Construction Robotic Kits in Education at Elemetary School
TEACHING MATERIALS
Teaching materials are important for the implementation of programmable construction robotic kits in education. The results of the questionnaire survey show the preferences of pupils in the form of teaching material. The most requested and at the same time the most frequently used teaching material is the worksheet, which is intended for work in a group. The size of the optimal group for working with a robotic construction kit is 2 to 3 pupils. The time required to work with the worksheet should be a maximum of 2 lessons. The worksheet should contain clear pictures and illustrations to complete the tasks.
Tasks should be short, clear and divided into smaller units or tasks. The worksheet should include pupils' self-assessment. Teaching materials are designed for the most common used and at the same time the most used robotic construction kit Lego Mindstorms in version EV3.
Based on these findings, a set of teaching materials has been created that extends the set of already created and validated teaching materials in the previous work (Coufal, 2016).
The teaching material contains a methodological part for teachers and a working part for pupils. The structure of the methodological part of the teaching material is created according to Maňák (2003, 2003), Kalhous (2002) and Hubálovská and Hubálovský (2016).
The methodological part of the teaching material intended for teachers contains teaching objectives, which define the activities of pupils working with the teaching material. The necessary aids necessary for the pupil's activity are listed below. The main part of the methodological material is the teaching process with a worksheet. The procedure consists of the following parts:
• prolog
• motivation
• mobilization of the previous knowledge system
• exposure to new knowledge
• fixation of new curriculum
• practicing.
Prolog contains an introduction to the objectives and course of the lesson. The second part of motivation serves to motivate pupils to work with the worksheet. The third part identifies, mobilizes and reminds already know important knowledge that serves for further work with the worksheet. In the part of exposition of new knowledge, we transfer new knowledge and skills to the pupils, which they then fix in the next part. A part of the exercise is used to better and long-term consolidate the acquired knowledge and skills.
In the conclusion of the methodological part of the teaching material is stated how to work with the assessment and self-evaluation of pupils when working with the worksheet.
Most of the teaching material is a worksheet for the work of pupils with a robot kit. The worksheet is divided into smaller parts, which contain individual tasks that follow each other. In the final part of the worksheet there is a part for pupils' self-evaluation. Worksheet topics focus on working with robot movement, working with sensors, solving simple tasks and solving competition tasks. Figure 4 shows an example of selected teaching material.
The verification of the created teaching materials took place at five elementary schools
of various types: a small village school without teaching with robotic kits, a larger village school with its own robotic kits, a large city schools equipped with or without robotic kits.
Teaching materials were verified both in regular classes and in leisure clubs at these schools.
They were modified based on the feedback from the lessons with the created teaching materials (Hubálovská 2015, Voborník 2016).
CONCLUSION
This article focuses on the robotic kits used in teaching at elementary schools in the Czech Republic. Provides an overview of the most commonly used kits. The main research part consists of a questionnaire survey, which maps the forms and methods of teaching robotics in elementary schools and other sub-objectives. The research builds on previous
Figure 4: Demonstration of teaching material for solving problems with competition models
surveys, which complement and expand on further results. Based on finding out the form of real teaching and based on the requirements of students, a set of teaching materials was created for the use of robotic kits in teaching at elementary schools. The main findings are:
the most used robotic kit is Lego Mindstorms, normal teaching time is 2 hours, students most often work in pairs, at the same time students want to work in smaller groups of 2 to 3 students, students want to work with a working illustrated sheet. The set of created teaching materials intended for teachers and pupils was verified in teaching at elementary schools.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper has been supported by: Specific research project of University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Education in 2020 and Specific research project of University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Science in 2020.
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