Robotics for Young People in AZORESminiBOT

Abstract

This paper intends to analyze the implementation of the Festival de Robótica - AZORESminiBOT, a robotics festival for the young which purpose was to create learning experiences that lead to the utilization of robots, promoting coding skills and computational thinking, as well as cooperative problem solving and with the mobilization of knowledge from specific curricular areas. At the same time, we intended to sensitize teachers to the relevance and comprehensiveness that robotic and coding activities can have in an educational environment. The festival took place in a school located at São Miguel Island, Azores. The proposed activities and the participation of the children in the four stations available were evaluated using direct observation and surveys by questionnaire. From the observations made by the researchers and the answers to the questionnaires of the 155 children who participated, 11 teachers, and 22 collaborators who facilitated the activities, it was concluded that the activities implemented were of interest to the children and were considered relevant by the teachers, but some aspects concerning the operation of the robots and the scenarios created should be taken care of in the future so that the pedagogical component is effective and of quality.