Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze a course with programmable robots in order to evaluate challenges and opportunities of robotics in primary education and to identify factors for an introduction of playful programming and a successful implementation to computer science education at primary schools.

Created with the aim of fostering problem-solving thinking skills and integrating digital education at primary level, a technical equipment, including a set of Beebots, Lego Wedo 2.0 and iPads, was given to 13 primary schools, last school year. Target group of the course were students of the third and fourth level. The methodological structure of this course leads from the haptic level of the practical and integrated use of robotics to the level of digital abstraction. The course was conducted in Lower Austria, following a nationwide pilot project.

At the end of the project, a survey was conducted among representatives of the participating schools in order to obtain feedback on the skills achieved and to gain insights into opportunities and obstacles in the implementation of coding and robotics to promote problem-solving oriented thinking.

Keywords:

Primary school, computer science education, robotics.