This article reports the developmentof an educational robotics project at the BasicSchool (2nd and 3rd cycles) André Soares inBraga, with students from 6th grade, integratedin an international cooperative partnership forinnovation and good practices of the EuropeanErasmus+ programme.This project was initially designed to addressthe need to share innovative teaching practicesthrough the development of new methodologiesand multidisciplinary approach in teachinglearningprocesses in the 2nd and 3rd cycles ofbasic education combined with the stimulationof entrepreneurial skills and co-creation ofknowledge. From the beginning, the project hadthe collaboration and support of the Hands-onScience Network Association, having given riseto the submission of an application to the 13thedition of the contest “Projeto Ciência naEscola” of the Ilídio Pinho Foundation on thetopic “Science and Technology at the service ofa better world”. This application has beenselected for the 2nd phase of the competitionand obtained financial support for thedevelopment of activities which gave an addeddimension to the project, attracting and furthermotivating students for learning science andthe choice of technology areas.Students were challenged to identify asituation/problem and find a possiblesolution/answer in the context of educationalrobotics. Thus, there was the study of theLEGO MINDSTORMS NXT programmingenvironment for programming routines orscripts and simultaneously the workmethodology hands-on was implemented usingparticipative methodological approaches,enhancing the development of key skills andentrepreneur spirit. At first, students’ creativitywas stimulated through the ideas generationprocess called SCAMPER, channelling it tosolve situations/problem where the students'task was to unlock a situation and optimize it.From a simple stick and a simulation of a pathfor blind people, ideas were collected toinnovate this object, in order to promote a moreefficient and fairer mobility. With thecollection/gathering of ideas/suggestions, aguiding principle for our project was developedgiving an intended metacognitive knowledge.Starting with the acquisition of this knowledge,students focus on building and programmingrobots LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT, developingthe prototype of a smart and innovative canefor the blind people. This is an interactiveprocess that combines the concrete and theabstract in solving a problem involving stepssuch as: design, implementation, construction,automation and control mechanism. In all ofthese steps the construction of knowledge tookplace, arising from different scientific fields(science, mathematics, physics, technology),as well as the acquisition of transversal skills.The work focused mainly on the dynamics ofthe process rather than the products or results.Many citizenship skills were developed whencreating a tool to minimize the difficulties andobstacles faced by blind people, enabling theimprovement of their quality of life. It wasobserved, from certain experimental activities,that one can transfer new skills and knowledgeacquired at school to everyday life.
展开▼
