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Didactic Material Development for Robotics in Non-Formal Technology Education

Diego Corrales Caro, Giovanny Piedrahita Solrzano, Manuel Franco Avellaneda and Tania Prez Bustos, Apropiacin Social de la Ciencia y la Tecnologa (Public Understanding of Science and Technology), Maloka

Abstract This article details the experience of the engineering team and young technology club tutors developing didactic material for non-formal teaching of robotics in Maloka, an Interactive Science and Technology Center in Bogot, Colombia. It describes the processes of design, prototyping and evaluation of a phototropic robot, used as a motivational tool for children and youngsters. These audiences are interested on learning robotics and related topics such as mechanics, electronics and control. The process has three general stages, the first one is the definition of the pedagogic and technical guidelines that orientates the robot, followed by the formal design and the construction of prototypes, and finally, an evaluation process in non-formal education scenarios with different audiences. The document defines a set of components of evaluation that allow the analysis of the didactic materials motivational effectiveness: functionality, communication, interactivity and backgrounds recognition. The exercise results point out that a successful motivational experience depends on the technical reliability of the robot, the methodology used to explore and experiment, and the support material that guides the experience. Index Terms didactic material, non-formal technology education, robotics, phototropic robot.

Taking into account that education is a milestone in our process, it has become determinant to adjust the technology development process in Maloka. The first part of the article shows the context where the didactic material development has started, and its connections to many kinds of users, children and youngsters. From there the article describes the design process in detail, discussing how the users have given the feedback to debug and correct the process itself. Finally, there are presented some results and discovers made during our process. II. BACKGROUND Technology Clubs started at Maloka in 2002. They are developed as an option for school age children to enjoy in a productive way their free time. The activities are designed around topics such as robotics, energy, and air and flight. The work with children is distributed in 14 weekly sessions, 3 hours each. Robotics Club has two levels; the first emphasizes basic mechanical components and electronics basis through building projects, the second one works around control topics while improving the robots mechanic structure. The didactic material created to work every session with children, is supported on a methodological proposal that considers technology from the club members daily context [3], intending to motivate the exploration of those referents as a proper starting stage to create more tangible technological ideas in the children [7]. The methodological proposal has been named Motivation for creation, supported at first on Freires knowledge dialogue [2], and including some theory from critical pedagogies [6]. These tools have let the proposal to face more wisely the didactic material creation, from a perspective that goes beyond the object but focuses on the dialogue with children about their day-to-day technological knowledge and perceptions. Dialogue with other audiences different from children has also fed the process, strengthening a more versatile and participative didactic proposal.

I. INTRODUCTION HIS article makes part of the discussion about technology education in Colombia, it focuses on advances and developments that have taken place on non-formal scenarios during the last years. Particularly, it focuses in their interaction with scholar environments supporting the scholar requirements in this field [8]. The article shows the development process of didactic material in Maloka, lead by the Research & Development (R&D) team. Malokas Technology Clubs are used as laboratory non-formal technology education scenario for school age children. This clubs give an important educational background to the R&D team, allowing them to consolidate a methodological proposal emphasizing dialogue and exploration of childrens daily referents, instead of an isolated construction of objects [5].
Manuscript received August 7, 2006. All authors work in Maloka, Interactive Science and Technology Center. Diego Corrales Caro, e-mail: dacorralesc@yahoo.com. Giovanny Piedrahita Solrzano, e-mail: gapiso48@hotmail.com Manuel Franco Avellaneda, e-mail: mfrancoavellaneda@yahoo.com Tania Prez Bustos, e-mail: tpbustos@yahoo.com

1-4244-0537-8/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE

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III. DIDACTIC MATERIAL DESIGN PROCESS Many different didactic tools have been identified through the experience in the Maloka Technology Clubs. Some of them are selected, strengthened and redesigned as didactic material for external users. The first product achieved in this creation process is a platform named Moth Robot, it will be used as reference to describe the design process shown in Fig. 1, a process intended to be extensible to future products. Moth Robot initiates from observations of a work session about photoresistive sensors in first level at Robotics Club. That session is related with former experiences about electric motors and mechanic structures. In this particular session children are challenged to build an object that displace itself over a surface, using pieces of wood, DC motors and photoresistors. This simple structure may have different behaviors according to the connection of the components. Some of those behaviors are likely to the real moths behaviors, which fly at nights looking for light sources. The moths flight direction depends on the difference of light intensity perceived by each eye, causing this insect to fly towards light in circles or spirals. This phenomenon is known as positive phototaxis, and the mobile robot built by children, if properly connected, acts as the actual moth does. A typical structure made by children in sessions and workshops is shown in Fig. 2. Observation and analysis of the structures built by children in the session is followed by didactic material conceptualization. This step, called didactic material

