Robotics, Astronomic geography and the scientific methodology
Fondazione IBM constantly works with Schools and Institutes to bring
STEM disciplines to kids and young adults.
“Mission to Mars” (a rover on Mars soul) is a 10+ year project which
aims to bring different disciplines like robotics, astronomical geography,
mathematics, arts and images, technology and computer sciences to younger’s
world.
Robotics is a engineering discipline which studies and develops
methodologies to mimic the human work with a robot, the approach to this
discipline is influenced also from humanistic and scientific philosophies.
patial Robotics develops technologies and methods for the use of robots
outside the Earth's atmosphere has achieved useful results even in fields outside
spatial research. Often, this knowledge is far from being accessible to the
current world of our children.
With the "Mission on Mars" project, it is all about combining
engineers' robots with the disciplines of the curriculum.
Any teaching taught in our classes should aim to make topics as close as
possible to what can be observed and what can be experienced through one's own
body or perceived with one's own senses.
All content can become interesting as they provide answers to questions
that arise from everyday life. In fact, they are the questions that define a
clear link between motivation, interests, experiences and studies.
Through the Mission, we want to help our kids to think about their own
questions with a critical observation process and structured in phases that
include response hypotheses, observations, experiments, reviews, and final
answers.
At the end, the Mission is an application of the scientific method that
is no longer an exclusive tool of the scientist's work that puts theory, but becomes
a common attitude also to those who approach - like our boys - to study and
deepen any discipline.
To achieve this goal it is necessary to facilitate the transition from
theoretical phases to practical phases.
Every discovery that starts from one's own experience and questions is
the realization of a fundamental goal of educational processes: to move in a
simple and natural way from spontaneous knowledge to specific knowledge.
Understanding why a phenomenon related to the lives of men, the Earth,
the planets becomes a significant learning if it is part of the knowledge of
reality and of concrete experiences.
Social Mission to Mars
As this is the tenth year of implementation, as project team we have
decided to improve the mission with the introduction of the first "social"
version with English-language exchanges via social network (Skype) and using
devices such as tablets and notebooks which Comprehensive Institute
CONFALONIERI of Milan offers to
strengthen its students' educational thanks to the funding of the PON calls.
This event has been included in
the calendar of activities foreseen by the Erasmus KA2 E-Motions Transnational
Meeting: the main purpouse of the exchange defined in the call was the
construction of cooperative paths to be implemented with all the young people
involved in mobility: seven Italian kids, seven Spanish boys, seven Polish boys
and Slovak boys, all aged between 10 and 15. The choice to highlight this
context has been dictated by several reasons: for the strong inclusive
character, for the link with the activities provided by the National School
Digital School, for its strong international value and the emotional aspect it
possesses.
This interdisciplinary activity has involved a lot of children and has
brought them closer to the "digital-astronomical-scientific-international"
world, making a mission that could be abstract at first: building, programming
and sending on the surface of Mars a Rover capable of traveling according to
routes set remotely from Earth.
To successfully implement the experience, students were divided into
groups and then asked to collaborate to achieve the main goal: program, through
an environmental simulation, a mission of a Rover (robot) who reached the
ground Martian thanks to a spacecraft (lander).This initiative is linked to the
experiences of Spirit, Opportunity and the latest rover, Curiosity; all Nasa
Rover that are in operation on Mars.The mission the Rover has to accomplish,
thanks to the group activity created by the students, involves a lookout on the
Martian soil with a specific path definition to be made.The real mission is to
plan the Rover to complete the journey by avoiding obstacles and bursts from
the Martian soil.
Rover programming will have to be done on land as a radio signal employs
up to twenty-eight minutes to cover the Mars-Earth distance, is then not
possible to operate the Rover directly from the Earth.
The main difficulty is therefore to "build" the mission
remotely on Earth to be able to do the Rover operation on Mars once all the
instructions have been sent in the form of a radio signal and without direct
control.
