Engineering for Children by using Robotics.

This paper presents an approach for K-12 Engineering education aimed to facilitate the concept learning in preschool and elementary school using simple robotic prototypes developed with active participation of children. The approach focuses on strategies for imparting engineering knowledge dealing some concepts related to subjects such as physics, electricity, electronics, mechanics and other fields related to engineering education by means of an open and affordable technology. The designed approach considers four stages to motivate the learning: sensitization, robot design, robot construction and evaluation. The paper also presents results about the impact assessment of the proposed K-12 approach through qualitative data gathering to know the children's impressions and a survey intended to know the opinion of the children's parents and schoolteachers about robots as a didactic resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]