Encouraging robotics to take root [teaching tool
Paolo Fiorini · IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine · 2005
Grass-roots robotics is robotics used in primary and secondary schools as a new tool for teaching science and the humanities. The objective is robotics should be taught as an example of integration between mechanics, electronics, and computer science. However, robotics is more than just integration between these three disciplines. It allows students to personally take up their own learning process and are much more aware than their teachers of the interaction among the disciplines. The students stop being passive targets of teaching methods and become active learning subjects, showing initiative, independence, and a drastic reduction in their learning time. Therefore, employing robotics as a teaching tool achieves a deep change in the students by modifying their attitude towards learning, and students become active seekers of knowledge, rather than passively absorbing carefully prepared and measured lectures.