WIP: The Phases of Robot Design: Storytelling Lesson for Students and a Survey Tool for Scientists

This work-in-progress innovative practice paper presents a storytelling lesson about robot design aiming to familiarize students with the multidisciplinary nature of robotics as a career. The lesson is based on an integrated STEM approach and structured as a narrative that follows the journey of roboticists in designing a robotic model of a rabbit by using the LEGO® Spike Prime robotic set. Students are immersed in the storyline as characters helping roboticists to test and evaluate their designs. This practical constructivist assignment includes two steps: 1) testing and evaluating assembly instructions and 2) testing and evaluating the two models (visually and by using programming exercises). The two models present distinctive styles of assembly instructions, standard LEGO® building instructions made in Studio 2.0 and 3D building instructions made in BuildIn3D. When it comes to design, the models display different orientations (vertical and horizontal), complexity (number of parts), and mechanics of movement. For this reason, this lesson also serves as a usability and comparative study. Lesson sheets narrate the story and guide the progression while also serving as a testing diary and reflection tool. This approach where students internalize lessons through personal involvement was chosen to facilitate engagement and support problem-solving and knowledge building, scientific inquiry, critical thinking, design thinking, think-pair-share, discovery, and discussion. The lesson was piloted during the teachers' training, after which teachers presented it to their students in elementary schools. Results are based on feedback from 42 students and 11 teachers. Results show that 17% of students included in the study never owned or assembled LEGO®. When it comes to assembly instructions, students considered standard instructions easier to navigate and follow with clearer illustrations and steps. On the other hand, they recognized that 3D instructions provided more detail and expressed that the interactive display from different angles positively affected their building experience. The easier assembly of model 1 was least affected by the clarity of instructions but rather attributed to fewer parts and the simplicity of the model. Although 95% considered model 2 more difficult to assemble, 59% expressed they would prefer to assemble that model over model 1.