The project at our Institute was implemented with the support of Ing.
Angela Cefalà and Ing. Laura Rizzi which usually collaborate with the IBM
Foundation on initiatives aimed at spreading the scientific culture in the
primary and secondary school environment.
As anticipated by the metacognitive approach at the beginning of the
work, the students were made aware of the structure of the entire path they
would have done.
During the morning meeting, IBM consultants introduced a brief
conversation with the students, covering different themes including current
knowledge and expectations from the experience they were about to begin with,
featuring a rich presentation of images, captured footage and captions
Illustrated various features of Mars and focusing on relevant details of other
planets, Earth, and on the systems currently used by NASA for current studies.
Before starting the actual activity, the co-operative path to be
followed for the students was clarified. They were divided into groups with
different objectives: first group had to build the robot with the Lego Kit
available; a second group traced the simulation path to the Martian ground on the
floor; a third group being busy programmig computer paths by simulating remote
programming from Earth with the help of a very intuitive and easy-to-use object
software loaded on two laptops made available by IBM for the project. A fourth
group - control group - acted as coordinator of the 3 teams who performed their
tasks in three spaces located at different points in the school; The control
group used it as a tablet and skype communication tool, in order to address the
solution of any problem and important communications between the groups.
A specific task
reserved for teachers was to prepare cooperative and collaborative groups,
assigning roles and responsibilities depending on the strengths and weaknesses
of each student in line with the specific goal of each single group.
Two teams were
identified for each class, divided into four groups.
In order to make
the boys identifiable, the personal cards were distributed with precise
information about the team and their assigned role:
1.
Robot Team Designers
2.
Software Development Team
3.
Team Simulation and Testing
4.
Mission Control Team
Each team was provided with English-language paperwork with sufficient
information to complete the specific task. It was explained to the boys that to
achieve the success of the entire mission each group should have achieved its
"partial" goal. During the activity, the team of Women in Technology
experts supported on demand the students to solve critical situations and / or
to give advice. Compared to what is happening in reality it is important to
have access to extraordinary resources in critical resolution, but it is
crucial to know when to use a help and when it is sufficient to leverage
teamwork.
Teachers identified the working groups on the basis of
the characteristics of the individual students in accordance with their own
predispositions and their cognitive style, involving everyone in the mission,
enabling active participation by each student through each individual
contribution. All the workgroups have therefore carried out a specific task to
complete the mission: build the Rover, program it, test it, perform the
simulation tests by moving it on a specially crafted plastic respecting the
characteristics of the Martian soil. Among the various groups there was a
strong interdependence and that is why all the boys felt particularly involved.
Even those with special difficulties have found this experience an opportunity
to make their significant contribution.
The following topics were addressed:
· Introduction to
robotics
· Introduction to
programming
· Simulation
(features and difficulties)
· Challenging
solution (problem solving)
· Work for goals
· Group work
(teamwork)
· Experimentation
and verification
The use of robots in the didactics offered a wonderful opportunity for
inclusion:
· Robots are real
three-dimensional objects that move in space and time and can emulate human /
animal behavior
· Younger student
learn more quickly and easily if they are dealing with concrete objects
· Students are motivated
if they can try theoretical principles concretely
· Every student has
the opportunity to express their own cognitive style
This experience brought the boys closer to the scientific world,
allowing them to work concretely for:
· Communicate and
share information in English
· Developing
multimedia knowledge
· Develop the
critical spirit and observation
· Develop the
ability to collaborate and tailor different people
· Develop capacity to
collaborate
· Develop the
ability to synthesize accurately
· Boost spontaneity,
creativity, and emotional intelligence
Reaching the Goal of the Mission, the boys have shown:
· Know how to use
the English language to listen, read, communicate
· Know how to spend
your digital skills
· Know how to
cooperate and collaborate
· Know how to use
the scientific method
· Know how to work
for goals
·
Have the ability to make decisions
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