Learning Science and Engineering Practices in Robotics Class: A Child's Hybrid Approaches

• In Event: 14.045 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.045-3 - Engaging Youth Through STEAM Projects

Abstract

This qualitative case study aims to understand a child’s process to learn science and engineering practices while engaging in robotics activities. Based on the micro-analysis of video-recorded observation data, we analyzed a 2nd-grade girl’s participation in a robotics education program at a public elementary school. Drawing on Bakhtin’s (1982) Dialogism, we found that the child showed the following three hybrid approaches in the process of learning science and engineering practices: (1) Verbal-Bodily communications, (2) Emotional-Rational analyses, and 3) Fantasy- and Reality-based programming. We argue that these hybrid approaches need to be appreciated as the child’s appropriates authoritative science and engineering practices through her internally persuasive practice. We discuss pedagogical implications of this study for robotics education for young children.

Authors

• Sung Eun Jung, University of Arizona

• Kyung Hwa Lee, University of Georgia

• Shara Cherniak, University of Georgia

• Eunji Cho, University of Georgia - Athens