Survey of Educational Robotics Applications in Secondary Education

Educational Robotics (ER) is a field of study that possesses the ability to inspire and educate the next generation of engineering students. Over its fifty-year history, educators and researchers have shown the capability to meaningfully engage students in a variety of STEM topics via established ER tools and methods. To that end, it is necessary to survey this area of study in order to understand what platforms and methods are currently used and investigate their efficacy. This survey will show how embracing Educational Robotics can have a positive impact in both K-12 and early post-secondary education. It will investigate how prolifically ERs are used as part of a curriculum, in co-curricular roles, and extracurricular clubs. It will also quantify and how effective ERs in each of these settings are at providing instruction to the participants. The quality of these programs will be judged by the results of studies gathered in a literature review. This research will define the means by which these programs find success, and the measure of success relative to other programs investigated. Other goals of this study include identifying platforms and teaching methods that deserve more attention for research, and what platforms, tools, and methods have become outdated. In addition to this research, a survey will be distributed to local high school instructors of robotics clubs to see where they think the strengths and weaknesses of their programs lie.