Design of collaborative problem-solving activities with educational robots for middle school students

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2020-12-21
Güleç, Mustafa
The purpose of this study was to explore the design of collaborative problem-solving activities in order to solve ill-structured problems in science with educational robots for middle school students. In conjunction with this purpose, a formative research design was followed to investigate the development and implementation process of ill-structured problem-solving activities. Accordingly, problem-solving activities were developed by the help of faculty members in science education and instructional technology departments and practitioners in middle schools. The objectives were chosen at the 5th grade level for Information Technologies and Software (ITS) and Science Courses. Subjects were associated with the problem-solving and programming units for Information Technologies and Software (ITS) Course. They were also related to physical events, creatures, and life units of the Science Course. As a result, four activities namely Robot Factory, Lifeguard Robot, Savior Robot and Scavenger Robot were developed prior to the implementation process. Implementation phase was carried out over two cycles in two different public schools. Several modifications were made to the activities during these cycles. Furthermore, research questions were explored with the opinions of teacher and middle school students (totally 24 5th graders in the first cycle and 51 6th graders in the second cycle) during the implementation process. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, activity sheets, reflection diaries, and tests on the related subject of the activities.

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Citation Formats
M. Güleç, “Design of collaborative problem-solving activities with educational robots for middle school students,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2020.