Abstract
Although educational robotics and IoT competitions have been described as a productive learning field in the context of STEAM education, there is a lack of research concerning the design process that occurs in student teams and the connection with design thinking methodologies. This study aims to propose and evaluate an approach for supporting design thinking in the context of STEAM, educational robotics and IoT, for elementary school students. The proposed methodology relies on participatory design approaches and is based on 40 design cards, which aim at the supported exploration of problems, needs, opportunities, and ideas. It was applied in 4 sessions with 19 students, who participated in an open educational technologies competition. Questionnaires and focus groups were used to gather data from the students who argued that the proposed design process allowed them to explore the problem at hand in an unexpected, creative and productive way and it was crucial for the novelty of their final pool of ideas. They also stated that the structure and elements of the process played an important role. Weaknesses of the proposed framework are also identified and reported.
Keywords
- Design thinking
- Design cards
- Educational robotics
Arvanitakis, I., Palaigeorgiou, G., Bratitsis, T. (2022). Evaluating Design Cards for Supporting Design Thinking in the Context of Open Robotics and IoT Competitions. In: Auer, M.E., Tsiatsos, T. (eds) New Realities, Mobile Systems and Applications. IMCL 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 411. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96296-8_60
