When Life Science Meets Educational Robotics: A Study of Students’ Problem Solving Process in a Primary School

Abstract

Previous studies on the topic of “Problem solving” indicate it’s one of the skills of students in the 21st century that educational robots can effectively support. Additionally, there are gender differences in the problem-solving process. Understanding the problem-solving process and using knowledge to solve problems is key to improving one’s problem-solving ability. We therefore conducted a study with 69 fifth graders aimed at exploring whether educational robots can help students improve their understanding of problem-solving process in the context of life sciences. The Intervention was carried out as five learning modules on “Human systems,” and each module corresponded to different stages of engineering design practice. Our data analysis investigated the changes of problem-solving process with two independent variables: different genders and robot learning basis. The results showed educational robots can help students more effectively comprehend life science knowledge and understand the problem-solving process. By contrast, there are differences in the problem-solving process between females and males, and the robot learning basis can help students better articulate the problem-solving process. Although this study provided empirical evidence that educational robots can enhance the learning and problem solving skills for primary school children, future studies need to further explore the differences in problem-solving process from multiple perspectives to improve teaching and curriculum design practices.

Keywords

• problems-solving process
• educational robots
• primary school
• life sciences
• engineering design