Fig. 2. Basic assembly of mobile robot.

identification (Step 1, Fig. 1) deals with the identification of possibilities and potentials of those preliminary designs. In this stage, functional components (electronic and mechanic parts, usage sequences) are recognized, and we observe how they are related with the session, with its dynamics and its goals. We also identify weak points of the tool, they are discussed by the full team (it includes coordinators, developers and tutors in order to propose ideas and strategies that strengthen the material in a way that it can reach a commercial product status (step 2, Fig. 1), but taking into account our methodological and pedagogic intentions [6]. In Moth Robot case, five issues were identified and associated to methodological intentions of our proposal and specific goals for sessions focused on sensors (Table I). Development team is then in charge of technical details to improve the didactic material (step 3, Fig. 1), by selecting components and materials, taking care of possible user interfaces, fabrication techniques, pieces location and any other part that satisfies the methodological proposal. As a result, the team generates a new table that contains the product details (Table II). This table is the main input for the first Moth Robot version and the prototyping phases.

TABLE I METHODOLOGICAL GOALS TO STRENGTHEN THE MOTH ROBOT Identified issue Behavior like actual phototrophic insects, like the moth Sensors may be calibrated according to ambient light. Methodological intention Exploration of daily referents to validate the learning. Test and proof activities Comparing results of experiment on different conditions Possibility of showing different challenges. User may propose new strategies for each case. Ability to design and test other behavioral modes. Results feedback. Simplify the communication interfaces with the robot.

Behavior diversity

Custom behaviors. Accessibility and independence

Fig. 1. Diagram for didactic material design process.

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TABLE II MOTH ROBOT REQUIREMENTS Technical intentions Methodological Intentions Materials exploration through experimenting To experiment with actuators and to verify functional differences according to their position and orientation. To identify the role of sensors when controlling the robot for environment recognition and the decision taking process. To relate the sensors and the Moth Robot behaviors

Initialization

Component Structure

Technical requirement

To identify the variation of mechanical resistance Interrupts modular (for Execution assembly)of the according the pieces assembly Behavior selector selected behavior Sensors updating To identify the transformation of electrical energy into DC motors (3-12V) with Actuators mechanic energy and the ratio between applied voltage rubber wheels and rotating speed. Calibration Memory and Usage of photorresistances To recognize the ratio between the resistance of the variables as sensors sensor and amount of light. Values storage updating Actuator outputs To identify and characterize the sensors output Sensors Possibility of adapting updating depending on the color and texture of reflecting long range infrared sensors materials Behavior selectors Microcontroller as Fig. 5. Firmware architecture Control programmable component. Calibration components. To identify different behaviors of the robot and their relation with the challenges proposed. To explore custom behaviors programmed by the user. Adjust the robot response to different light conditions.

User Light, resistant and

Encourage the user to identify and to program sequences and algorithms to solve the challenges.

Once the design phase is ended, a working prototype is obtained; main technical details are the following: A. Structure The moth structure supports all other components, it is made of wood and pieces are cut by die. Instructions with the assembly sequence are provided to the user. For testing purposes, six units were fabricated for a workshop on vacations with children; the pieces and final assembly are shown in Fig. 31. B. Sensors The photoresistors can provide an analog output proportional to the amount of incident light; three regions are defined over the entire range. There is a middle range, which the user can calibrate according to the ambient light of the room, and there are the low and high levels, as shown in Fig. 4 C. Control The microcontroller is previously programmed with eight different behaviors, so the user is able to select them depending on the proposed activity or challenge. To select the behavior, a dipswitch is provided on the board, Table III summarizes the behaviors depending on the range. These programmed behaviors have two main objectives; the first is to facilitate the recognition phase of the robot for the children, it means to observe its calibration and relations with the environment. The second one seeks to propose challenges and identify behaviors that may solve it. [4] Firmware on the onboard microcontroller is organized as shown in Fig. 5. There are interruption routines, which update the memory with sensor data. These routines are not user modifiable even when the children create their own programs. The main microcontroller cycle is checking changes in user interface components and running the corresponding behaviors according to what the children have selected, or calibrating routines if necessary. Technical training is given to the tutor team (step 4, Fig.
Edgar Saenz, Designer at Maloka, developed formal proposal of the structure.
1

