The Robotics Institute

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

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Abstract

In this paper we describe the results of a series of new robotics workshops for secondary school girls. Specifically we show that, over the course of a three-month pilot workshop, a group of eight girls showed engagement with the workshop content and gained technical knowledge. The Robot Diaries program is unique in that it creates a social narrative approach to robotics education. The robotic technology becomes a tool for expression and communication rather than the sole focus of the workshop.

Keywords

educational robotics, secondary school, girls

Notes

Associated Center(s) / Consortia: Vision and Autonomous Systems Center and Quality of Life Technology Center

Associated Lab(s) / Group(s): Human-Robot Interaction Group and CREATE: Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment

Associated Project(s): Telepresence Robot Kit

Text Reference

Emily Hamner, Tom Lauwers, Debra Bernstein, Illah Nourbakhsh, and Carl Francis DiSalvo, "Robot Diaries: Broadening Participation in the Computer Science Pipeline through Social Technical Exploration," AAAI Spring Symposium on Using AI to Motivate Greater Participation in Computer Science, March, 2008.

BibTeX Reference

@inproceedings{Hamner_2008_6033,
   author = "Emily Hamner and Tom Lauwers and Debra Bernstein and Illah Nourbakhsh and Carl Francis DiSalvo",
   title = "Robot Diaries: Broadening Participation in the Computer Science Pipeline through Social Technical Exploration",
   booktitle = "AAAI Spring Symposium on Using AI to Motivate Greater Participation in Computer Science",
   month = "March",
   year = "2008",
}

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