1. From RoboESL students to teacher assistants
23rd Athens Junior High School,
George Fragakis

2. Robotics in Education Pedagogical Perspectives
Provide a high-quality education
Considerably improve technical and social skills
Motivates, encourages students to learn science and technology through playing
Pedagogical Perspectives
Constructivist Theories:
Learning is not achieved by sharing knowledge
BUT by constructing knowledge based on experience

3. ROBOESL Project
Organizing activities applicable to weak students that tend to fail or quit school
Motivate students by using Robotics
Wake their interest to Science, Technology and School in general
Prevent Early School Leaving

4. A good chance Robotics will reduce ESL
ROBOESL Conclusions
Students
Teacher
Lot of interest
Felt spontaneous in class
Team Spirit
Learned through playing!
Innovation
Responsibility
Offered great satisfaction
Guiding rather than teaching
New student skills discovered
Stronger relationship with students
A good chance Robotics will reduce ESL

5. Next Day ? (After official project)
Majority of previous RoboESL students (90%) wanted to do more with Robots – Vivid Enthusiasm!
We all did a meeting and decided:
To continue Robotic lessons in after school-hours meetings
To find a way to attract new students
To present our work to the Public
But, By organizing new classes, where HOW? ex-students would now be active teacher assistants

6. Classroom implementation
9 new students (= NewSt) were found, mainly of 1st grade. Previous students (= PreSt) helped in this by gathering them and sharing their experience.
5 PreSt were involved, they were given guidance how to help with the new class. They agreed to play a very active role.
3 teams (NewSt) were formed using a team building activity. Every team would now have a teacher assistant (PreSt). 2 PreSt would be present and standby for further help.
2 Projects already known and completed by PreSt would be the teaching material for the NewSt. (Automatic Train, Automatic Car Park)

7. Outcomes – Results
New students were very excited, eager to make the robots work!
Previous students were very focused on helping in various ways (demonstrating, correcting mistakes, etc)
Team spirit was cultivated, with previous and new students.
Spontaneous behavior was observed, especially after the 1st hour
Mature and trustworthy manner, by taking part and demonstrating their work to a public Science Festival.
Development of social skills (they were interviewed, they talked and explained their work to the public). Glib when necessary.
Good chance of project sustainability

8. Evaluation
Use of questionnaires

12. Athens Science Festival 2017

13. Our efforts on camera