TEACHING PHYSICS USING ROBOTICS

SYNOPSIS
Introduction
Strategies and methodologies of teaching topics in high school physics through a
show of Educational Robotics. The contemporary process of teaching and learning
of physics that brings about elements based on modeling concrete objects, with an
emphasis on empirical methods, dates back to ancient Greece. These methods of
scientific investigation, which still today serve as guidelines in the scientific
community, were popularized in the sixteenth century by names like Francis Bacon,
William Gilbert and Galileo Galilei [1]. From this point of view, the importance of
rescuing these aspects of physics teaching, often designated by many authors as the
triad research action- reflection, is vital [2]. In Brazil, particularly, there are few
public schools that have laboratories with appropriate equipment to practical classes.
Therefore, students say that discipline becomes far in their reality, where
predominates a traditional conception of teaching using an archaic and tedious
methodology. Mostly there is an excessive routine of lectures and list of exercises
that generally prioritize the memorization of mathematical formulas. Because of this
misguided way of teaching, many students are driven to mechanically repeat the
solutions of similar questions previously solved by the teachers and that ends up in
general not promoting the development of practical and cognitive skills of the
students. In this paper we reinforce the positive aspect of experimental activities in
the process of teaching and learning physics in high school. This is the story of an
exhibition of educational robotics carried out in the public schools.

The program is intended to stimulate, develop and improve teaching skills of

undergraduate students, having as medium to long-term goal the enhancement of the
low-performing Basic Education of local public schools evaluated by the Ministry
of Education (MEC). Thereby, in order to make the future teachers become aware
of both the actual conditions of the teachers work environment and their obligation,
the teaching initiation for most undergraduates takes place under the supervision of
their own academic teacher along with the supervision of the teachers that work in
the school where the project is implemented.

EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS

The robotics branch of science involves the study and development of educational
and technological architectures which can be simple or complex systems based on
logic programming that dynamically articulate through a mechanical automaton
structure operated by means of integrated circuits and electro hydraulic controls and
tires, resulting in what is popularly known as Robot. Although it is a relatively new
science, officially emerged in the twentieth century, the history of robotics has its
origens, just like physics, in ancient Greece. The seek for productive efficiency and
improved quality of manufactured products have always been one of the main
reasons for the mens interest in developing the robotics research field. For instance,
the Pneumatic Automata is a remarkable piece of work of a Greek engineer from
Alexandria and is considered one of the first texts on the subject. The term Robot
was first mentioned in 1920 by the Czech Karel Kapec in a play entitled Rossums
Universal Robots and was used again later, in 1950, by Isaac Asimov in his famous
science fiction book: I, Robot.
Over the past years there have been great advances in the Robotics field led by the
necessity of creation of a spatial program and the growth of the entertainment of
Lego toys, and also by the Artificial Intelligence program and the development of
bipedal robots and exoskeletons with medical and military purposes. A first attempt
to classify the Robots can be carried out for instance according to their application,
kinematic chain and anatomy. In fact, the motion dynamics of a robot is described
by means of more complex calculations [6] and a more specific approach would flee
the scope of this work. However, physical concepts such as torque, linear and
angular momentum, acceleration, force and speed can be investigated during the
construction of prototypes. From this point of view and with this motivation we
showed the possibility of using robotics as a physics teaching tool, leaving to the
educator the task of making the simplest description and accessible to students
whenever possible.
From the educational point of view, the practical use of robotics is encouraging and
some of the main reasons for its use as a teaching tool are:
1. It is an interdisciplinary science
2. Develops logical thinking, entrepreneurship, leadership, creativity and
psychomotor ability
3. Provides teaching technologies related to sustainability, which is part of the
new worldwide trends and Science Teaching
4. Allows students to apply the theory learned in classrooms to prove the
importance of science in modern society and in the manufacture of products
that makes life as we know it.
Literature Review
Papert et al (1986) extend the idea of manipulative materials to the idea that
learning is most effective when part of an activity the learner experiences as
constructing a meaningful product. Specifically a set of new materials will be
developed for learning science in elementary schools. The materials use a new cut
across science, organizing many traditional concepts under the heading of motion
science, information science and color science. The materials will be designed to
make better use of the level of computers presence that is now becoming common
in schools. The design of the new materials pays special attention to the role of
affective, cultural and gender-related facets of learning science. The materials will
be developed in an inner city public school in Boston and evaluated in a number of
test sites at associated schools in several states for dissemination to schools covering
the full range of socio- cultural variation in American education.

