Course Description
Fundamentals of robotic control systems and hands-on robotics
activities for enhancing STEM learning.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students participating in this course will develop and
evaluate a unit of instruction that uses robotics to support
STEM instruction. This project will include a review of related
literature, design of a learning activity using robotics
activities, data collection on some aspect of the impact of
using robotics, analysis of that data, and a poster
presentation of the unit materials as well as the learning
outcomes for the unit. For those graduate students who are
practicing teachers this project can be conducted within the
setting of their own classrooms. For others the learning
activity might involve undergraduate university students, an
afterschool program, or other settings selected by students in
consultation with the instructor. In all cases the graduate
student work will be focused on developing materials that will
actually be used and that have an impact on learning.
Athena Title
Robotics for Teachers
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ETES 4030E or ETES 6030E
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall, spring and summer
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to identify grade-appropriate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content that can be enhanced with robotics activities.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to design learning activities incorporating robotics that enhance STEM content specified by current Georgia Department of Education standards for grade-appropriate instruction.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to explain the function of robotics controllers, sensors, and actuators.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to describe the underlying principles of robotic control systems and programming.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to analyze basic robotics tasks and develop hardware and software solutions.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to describe and assemble basic logic structures used in programming robotics systems to accomplish specified tasks.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to describe and critique robotics hardware and software available for school use.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to prepare recommendations for robotics hardware, software, and learning activities given a set of learning objectives and budget and time constraints.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to describe the instructional approaches that could benefit from use of robotics to support learning of STEM content.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to identify significant streams of research on use of robotics to enhance learning in instructional settings.
- Students who successfully complete this course will be able to assess the effectiveness of including robotics in STEM learning activities.
Topical Outline
- History of robotics and robotics control systems
- Research and practice of integrated STEM instruction in schools
- Curriculum materials and models for using robotics to enhance STEM instruction and learning
- Overview of educational robotics hardware and software
- Criteria for selection of robotics hardware and software
- Strategies for assessing STEM learning with robotics activities
- Robotics planning
- Robotics assembly
- Robotics programming
- Robotics challenges and competitive events