(a)

(b)

Fig. 3. Mechanical structure, (a) Some Moth Robot pieces, (b) Structure assembled by users

High range Middle range

High threshold Middle value Low threshold

Low range

Fig. 4. Calibration ranges and threshold for photoresistive sensors TABLE III MOTH ROBOT BEHAVIORS When light intensity on the photorresistance is...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

High Forward ----Forward Backward ----Backward Forward Custom

Normal ----------------Forward Forward ----Custom

Low ----Forward Backward Forward Backward ----Turn 90 left Custom

Kind of activity Recognition Recognition Recognition Recognition Challenge Challenge Challenge Programming

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Moth is making the following task

4 1) with the working prototype. This information allows the tutors to begin the design of specific activities that guide the participants learning in the Robotics Club2. This design process takes as a basis the methodological proposal and the knowledge about the robotics club users that Maloka has (step 5, Fig. 1). Once these activities are developed, they are tested with some of the identified audiences to feedback and improve the material. A field tests and production process in a bigger scale follows these last steps. IV. ANALYSIS A test and an evaluation process with different audiences make the validation of the pedagogic hypothesis about the Moth Robot (step 6, Fig. 1) [1]. Selection of the users to evaluate didactic material comes from studies, done in the museum, about the most frequent visitors of Maloka. To each one of the audiences, we can associate age characteristics and some expectations related to robotics workshops and activities, which in turn becomes an input to the analysis of the material. This characterization allows the definition of the parameters to be implemented in the activities and the use of the material with each selected audience. At the same time, it eases the results interpretation and hence, the material validation and its impact on different scenarios (Table IV). According to the duration of the workshops and the users in evaluation, activities are designed following two directions: 1) Familiarization activities: Its intention is to support a clear understanding of different capabilities of the Moth Robot by the users, easing the resolution of the proposed challenges and getting clearness about the topics presented in table 2. On these activities the user learns how to handle the Moth Robot, to calibrate it according the conditions and to observe its behaviors. Familiarization activities are used for workshops that have many sessions, such as Robotics Club or vacation workshops. An example of these activities is to compare and identify the robot behaviors with the actual moths behaviors. 2) Challenge activities: Participants are faced to a problem that has to be solved with an adequate selection of the behavior and calibration values. Proposed challenges are first, the tracking of a black line, and second, to get out of a zone bounded by a black line, with one only exit, as shown in Fig. 6. These activities are intended to encourage the participants to find out more about robotics, by becoming members of the club, participating in the vacation workshops, or by their own means. For participants with previous experience and knowledge, additional motivation is created to search other solutions by programming custom behaviors. A parallel observation and follow-up exercise is made as workshops are developed, focused on the users perception and usage of the Moth Robot, on the activity itself and on the tutors role in the process. Four analytical components are defined for this technical and methodological evaluation (step 7, Fig. 1): 1) Functional: It is defined by technical details, such as the
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structure, voltage source and power of motors, which let the Moth Robot to work adequately when handled by different kinds of users. 2) Communicative: It refers to the user interface of the Moth robot, to the elements that allows the users to know how the robot works and what they can do with it. For example, locating a LED near the sensor may ease reading the status, to associate it with the actual information that the microcontroller receives. 3) Interactive: It is related to those many possibilities that the Moth Robot offers to be handled, and the way the user might participate in them. For example, the ways in which sensors are used to solve the challenges, and how the user set them up. There is a direct relation between the interactive and communicative components, regarding the interpretation given to each element in the Moth Robot.
TABLE IV PUBLICS CHARACTERIZATION Public Age Expectation Interest on the workshop Duration of the activity Advantages for analysis Corrections and adjustments can be made faster and be evaluated on the same group. The activities frequency demands that activities, materials and printed guides, are so much consolidated. Moth Robot can be evaluated with a large amount of users and obtain quantitative or statistical analysis. Critic and well supported evaluation

