A proposal for RoboCupJunior in Africa: Promoting educational experience with robotics

Abstract

This paper addresses RoboCupJunior, an educational robotics initiative that aims to enhance learning through educational robotics activities around the world. RoboCupJunior is a division of RoboCup, a Robotics initiative that aims to promote Robotics and AI research, by offering publicly appealing, but formidable challenges. RoboCupJunior has three distinguished leagues -Soccer, Rescue and Dance, that attract students from all the continents. However, Africa has not taken significant advantage of this initiative, with a rather low participation of a few African countries, only. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce and promote educational robotics to students in Africa in a more generalized way, with possible suggestions to make the initiative successful in the region, in the future.

Educational Robotics: Platforms, Competitions and Expected Learning Outcomes

“…Based on the literature, educational robotics competitions positively impact education for all the participants, including students, teachers, and mentors [42], [36]. ER competitions as a goal-oriented approach to teaching, impact education on various levels [11], [31], [43], [44].…”

“…According to a survey from the FIRST robotic competition, 69% of the students who participated in the competition from 2002 to 2005 were interested in pursuing a career in science and technology [35]. Simultaneously, students become confident in using technology and widening their knowledge of physics, programming, mechanical engineering, electronics, and science [42]. Studies on educational robotics competitions also highlight that a well-designed challenge provides an environment for learning problem-solving techniques, promoting creative thinking, brainstorming, critical thinking, and creativity [52].…”

“…Robotics competition have proven to increase motivation, engagement, self-determination, self-confidence and selfefficacy [53] [13] [49] [52] [42]. Murphy [54], in her article, supported that a competition must be seen as an opportunity for intellectual growth, according to Perry's model of intellectual development.…”

“…Robotics contests, support team-based learning and enhance skills of communication and personal development, as they require from students to work in teams or allow inter-team alliances [42], [16], [50], [48]. Additionally to the results of the FIRST survey mentioned above, concerning team working, results showed that 95% of the students recognized the value of working on a team, and 83% of them realized the importance of grate professionalism [35].…”

Why it is harder to run RoboCup in South Africa

“…RoboCup Junior was also proposed as an educational initiative for Africa. 8 In our previous work, we proposed how RoboCup Junior could be established in South Africa. 9 We also made a proposal for an educational robot 10 that is suitable for science and technology education in the African context.…”