SBIR Phase I: KinderBots: robotics and programming in early childhood education

这个SBIR第一阶段项目提出开发一个专门为幼儿教育（PreK-2）设计的适合发展的机器人构建工具包，用于教授STEM（科学，技术，工程，数学）的组成部分，特别是技术的“T”和工程的“E”，这是这个年龄段最被忽视的部分。最近的研究教育机器人并没有集中在基础年。然而，从经济和发展的角度来看，从幼儿期开始的教育干预措施成本较低，效果较持久。拟议的工作与联邦日益加强的关注幼儿教育的努力是一致的。它是围绕几个技术和业务问题组织的：1.设计原则是什么？如何设计出适合发展的低成本机器人套件？ 2.幼儿通过使用有形积木而不使用计算机屏幕对机器人工具包进行编程，最可行的技术机制是什么？ 3.从单一原型到大规模批量生产需要哪些制造工艺？4.在学校和家庭环境中对儿童、教师和家长进行用户测试的结果是什么？ 5.什么是可持续的商业化计划？这一提议的更广泛/商业影响是，它将通过满足教育部分（幼儿）的需求，为教育中的新兴机器人领域做出贡献，目前缺乏以适合发展的方式教授技术和工程的必要工具。这项工作是在联邦一级重新设想幼儿教育的时候，以及为STEM开发创新技术和方法的公认需要。这一跨学科的建议为学习技术，计算机科学教育，幼儿教育和人机交互领域做出了贡献。与此同时，它提供了一个机会，以满足目标受众的需求，根据最新的美国人口普查，约有1330万儿童。鉴于致力于幼儿教育的产业规模，潜在的商业影响是巨大的。

This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop a developmentally appropriate robotic construction kit specifically designed for early childhood education (PreK-2) for teaching the components of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), especially the "T" of technology and the "E" of engineering, which have been the most neglected for this age segment. Recent research on educational robotics has not focused on the foundational years. However, both from an economic and a developmental standpoint, educational interventions that begin in early childhood are associated with lower costs and more durable effects. The proposed work is consistent with the increasing Federal efforts to focus on early childhood education. It is organized around several technical and business questions: 1. What design principles inform creation of a developmentally appropriate robotic kit to be manufactured at low-cost? 2. What are the most feasible technical mechanisms for the robotic kit to be programmed by young children through the use of tangible blocks without a computer screen? 3. What manufacturing processes are needed for scaling from single prototypes to large-scale volume? 4. What are the outcomes of user testing with children, teachers and parents in school and home settings? 5. What is a sustainable commercialization plan?The broader/commercial impact of this proposal is that it will contribute to the emerging field of robotics in education by addressing the needs of an educational segment, early childhood, that today lacks the necessary tools for teaching technology and engineering in a developmentally appropriate way. This work comes at a time of re-envisioning early childhood education at the Federal level, and an accepted need to develop innovative new technologies and approaches for STEM. This interdisciplinary proposal makes contributions to the fields of learning technologies, computer science education, early childhood education and human-computer interaction. At the same time it provides an opportunity to address the needs of a target audience that, according to the latest US Census, consists of approximately 13.3 million children. Given the size of the industry devoted to early childhood education, the potential commercial impact is significant.