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CSbots: Designing a Robot for the CS1 classroom Tom Lauwers Illah Nourbakhsh Emily Hamner Slide 2 Who we are Not CS educators Not traditional roboticists Focus on developing robotic technologies for education Slide 3 Our Approach Design to align with curricular needs Involve educators, students Multiple cycles Slide 4 Focus on CS1 Robots may enable novel learning interactions CS1 suffers from retention and enrollment problems Slide 5 Robots in CS Education Slide 6 Challenges Expensive Delayed feedback Matching capabilities to concepts Slide 7 Approaching CS1 Initial Evaluation Alpha Cycle Design Pilot Evaluation Next Steps: Beta Cycle Slide 8 Faculty Survey Ground our curricular designs in current classroom realities. Ensure that enough educators are able and willing to use robots as an educational tool. 33 university and 4 community college CS1 professors participated in phone interviews. Responses to open ended questions were coded by the frequency of conceptual expression. Slide 9 12% could make major changes without oversight, 69% could make minor changes 91% expect students to be able to complete assignments at home The primary languages are Java and C++ Positive response to using robots in CS1 Survey Results Slide 10 Design Curriculum Robot Software Framework/API Key Design Principle: Alignment Slide 11 Curriculum Design Design Draws From: Faculty survey Textbook survey Prior partner curricula and partner input Decisions: Modular curriculum Focus on Java Slide 12 Robot Design iRobot Create+Qwerk Audio speaker Webcam Wireless Kitchen sink $800 Slide 13 Software Environment Slide 14 2007-2008 Pilots Two pilot programs at community colleges Full curriculum CCAC: 72 students, 8 robots. CCAC students were evaluated for learning, interest, retention 7 High School Teachers One robot each Test existing and create new assignments Slide 15 CCAC Retention Rates Slide 16 CCAC Class Grades Slide 17 CCAC Student Interest Slide 18 Slide 19 High School Results Pilot teachers involved students in testing Summer 2008 workshop attracted 24 new teachers Workshop rated highly 21 teachers took home a robot Slide 20 Beta Cycle Designed new robot Features derived from alpha cycle experiences Update curriculum, software On-going pilots Evaluation results by next SIGCSE! Slide 21 Optimal Feature Set Low-cost - one robot per student Multimodal Light, audio, motion w/ position awareness, analog sensors, obstacle detection Fully Integrated Attractive Slide 22 Design: The Finch And..they cost us $80 to make Slide 23 Pilots What to do with 100 robots? Slide 24 Pilots What to do with 100 robots? Loan one to every CS1 and CS2 student at CCAC Loan one to every interested high school teacher Loan one to three college professors Offer cash prizes to CMU students to create cool demo programs Slide 25 Next Steps Evaluate current CCAC pilot Gather feedback from high school and college educators Gamma cycle! Slide 26 Questions, Comments? Wed like to thank,, and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations for their support. This material is based partially upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0632887 If interested in collaborating: tlauwers@gmail.com