STEM Education - Students Touch Space Through Free Robotics Programming Competition

Jenny Liu, Wendy Feenstra, Alvar Saenz Otero, Kathleen Magrane

2014

Abstract

This position paper discusses the use of the Zero Robotics Summer Program competition as a tool to teach programing to students in middle school (ages 11-14). The benefits of teaching programing at that age are discussed, including grasping the student attention early on and providing a useful skill. Zero Robotics is a free programming competition where students program microsatellites to compete with other student-programmed satellites in a virtual game using an online simulation. The finalists see their code compete on the SPHERES satellites aboard the International Space Station, during a final competition transmitted live. The game and curriculum teaches students physics, mathematics, and programming concepts. This position paper argues that it is possible to engage students in programing by providing the right incentive (space) through a competitive environment where teachers have a curriculum to back them up, without becoming a standard classroom exercise.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Liu J., Feenstra W., Saenz Otero A. and Magrane K. (2014). STEM Education - Students Touch Space Through Free Robotics Programming Competition . In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-021-5, pages 270-274. DOI: 10.5220/0004944802700274

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu14,
author={Jenny Liu and Wendy Feenstra and Alvar Saenz Otero and Kathleen Magrane},
title={STEM Education - Students Touch Space Through Free Robotics Programming Competition},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2014},
pages={270-274},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004944802700274},
isbn={978-989-758-021-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - STEM Education - Students Touch Space Through Free Robotics Programming Competition
SN - 978-989-758-021-5
AU - Liu J.
AU - Feenstra W.
AU - Saenz Otero A.
AU - Magrane K.
PY - 2014
SP - 270
EP - 274
DO - 10.5220/0004944802700274