Robotics in child storytelling

Abstract

Although the field of Educational Robotics (ER) has been growing over the last few years and its usefulness has been shown in many studies, its use in basic or elementary school levels has been scarce. This work intends to address the issue of demonstrating that ER makes a very useful tool at the elementary levels of learning, proposing a project-oriented approach, where interdisciplinary work uses children's stories and their imagination. The project involved the use of Lego Mindstorms robotics kits by students with ages between 9 and 12 years old. It involved the construction and programming of robots, addressing the dramatization of the popular tales "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Three little pigs" as the final goal. Also, other groups of students implemented fashion and dancing shows, also with robots. Each of the robots performed as one of the characters of the story/ show, following a set of steps according to the script that was programmed by the students. The work involved also a previous step where the robots were built and dressed according to its role. The final results show the applicability of ER to this level of learning/ teaching. The students were able to successfully complete the project, achieving the proposed aims and also showing high levels of motivation and enthusiasm through its whole duration. The work culminated with public shows that