Comparing the effects of robots and IoT objects on STEM learning outcomes and computational thinking skills between programming-experienced learners and programming-novice learners

Abstract

Recent college students have been observed to be motivated and engaged in acquiring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) knowledge and skills with robots and IoT objects. A sample of 13 master's students participated in the program. Data collected include the pre-and post- STEM and computational thinking (CT) written tests, and the pre- and post- surveys of learning perceptions toward the robots and IoT objects learning activities. The results show that the learning activities were an effective approach for the master's students' STEM learning outcome and CT as shown in the post-test. The differences between the master's students' STEM learning outcome, CT, and perceptions were also confirmed, particularly between the groups of computer programming-experienced learners and computer programming-novice learners. The results revealed that the learning activities with robots and IoT objects could improve the overall master's students' CT, STEM knowledge, and learning perceptions. Both programming-experienced and programming-novice learners' STEM learning outcome were improved.