How Have Robots Supported STEM Teaching

Context: Robotics has assisted teachers to combine technology and engineering topics to concretize science and mathematics concepts in real-world applications. As a result, benefits in different concepts and skills, as well as positive long-term effects, have been observed. Objective: This work aims to identify state-of-the-art robotics applications to support STEM teaching. To do so, we intend to answer six research questions: (1) What concepts are considered and how are they explored? (2) What skills are expected to be developed? (3) How is educational robotics associated with school curriculum? (4) What types of robots are used? (5) What age groups/educational levels are considered? (6) How is educational robotics evaluated? Method: We carried out a systematic literature review to identify, assess, and synthesize relevant papers published from 2013. A protocol developed by us guided the review conduction and enhanced its repeatability with reduced subjectivity. Results: 60 publications able to answer the research questions were summarized. We found that: (1) several STEM concepts have been explored in all educational levels; (2) educational robotics is still frequently associated with teamwork and problem-solving development, extracurricular activities, and LEGO robots; (3) only 25% of the 60 papers quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated learning. Conclusion: Robots support for STEM education has been successful in different scenarios. The inherent flexibility, coupled with the experiences reported by a significant piece of the literature, can inspire new applications of educational robotics.

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