Denis et al (2001) approach, the goal is not only that the learners acquire specific
skills (e.g. knowledge on electricity, electronics, robotics), but also and mainly
demultiplicative, strategic and dynamic skills. The methodology focuses on
collaboration to design and develop common projects and on problem solving skills
development. The pupils work in small groups (24). In the reported research, some
learners' interactions have been observed during the activity in a primary school with
an observation grid. The analysis of the verbalisations between the learners and their
actions on the computers, and the robotics materials coming from those observations
offer the opportunity to study the way the learners are collaborating.

Lund et al (2003) purpose of increasing children's awareness and knowledge about

technology, we have developed tools that allow them to interact with robots in an
easy and straightforward manner, e.g. exemplified through our design and
realization of Robo Cup Junior. Some of these techniques arise from the fields of
evolutionary computation, adaptive systems, agents, and artificial neural networks
and we show how they can be used in edutainment robotics in order to provide easy
access to the robot technology. The user-guided approaches that we developed
include user-guided behavior-based systems, user-guided evolutionary robotics,
user-guided co-evolutionary robotics, and morphological development. All these
techniques are applied to allow children to develop their own robot behaviors in a
very easy and fast manner.

Sklar et al (2006) describe a number of efforts to engage university students with

robotics through teaching and outreach. Teaching runs the gamut from
undergraduate introductory computer science to graduate-level artificial intelligence
courses. Outreach involves collaborations between students and New York City
public school classrooms. Our efforts have always involved team-based projects that
culminate in demonstrations or competitions, usually based on challenges from
Robo Cup Junior. Several research projects have followed from these initiatives.

Noteworthy Contribution

Balogh et al (2008) described with such a simple robot it is possible to do

really impressive amount of work in a robotics introductory course. Students are
always impressed with amount of inuencing factors determining precise
movement of the robot. An advanced ex-a mp l e o f p o s s i b i l i t i e s o f t h e
r o b o t i s t h e i mp l e mentation of the simple genetic algorithm for the path
learning.
Eguchi et al (2008) is to introduce a follow up study on the use of innovative
technologies - educational robotics and digital storytelling - in undergraduate, non-
computer science/physics major courses, as well as to show how the learning
environment has enhanced student's learning with comparison between two
educational robotics courses offered at Bloomfield College: first Robotics as
Learning Tool for all freshmen offered in Fall 2006, and second Robotics as
Learning Tool for all undergraduate students in Fall 2007.

Eguchi et al (2010) Studies in the field of robotics have reported that robotics have
a potential impact on students' learning in different subject areas (Physics,
Mathematics, Engineering, Informatics and more) and on personal development
including cognitive, meta-cognitive and social skills, such as: research skills,
creative thinking, decision making, problem solving, communication and team
working skills, all of them being essential skills necessary in the workplace of the
21st century.
Han et al (2008) referred to as 'r-Learning'. Robot technology is expected to become
more interactive and user-friendly than computers. Also, robots can exhibit various
forms of communication such as gestures, motions and facial expressions. This study
compared the effects of non-computer based (NCB) media (using a book with
audiotape) and Web-Based Instruction (WBI), with the effects of Home Robot-
Assisted Learning (HRL) for children. The robot gestured and spoke in English, and
children could touch its monitor if it did not recognize their voice command.
Compared to other learning programs, the HRL was superior in promoting and
improving children's concentration, interest, and academic achievement. In addition,
the children felt that a home robot was friendlier than other types of instructional
media. The HRL group had longer concentration spans than the other groups, and
the p-value demonstrated a significant difference in concentration among the groups.
Research Methodology

