Engaging Elementary and Middle School Students in Robotics through Hummingbird Kit with Snap! Visual Programming Language

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe how Hummingbird robotics kit with Snap! programing language was used to introduce basics of robotics to elementary and middle school students. Each student in the robotics program built a robot. The robot building process was open ended. Any specific robotics challenge was not provided to the students. Students’ knowledge about robots and programming language were measured through pre, post, and delayed posttests. Results indicated that students improved their knowledge about robotics and programing language at the end of the robotics program. Delayed posttest results indicated that the students were able to sustain their improved knowledge two months after the posttest. Formal data about student motivation and interest in STEM learning were not collected; however, it was observed that students expressed interest to participate in more advanced robotics programs in the future.