Abstract:

Our project aims to improve skills in the area of digital and STEM disciplines for primary and secondary school students and intends to do so raising awareness about environmental and biodiversity protection. The “Otonga Greenhouse” was programmed on the mBlock platform, with the use of mini-robots “Codey Rocky” and “mBot” by Makeblock®, as well as sensors and motors powered by solar energy; it represents a teaching proposal that can be applied to the school curricula, in the shape of a group work with peer education dynamics, optimal for the disciplinary enhancement of coding and the development of computational thinking, as part of a biological science laboratory that promotes green behaviors and consciousness about natural resources management. Because of its interdisciplinary essence, the "Otonga Greenhouse" allows to produce links between themes, research fields and lab experiences; it intends to increase the use of educational robots as teaching resources, together with the responsibility that students are invested with, from direct contact with plants care. Analytic and technological competencies associated with STEM disciplines, help students to better understand ethical issues, develop problem-solving skills inside their own context and elaborate solutions for everyday-life environmental problems. The project is inspired by the didactical laboratory in Ecuador, created by the Otonga Foundation, headed by professor Giovanni Onore and sustained by the Bioforest Association for the regeneration of natural environments.

Keywords:

Educational robotics, biodiversity, sustainability.