- Robotics provides unique opportunities for teachers to place engineering design and mathematics in contexts that students find engaging and understand.
- Design problems are a natural way of teaching design skills and creating a need-to-know for students to learn math and science.
- For students to obtain a deep understanding of the focal math concepts, connections need to be made between the applied math problem and everyday math situations.
- The ideal STEM curriculum gives students opportunities to solve problems that require them to work cooperatively, to use technology, to address relevant and interesting mathematical ideas, and to experience the power and usefulness of mathematics.
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Robotics & Maths
Robotics uses numbers and operations in nearly all lessons, for example:
Robotics lessons that involve algebra include the following:
Robotics situations involving geometry include:
Understanding the significance and meaning of measurements are central to the understanding of robotics:
Source: http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/downloads/education_standards/data/robotics_outcomes.pdf
Robotics uses numbers and operations in nearly all lessons, for example:
- Calculating distance with rotational sensors (equations, equalities)
- Gears, gear ratios and speed (ratios and proportions)
- Light sensors and threshold (inequalities)
- Wheel circumference, radius and diameter (geometric relationships)
Robotics lessons that involve algebra include the following:
- Switch blocks (inequalities)
- Programming sensors and thresholds (inequalities)
- Measuring turns (equalities, solving equations)
- Gears and speed (ratios, direct and indirect proportionality)
Robotics situations involving geometry include:
- Wheel rotations and circumference (diameter, circumference)
- Identifying locations in order to programme a robot to move from point to point (connected path segments)
- Interlocking gears and gear ratios (discrete combinations of radii)
Understanding the significance and meaning of measurements are central to the understanding of robotics:
- Distance the robot travels (linear measurement, meter stick)
- Amount a motor turns (angular measurement)
- Directional change of the robot (angular measurement, protractor)
- Speed of the robot (rate measurement, meter stick, built-in timer)
- Physical quantities measured by sensors (touch, sound, light, distance)
- Detectable region of a sensor (ultrasonic sensor, meter stick, 2D graph paper)
Source: http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/downloads/education_standards/data/robotics_outcomes.pdf