Pierre Van Cortlandt Middle School Promotes Student STEM Interest
Pauline Mosley, Gerald P. Ardito, Lauren Scollins · American Journal of Engineering Education (AJEE) · 2017
The principal purpose of this investigation is to study the effect of robotic cooperative learning methodologies on middle school students’ critical thinking, and STEM interest. The semi-experimental inquiry consisted of ninety four six-grade students (forty nine students in the experimental group, forty five students in the control group), chosen by their principals. A critical thinking test was administered to evaluate the cognitive skills and STEM interest of the students. Instruction was implemented in two formats: cooperative learning and problem-based learning. The experimental group utilized robotic cooperative learning while the control group utilized problem-based learning. After four sessions of both instruction types with both groups the findings reveal that critical thinking of students is enhanced significantly by robotic cooperative learning (P<0.01).