The main objectives of the development of social and political teaching

responsibilities, to provide the necessary assistance to facilitate the link between
theory and practice, making the research a basic principle in education, and also
stimulating the use of new information and communication technologies in the
teaching-learning process. Thus, the main actions of the program are:

1. Physical demonstrations of experiments with simple low cost materials,

providing students the proof of the theory discussed in class.
2. The organization of games, pranks and thematic competitions based on topics
of physics that increase students curiosity and allow them to learn easily
through plays.
3. The responsibility of choosing themes to be developed by means of
workshops, drama, skits, exhibition and seminars or short lectures.

From this perspective we conducted an exhibition of Educational Robotics, which

consisted in developing programming logic and architecture systems similar to the
biomechanics of living beings and also building combat robots, crawlers robots and
automata systems for industrial use and probing environments. All this using only
electronic scraps for the development of low-cost robots. Furthermore, during the
exhibition, the following activities were also promoted: demonstration of robotics
projects and prototypes, presentation of banners and videos, workshops and
competition of combat robots.

Because a Educational Robotics Kit may have a high acquisition price, many schools
in Brazil do not have the means to provide the necessary resources for students of
the elementary and the high schools to acquire the materials to develop the activities
we mentioned above. However, the use of electronic scraps [10, 11] offer a good
alternative to build some prototypes. Students who developed the prototypes had the
opportunity to work on topics of physics such as electricity and electronics, with
emphasis on building electrical circuits. The concepts of kinematics and dynamics
were studied through the movement and interaction of the robot with the
environment. The modern physics, for instance, could be worked out from the
photoelectric effect that governs the operation of the light sensors (phototransistors),
which also provide a way for describing the propagation of electromagnetic waves.
The ultrasonic sensors of the robots, on the other hand, allowed the students to learn
about the dispersion of sound waves.

Due to the large amount of built prototypes, it becomes unviable a detailed

description of each project. However, we describe briefly some robots that were
developed and we provide to reader to the references, which are freely accessible,
that guided us in the construction and development of the projects discussed here.

Biped Robot
It was built using two servo motors as driving source, controlled by a satellite dish
receiver and mounted on a wooden frame. The legs are made of aluminum bars fixed
by screws to the feet which are also made of wood. Using Newtons laws and
frictional force concepts, PIBID fellows might explain the robot motion that could
walk by various surfaces and could make reclining lateral movements simulating a
dance.

List of prototypes and Robotics projects associated with the respective subjects
of Physics worked.

In the above table we can find a list of the prototypes and Robotics projects
developed by undergraduates students and that were exposed and used to teach
topics of physics to the high school students. Some of the projects were taken and
adapted from internet websites and articles while others from manuals. The
Educational Robotics exhibition lasted one day in each school chosen to host the
activities.
Expected outcome of the study

The most modern aspects of education advocate a focused education to build a

dynamic mentality and constructivist by the students. Based on these aspects, this
paper explored the possibility of using interdisciplinary themes, in relation to the
teaching of physics, be treated with an innovative methodology by building and
exposure robotics projects. This new methodology brought a big challenge for
students since they had to learn facing the poor condition (or the lack of it) of the
science lab in their schools. For instance, not all prototypes had micro-controller,
most were architected so that we had a dynamic and autonomous physical structure
driven by electrical and electronic circuits. Despite of this, many difficulties were
overcome and we expect that the implementation of a programming logic for all
projects and the development of more sophisticated chassis and structures can come
into reality in future activities.

Our hope is that the great results presented here encourage other groups, supervised
by university teachers, to establish similar activities in order for science to be
disseminated among the young students. By doing this, we are able to introduce the
technological reality of the current society to those students, making them feel
included and stimulated to become future teachers and scientists.
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