Integrating Robotics into First-Year Experience Courses

Abstract

Abstract – Robotics are a popular component of many introductory engineering and computer science courses. At Southern Adventist University, the School of Computing faculty decided to integrate robotics into a disciplinespecific section of the University’s first-year experience course. The integration of robotics into a first-year experience course has created a hands-on introduction to college life within the Computing discipline while introducing students to the problem-solving process. This paper will introduce a very low-cost robotic platform kit ($50-75) that has been developed for the first-year experience course. Student assessment data from the first offering of this course with the SouthernBot 2.0 kit shows that overall, students were engaged in the open-ended design projects completed during the building of the robot platform.