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Educational Robotics is rapidly gaining attention as an effective methodology to develop skills and engage students preserving their peculiar style of learning. It is often tied together with two other methodologies, Coding and Tinkering, characterized by a similar hands-on approach. In order to fully exploit their inclusive features, teachers need to be prepared to introduce them into classroom. It is often noticed that in service teachers are not yet fully prepared to face this challenge. Many actions have been established to recover this situation, but a proper method for assessing whether these actions are successful or not is not yet developed. This paper presents a methodology for introducing in-service teachers to Educational Robotics, Coding and Tinkering and for assessing the outcomes. 184 in-service teachers were assessed and results analysed. Final considerations draw a picture of the situation amongst the sample chosen for the present study, observing that the intervention seemed to be successful in providing key notions and examples, and improving teachers' self-confidence.

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Marine researchers and operators during their daily work need consistent data from the underwater environment to constantly monitor the habitat’s probes and the robots condition. For underwater applications, wireless communication are of paramount importance. Today, the needs for high-speed communication has prompted the exploration of the Underwater Optical Wireless Communications (UOWC) method. This article presents the design and validation aspects of the optical layer of a bidirectional UOWC system developed in the framework of the European Project SUNRISE, able to provide wireless connectivity compliant to 10Base-T Ethernet protocol (Manchester-coded signal with 10 Mbit/s data rate). The designed modems are made of two similar optical transceivers, each including a transmitter, a receiver unit and an optical power monitor part. The transmitter is based on an array of blue Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), the receiver exploits a commercially available Avalanche Photodiode (APD) and the monitoring relies on a pin-photodiode. The modems, after a deep characterization in controlled environments, were proved to work with the required 10Base-T Ethernet, up to 7.5 m distance in shallow harbor waters. The complete optical system is intended to become a node of the SUNRISE infrastructure

Coralligenous habitats are of special interest in the Mediterranean Sea because they represent one of the most important biodiversity ‘hot-spots’ and are considered of great relevance for fisheries activities in the region. Despite their importance, however, there are missing consensual methodologies for their monitoring and, despite some attempts, no environmental or ecological quality indices have been established yet. This situation could be related to the difficulties associated with their exploration and their spatial heterogeneity. These habitats are in urgent need of efficient standard monitoring and management protocols programmes to develop an effective network for their conservation. Here we reviewed the available methodologies and robotics tools used to evaluate and monitor benthic habitats, highlighting the importance of defining rapid cost-effective sampling and analyses approaches and architectures for future monitoring of changes in coralligenous habitats based on current technological developments. We identified still images acquisitions as the most effective data gathering system. Stereo photogrammetry, photomosaic elaboration and three-dimensional (3D) modelling may largely improve the data analysis and therefore the quality status assessment of the coralligenous habitats. The advantage and efficiency of different approaches and methods, and whether they should be applied and standardised for further monitoring activities, were discussed.

This paper presents the design of an assessment process and its outcomes to investigate the impact of Educational Robotics activities on students' learning. Through data analytics techniques, the authors will explore the activities' output from a pedagogical and quantitative point of view. Sensors are utilized in the context of an Educational Robotics activity to obtain a more effective robot-environment interaction. Pupils work on specific exercises to make their robot smarter and to carry out more complex and inspirational projects: the integration of sensors on a robotic prototype is crucial, and learners have to comprehend how to use them. In the presented study, the potential of Educational Data Mining is used to investigate how a group of primary and secondary school students, using visual programming (Lego Mindstorms EV3 Education software), design programming sequences while they are solving an exercise related to an ultrasonic sensor mounted on their robotic artifact. For this purpose, a tracking system has been designed so that every programming attempt performed by students' teams is registered on a log file and stored in an SD card installed in the Lego Mindstorms EV3 brick. These log files are then analyzed using machine learning techniques (k-means clustering) in order to extract different patterns in the creation of the sequences and extract various problem-solving pathways performed by students. The difference between problem-solving pathways with respect to an indicator of early achievement is studied.

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