Affordable Robotics Projects in Primary Schools: A Course Experience in Brazil

Programming and robotics are present in school curricula in several countries. However, some of them face challenges to implement these initiatives due to the lack of computers and the high cost of educational robotics kits. This experience report presents an affordable robotics course for teaching programming basic concepts in primary schools without infrastructure such as internet access or computer labs. The project-based learning approach is applied in the course and it encourages students to be more proactive in their learning as well as working in teams. The used methodology combined with educational robotics can provide meaningful learning experiences to the students, avoiding mere replication tasks. Three different projects are proposed: traffic light, drawbridge and smart home. Each group develops a project during the classes. In the last class, all of them are assembled to build a prototype of a village with streets, houses, traffic lights and bridges. This course was held in two Brazilian primary schools with no computer lab. A total of 54 students engaged this experience. A survey applied in the end of the course showed that nearly 90% of the students appreciated the robotics projects and wanted to learn more about programming. Instructors reported that with low-cost robotics kits and one computer per 8 students, the class were able to develop all activities of the course. They also emphasize that the project-based learning approach encouraged students' creativity while learning robotics and programming. This experience contributes to mitigating barriers to implement programming and robotic courses independently of schools infrastructure.