Children at Robotics 9-15 Club

High, they have particular interest 16 weekly on robotics; they sessions, 3 choose to be hours each. members of the club. They have particular interest on robotics. 5 daily sessions, 3 They expect hours each guaranteed success activities. Undefined, the activity is scheduled by the One 3 hour institution. There session are no decision possibilities for the student High, from the evaluators point of view One 3 hour session

Children at 9-15 vacations workshops

Students

10-17

Teachers

25 and older

Some typical examples are described on next section (Analysis).

Fig. 6. Two challenge scenarios.

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5 4) Backgrounds recognition: The user should recognize the robot parts and functions in two levels. The first is the biological analogy between the robot and the insect (similar behaviors of both), and the second, related of the functionality of each part of the robot, in other technological contexts (how the motors, for example, can be used in other devices). This step, where the goals achievement is evaluated, (step 8, Fig. 1), is in charge of the developers and the club coordinator. As a result of this tasks regarding updating and redesign of the material are identified and assigned according to the same categories used in previous checking phases (Table V). An illustration of the final main board is show in Fig. 7. Field test, evaluation and production for general audiences (steps 9 and 10, Fig. 1), are part of the future work and the expectations that Maloka team has for this didactic material. Next section describes the results obtained so far, based on the
TABLE V UPDATING AND REDESIGN TASKS Element Issue Some pieces fracture easily. Accessibility to interface elements Sometimes, motors are not able to move the moth when turning --Low comprehension of the behavior selectors Task Checking the critical pieces of the structure, to avoid fracture and facilitate assembly The board becomes the moth wings, creating a different and attractive design. To modify motors orientation (tilt) --To modify the interface for a more graphical one. A 7segment display is proposed to show the behavior, instead of switches to select them.

previously analysis description V. RESULTS We have presented the development process for didactic material in Maloka. This experience takes the Moth Robot, as an example, the first object constructed with this methodology. The process begins with the work with children and youngsters at Maloka Technology Clubs. Then, the process continues with the observations and tests in different scenarios and with different audiences, just before it becomes a commercial product. This is a practical experience that can be extended and applied by other areas of technology education in the design and construction of didactic material. . Finally, we present the observations made in each one of the four components, those defined in the analysis section. The first results are reviewed and contrasted with the results after redesign. A. Functional When we attempted to make more complex the original mechanical and electronic basis, preliminary design of the Moth Robot showed up some technical issues (voltage dropping, power consumption, structure brittleness). Complexity intended to offer to the user other handling and interaction possibilities with the object. When each audience dealt with these issues, the initial interest on the robot decreased, because it wasnt reliable at the working level. Redesigning and simplifying some of the parts made possible to guarantee reliability while maintaining its robustness. On the other hand, users interest was held at higher levels along the workshop. B. Communicative The first interface (with switch selectors) was not clear for children, even not for some teachers (only those who were familiar with electronics could deduce the function of some parts). When participants faced the calibration and behavior selection of the Moth Robot, they couldnt identify easily the components dipswitches and small potentiometers. The calibration protocol took a long time (one minute at least), as a consequence, some children got lost and the results were different from the expected. Many children planned the tasks for the robot, however they let the handling to the tutor. The communicative component of the robot was redesigned. It was focused on searching easy-handling and luring components, and a friendly interface was created. The components to handle were totally uncovered, the calibration protocol was reduced to a single push-pull switch for selfcalibration, and a LED to indicate the calibration progress. The result was that children were able to identify more quickly the components function and then solve the proposed challenges. After a short time, they knew most of its the robots functions and capabilities. C. Interactive This component has a strong relation with the previous ones. The first interface, added to the functional issues, made

Structure

Actuators Sensors

Control

Fig. 7. Control board as moth wings.

