At which grade levels would the technology be most beneficial? Middle School versus High School?
Is it more effective to include this type of technology in an authentic, integrated science context, or to offer unrelated exposure to coding and robotics?
Do gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status impact the appeal or effectiveness of this technology?
How close is it to being sufficiently robust and reliable for classroom use?
Will teachers want to try it?
User Studies - Middle Grades
Pilot Studies to Date
McKinley Institute of Technology (RWC)
- Students built Lego pipetter mechanism
- Fascinated by Layering and Density
Ralston Middle School (Belmont)
- Similar to McKinley
Christa McAuliffe School (Saratoga)
- Girls coded well plate designs in Snap!
- All girls chose LHR
- All boys chose Lego vehicles
- Small sample size
User Studies - High Schools
Pilot Studies to Date
Design Tech High School (Redwood Shores)
- Two Fab Lab Intersessions weeks (15 hrs)
- First time, some created non-LHR robots
- Second time, most worked on LHR
Some built variations (micro:bit)
Some designed improvements
Carlmont High School BioTech Institute
- We began study with micro:bit version
- We taught students MakeCode
- Aborted due to equipment reliability issues