Understanding Impacts of Soft Robotics Project on Female Students’ Perceptions of Engineering (Work in Progress)

Abstract

Gender disparities persist across traditional engineering disciplines such as mechanical engineering and electrical engineering in colleges.Participation in K12 educational robotics is a common precursor to enrollment in traditional engineering majors, however the gender gap in K12 competitive robotics perpetuates this gender disparity.We hypothesize that soft robotics, consisting of robots made from complaint materials that safely interface with the body, is a field that may appeal to female students' enthusiasm for bioengineering and healthcare applications of engineering.While much of soft robotics work exists in research laboratories, there are efforts to develop soft robotics curricula for K12 students.Our previous work has focused on middle and high school curricula.When we had the opportunity to bring our soft robotics curriculum to even younger students, we had the chance to think critically about project design and ease of implementation as well as preconceptions children hold of robots and roboticists at this age.Perceptions of who can participate in engineering are formed as early as elementary school for some students.In this work, we present three one-hour soft robotics lessons that were piloted with a first-grade girl scout troop in order to earn their Daisy Girl Scout robotics badges.The lessons include instruction on robotics and programming as well as hands on activities for students to design and build their own soft gripper.This paper details the soft robotics curriculum adapted for 6-8 year old children.These materials will allow other girl scout troop leaders to instruct similar lessons to earn these badges.We also present initial survey responses from the girl scout participants.Surveys captured the students' drawings and perceptions of robotics and who builds robots.Survey responses will inform the use of soft robotics in grades as early as elementary school.We aim to evaluate an alternative robotics curriculum that is specifically designed to create inclusive robotics spaces for girls with the goal of reducing the gender disparity in STEM and traditional engineering majors.