that is annually offered by the Whitacre College of Engineering at Texas Tech University. Three events are held on campus: the kickoff, a trial run, and the competition, spread over a period of eight weeks. In…

In this study, the researchers attempted to extend the concept of learning companions from the virtual world to the real physical environment and made a breakthrough in technique development of tangible learning robots. The aim of this study was to explore an innovative way by combining the speech recognition technology with educational robots in…

A robotics team from Muncie, Indiana--the PhyXTGears--is made up of high school students from throughout Delaware County. The group formed as part of the FIRST Robotics program (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an international program founded by inventor Dean Kamen in which students work with professional engineers and…

Network technology provides access to various sources of information from across the world. Network technology allows the higher education system to bring the lab to the classroom, rather than making students move to separate classrooms when they need to use computers. It, therefore, saves cost and makes students more productive. Students and…

This article describes the TangibleK robotics program for young children. Based on over a decade of research, this program is grounded on the belief that teaching children about the human-made world, the realm of technology and engineering, is as important as teaching them about the natural world, numbers, and letters. The TangibleK program uses…

This paper presents an interactive module for learning both the fundamental and practical issues of servo systems. This module, developed using Simulink in conjunction with the Matlab graphical user interface (Matlab-GUI) tool, is used to supplement conventional lectures in control engineering and robotics subjects. First, the paper introduces the…

Spatial ability is important to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) success, but spatial talents are rarely developed in schools. Likewise, the gifted may become STEM innovators, but they are rarely provided with pedagogy appropriate to develop their abilities in schools. A stratified random sample of volunteer participants (n = 75)…

It has been recognised that the general lack of enjoyment of institutional mathematics learning at the secondary level is one of the basic reasons behind the bad reputation of mathematics in society. Increasing students' motivation to learn mathematics through enjoyment and playing, especially in their free time, might therefore be a relevant…

Early school years are an important period to lay out the foundation for learning a second language. In addition to mastering the basic language skills and keeping the learning process fun, promoting a lifelong learning habit should also be emphasised. Motivating elementary school students to learn English and avoiding misconceptions associated…

The author believes that to truly engage children in learning, an imaginative approach with purposeful activities is very important. One way that this can be implemented is through simple "engineering projects" where science, design and technology (D&T), mathematics and information and communication technology (ICT) are combined,…

Under an NSF REU center grant REU-0755355 entitled "Micro/Nano Assembly Workcell Via Micro Visual Sensing and Haptic Feedback", Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Texas State University-San Marcos collaboratively hosted two groups of 10 students from different backgrounds for 10 weeks each in Summer 2008 and 2009 respectively.…

This study investigates how young children master, construct and understand intelligent rule-based robot behaviors, focusing on their strategies in gradually meeting the tasks' complexity. The wider aim is to provide a comprehensive map of the kinds of transitions and learning that take place in constructing simple emergent behaviors, particularly…

Humans by their very nature are users of tools, materials, and processes as a part of their survival and existence. As humans have progressed over time, their civilizations and societies have changed beyond imagination and have moved from hunters and gatherers of food and materials for survival to sophisticated societies with complex social and…

Korean teachers are generally considered well trained to integrate ICT into their teaching since the inception of the first IT Master Plan of Korea in 1996. However, the emergence and adoption of cutting-edge technologies create demands for evolving roles and competencies of teachers in the new knowledge society. Given this changing landscape of…