Robinson - Robotics and its Applications for Physics Students
Sabina Jeschke, Olivier Pfeiffer, Ursula Vollmer, Marc Wilke · 2008
Abstract: The Robinson curriculum contains a novel approach aimed at enriching academic physics education by providing early applications of physical knowledge in a popular field of technology, robotics. At the same time, it aims to enhance the technological literacy of students while increasing the overall number of students, especially young women, in the fields of physics and engineering. Robotics holds a unique role due to the multidisciplinary foundations of the field, ranging from electrical and mechanical engineering, software and hardware design to team building and problem solving skills. Robotics allows hands-on teaching of scientific and engineering methodologies at an early stage of the students ’ academic education. As a result, robotics are well suited for problem-based learning (PBL) (Mayo et al 2007 and Richter et al 2007), motivating the introduction and application of physical laws and concepts. Our approach focuses on the multidisciplinarity provided by robotics rather than on computer science education. Students are free in their choice of tools and not supposed to learn the programming basics of one specified programming language. The main intention of the project is introducing the engineering process and bringing forward team and social skills, so creativity is activated and teams can start building their own robots.