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6 very difficult the user-robot interaction. Regarding sensors, calibration not always resulted in the expected behavior. Regarding motors, it misled to think that there were programming failures when the Moth Robot did not move. Once those problems and the others previously explained were solved, the users could put their whole attention in the exploration of the Moth Robot capabilities, as well as the experimenting with the proposed challenges and activities. Improving the interaction with the robot allowed a significant increase in motivation and interest. This was reflected with session closures with interesting reflections about their experience. D. Backgrounds recognition A great effort was put in the first design to identify the possible Biological and Technological backgrounds that could be related to the Moth Robot. To identify the participants backgrounds the team searched into the users opinions. This task was reinforced at the redesign phase, by including some examples and analogies in the complementary material and in the challenges. VI. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND
FUTURE WORK

B. Methodological facts The methodological proposal for activities in Robotics Clubs and workshops in Maloka has evolved parallel to this project. This methodology is adaptable to particular features of the robot, and to ensure a similar experience for the visitors, close enough to the real one in the Museum and with the teamwork. Two specific aspects are mentioned as fortifiers elements of our proposal. 1. Keeping the users creation and motivation along the sessions with Moth Robot, depends on the technical and communicative reliability. Only when those problems are solved, it is possible to involve other methodological intentions, such as experimenting and design, providing finally coherence and meaning to the learning process. 2. Support material (activity guides, lectures, assembly instructions, bibliography) must be designed to compensate the absence of the tutor, whose role is to orient and to help in the interaction process with the robot in Maloka. Moreover, the material is the main responsible to offer a dialogue experience between children and their technological day to day. C. Process facts The following items make reference to the facts that determined the design process and construction of the Moth Robot. (From the didactic material identification to the technical and methodological evaluation). 1. Materials cost to construct the didactic objects for the sessions in clubs and workshops (i.e. mobile robot in step 1) becomes much less expensive than development cost of the following prototypes. It lets the making of large several tests with the object, making changes very fast, obtaining a better approach of what is searched before starting with the didactic material development process. 2. Having the Maloka Robotics Clubs as a permanent research laboratory turns out to be a great advantage. Every semester new didactic objects are proposed for the members to experiment with, discovering new and different usage possibilities. 3. The tutors team that accompanies and guides the clubs activities is the most versatile interlocutor of the process. Tutors participate in the proposal of new didactic material, put it on the sessions and feedback the experience to other members. Besides, they are in charge of designing the activities for the didactic material and the evaluation with different audiences. Tutors connect in double-way the didactic material design with the experiences of the participants in clubs and workshops. 4. Regarding technical and methodological evaluation in workshops and their results, in future developments it is necessary to identify the particular features of the evaluation workshop audiences. All these in order to get more profitable experiences, a specific feature of a user lead to the evaluation of another specific design

As a conclusion, and according to our experience, we present some considerations that might be taken into account to develop didactic material for robotics. We also describe the future work in this project that is not only a development project but also a research project for Maloka. A. Technical facts The last section described the results obtained after evaluation and redesign of the didactic material. Some of them are results from technical changes generated by the experience with the audiences. Here are synthesized some aspects suggested to be included in the development of didactic material, not only for robotics but also for future technical development. 1. Technical reliability of the material is improved when the mechanic and electronic components handled by the user are simplified. Also when the control process are simple and clear. The robustness of the object and reaching the pedagogic goals set by the methodology are the only limits to this experience. 2. User interface elements (LED, displays, switches) are key to guarantee the interactivity of the didactic material. It is given as their spatial location, size, color and coherence with the control process executed by the robot. 3. Programming routines that require the user intervention must be short, clear and repeatable to avoid functional ambiguities in the user-robot dialogue. 4. Mobile parts of the robot have the additional task of give feedback about the custom programs to the user. Functionality of each part and its location within the structure must ensure that the operation of the element is evident or obvious.

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7 feature. The last stage in the didactic material design process is related with field evaluation and production for general audiences. Although this phase has not been totally completed, it is a test where children take the Moth Robot to their homes, build it and make the experiments according to the instructions in the guide. Later on, they will tell us their experience with the robot. Therefore, it is necessary to define precisely the key elements to dialogue with the participants in the evaluation, to feedback the process and then move forward to the serial production. REFERENCES
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