Communications of the ACM
Child's Play: Australia's Newest Roboticists See Eye-to-Eye With R2-D2
Children as young as four can learn to program robots, according to an expert at Queensland University of Technology.
Credit: QUT News
Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) Christina Chalmers, who specializes in the teaching and application of robotics in classrooms, says robotic coding is a growth area in a range of industries, a trend that increases the demands on educators to promote student education in robotics.
"Preliminary findings from a current study have shown even pre-school students have gone beyond simply playing games with a NAO robot," Chalmers says.
Coding and robotics were implemented into Queensland's state primary schools this year. "Research tells us that if kids don't form positive attitudes towards science, maths, and technology early in life they can find it difficult to engage later on," she says, adding robotics provides an engaging way for both students and teachers to work together.
Chalmers is leading three nationwide projects to integrate robotics into classrooms.
The Robotics@QUT project includes 50 Queensland schools in low socio-economic areas.
Meanwhile, Chalmers is in partnership with the Association of Independent Schools of South Australia and three other Australian universities to study how humanoid robots can be integrated into the Australian curriculum.
Finally, Chalmers conducted a project in conjunction with Brisbane Catholic Education and AutismCRC to develop robotic social clubs. "It provides a way of representing and understanding [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] concepts in ways that could not be done with pen and paper," she says.
From QUT News
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