Talk to the BCS Northampton, concerned with the presenter's personal view of robots in the home and in schools. Followed by the presenter's personal journey with simple robots illustrated by projects.

1. Robots in Home and
School
Dr Scott Turner
University of
Northampton

2. The robots
are coming
They have
been in
schools for
a while
•Junkbots
•Robots in
teaching
programming
•Robot in
School Project
Personal
Journey
•Crumble
•Microbit
•Raspberry Pi
•Arduino
Tools of
the trade

4. NAO's
programming

5. The robots are
coming
It is not just industry!

6. Home - now
• JiBO
• Roomba
• Alpha2
• Robotis Mini

7. ANKI's Cozmo

8. Home – coming
soon (maybe)
• Buddy – Blue Frog Robots
• Kuri - Mayfield Robotics

9. They have been in
schools for a while

10. Mindstorms

11. Wide range of
robots

12. Focus on
Autism

13. Personal Journey I am not a school
teacher!

14. Robots in teaching
programming
• Active research interest at the University of
Northampton
• We have being 'borrowing' ideas to teaching
programming
• Exploring problem-solving first and Java
Programming
• Collaborators include:
• Gary Hill
• Jonathan Adams

15. • Lawhead et al (2003) “…provide entry level programming students
with a physical model to visually demonstrate concepts”
• “the most important benefit of using robots in teaching introductory
courses is the focus provided on learning language independent,
persistent truths about programming and programming techniques.
Robots readily illustrate the idea of computation as interaction”
• Lawhead PB, Bland CG, Barnes DJ, Duncan ME, Goldweber M,
Hollingsworth RG,
Schep M (2003), A Road Map for Teaching Introductory Programming
Using
LEGO Mindstorms Robots SIGCSE Bulletin, 35(2): 191-201.

16. What did we
find?
Robots are a great vehicle for
developing coding skills!
Visual nature is important.
Limited resource – this is a
difficulty.
Great resource for teaching
concepts in AI.

17. Sample of the
publications
Hill, G. and Turner, S. J. (2014) Problems First, Second and Third. International Journal of Quality Assurance in Engineering and Technology Education (IJQAETE). 3(3),
pp. 88-109. ISSN: 2155-496 DOI: 10.4018/ijqaete.2014070104
Turner S (2014) "Greenfoot in Problem solving and Artificial Intelligence" CEISEE 2014 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu China 24-25
April 2014. 2013
Turner S (2011) Neural Nets Robotics Workshop. Bot Shop! University of Derby, 28th October 2011.
Hill G, Turner S (2011) Chapter 7 Problems First Software Industry-Oriented Education Practices and Curriculum Development: Experiences and Lessons edited by Drs.
Matthew Hussey, Xiaofei Xu and Bing Wu. ISBN: 978-1609607975 IGI Global June 2011 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-797-5.ch007
Turner S and Hill G (2010) "Innovative use of Robots and Graphical Programming in Software Education" Computer Education Ser. 117 No. 9 pp 54-57 ISSN: 1672-5913
Turner S, Hill G, Adams J (2009) "Robots in problem solving in programming" 9th 1-day Teaching of Programming Workshop, University of Bath, 6th April 2009.
Turner S and Hill G(2008) "Robots within the Teaching of Problem-Solving" ITALICS vol. 7 No. 1 June 2008 pp 108-119 ISSN 1473-7507
Turner S and Adams J (2008) "Robots and Problem Solving" 9th Higher Education Academy-ICS Annual Conference, Liverpool Hope University, 26th August - 28th
August 2008. pp. 14 ISBN 978-0-9559676-0-3.
Adams, J. and Turner, S., (2008) Problem Solving and Creativity for Undergraduate Computing and Engineering students: the use of robots as a development tool
Creating Contemporary Student Learning Environments 2008, Northampton, UK.
Adams, J. and Turner, S., (2008) Problem Solving and Creativity for Undergraduate Engineers: process or product? International Conference on Innovation, Good
Practice and Research in Engineering Education 2008, Loughborough, UK.
Adams, J., Turner, S., Kaczmarczyk, S., Picton, P. and Demian, P.,(2008). Problem Solving and Creativity for Undergraduate Engineers: findings of an action research
project involving robots International Conference on Engineering Education ICEE 2008, Budapest, Hungary.
Turner S and Hill G(2007) Robots in Problem-Solving and Programming 8th Annual Conference of the Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, University
of Southampton, 28th - 30th August 2007, pp 82-85 ISBN 0-978-0-9552005-7-1
Turner S (2007) Developing problem-solving teaching material based upon Microsoft Robotics Studio. 8th Annual Conference of the Subject Centre for Information and
Computer Sciences, University of Southampton, 28th - 30th August 2007 pp 151 ISBN 0-978-0-9552005-7-1
Turner S (2007) Developing problem-solving teaching materials based upon Microsoft Robotics Studio. Innovative Teaching Development Fund Dissemination Day 1st
March 2007 Microsoft:London
Turner S and Hill G (2006) The Inclusion Of Robots Within The Teaching Of Problemsolving: Preliminary Results Proceedings of 7th Annual Conference of the ICS HE
Academy Trinity College, Dublin, 29th - 31st August 2006 Proceedings pg 241-242 ISBN 0-9552005-3-9

18. Robots in School
• Santander funded
• Raspberry Pi based robot arms kits
• Up to the school what to do – but share
• Code Clubs
• Moon missions
• Python
• Scratch
• Digital Leaders

19. Junkbot project – past
and present
• Started in 2009 whole project lead by me with help
• Sponsored by now defunct NEL and emda. Later by HE STEM
• Three parts
• Introduced waste management - lead by Terry Tudor
• Build a moving 'bot' to clear 'junk' out of junk – lead by
me
• LEGO robot programming to clear junk – lead by me

20. Junkbot – bot building
took off - Hayley

21. Junkbot building – bot and
programming starts to come
together – Hayden Tetley

22. Junkbots -
now
• Scratch
• Python

23. Tools of the Trade!
Personal views of the
technologies that are
going to make a
difference

24. Crumble

25. Micro:bit, arduino and
Raspberry Pi

26. Future is
bright... and
we can help
Since September 2014 coding is on the
National curriculum
Micro:bit, Raspberry Pi and Crumble are UK
based with a lot community support
Perfect storm: Coding in schools, the devices
and the rise of the maker movement has lead
to companies producing lower cost robots
Our role – we help develop and support
robots in schools...and in the home.