Building an Autonomous Car: Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating an Integrated STEM Teaching–Learning Sequence for Pre-Service Secondary Teachers

Abstract

This paper presents the design of an integrated STEM education teaching–learning sequence (TLS) for secondary education and the adaptation of this design for the training of future science teachers, as well as the implementation and evaluation during the academic years 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 in the master’s degree in secondary teacher training. This is an integrated STEM education project that seeks to design the prototype of an autonomous car using the mBot robot as a base. Thus, it allows for the integration of physics kinematics with robotics programming guided by an engineering design. This study was carried out with 43 pre-service teachers, and the impact on both content and procedural knowledge and attitudes was analyzed. The results show an increase in knowledge; reflect the usefulness of the tools used to work on design, evaluation, and optimization procedures; and, finally, a change in the students’ emotions towards a more positive perception of the disciplines involved and the subject to be dealt with in the project.