Scratch as Driver to Foster Interests for STEM and Educational Robotics
Pedro Plaza, Elio Sancristobal, Germán Carro, Manuel Blázquez, Félix García-Loro, Monica Munoz, María José Albert, Belen Morinigo, Manuel A. Castro · IEEE Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologias del Aprendizaje · 2019
Today, there are a multitude of initiatives that favor the learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and educational robotics (ER). Thanks to the available means, it is very easy to access a wide variety of tools based on programmable hardware. Although there are many options, most of them either require a high economic investment or require a great deal of time for the development of educational activities. Through the results shown in this paper, the great potential of Scratch as a solution for students who are just starting out in the knowledge related to STEM and ER is shown. To show the usefulness of Scratch a course has been designed, which dedicates three modules to the use of Scratch. The three modules have different levels of difficulty for the students, a basic level of difficulty, another intermediate level of difficulty and a last module with an advanced degree of difficulty.