Learning With Robotics: Engaging Students of All Abilities With Robotics Integrated Instruction
Location
Room 3150
Start Date
27-2-2026 10:00 AM
End Date
27-2-2026 10:40 AM
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Drew Herring is an undergraduate education major focusing on elementary teacher education. Mr. Herring was introduced to teaching with robotics in an integrated science course. He enjoys facilitating student learning via robotics and has participated in conference presentations and guest teaching experiences at local schools. Mr. Herring plans to begin his teaching career in the Statesboro area in Fall 2027.
Second Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Shelli Casler-Failing, Associate Professor of Middle Grades and Secondary Mathematics Education at Georgia Southern University, holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in Mathematics and Science Education from SUNY Albany. She focuses her research on integrating robotics in mathematics curricula, teacher professional development, and ungrading practices.
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Presentation Type
Concurrent Session
Abstract
Participants in this session will gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of integrating robotics in the K-8 classroom, across all disciplines, to engage students of all dis/abilities. Participants will engage with LEGO Spike Prime robots to experience the usefulness and versatility of robotics in education.
Conference Strands
Instructional Technology
Description
Robotics-integrated instruction offers challenging, exciting, and relevant learning experiences for students. High-quality instruction is marked by engaging and rigorous activities, which a robotics-integrated instructional approach provides (Bloodworth et al., 2023). Furthermore, integrating robotics in classroom instruction allows students to grow through high-order thinking, problem-solving, and metacognitive processes as they engage with high cognitive demand tasks. Activities that engage students in coding have been shown to nurture the skills necessary for competitiveness in future careers. Innovation — involving problem-solving, creativity, and other skills that robotics-integrated instruction provides — is an essential component of many occupations. Seeing education as the place of preparation for the workforce, teachers would benefit their students by adopting robotics as an instructional tool and learning opportunity, as it would prepare them for many opportunities later in life.
Supporting the case of Bloodworth et al. (2023), Bai and Tian (2025) note that integrating robotics into STEM classes yields significant positive effects for students’ conceptual knowledge and learning attitudes. It is difficult not to notice that many students seem bored in today’s school environment. Robotics offers teachers an opportunity to enhance the learning experiences they provide to students, boosting students’ sense of excitement for learning. Bai and Tian (2025) also describe how robotics-integrated instruction allows students the opportunity to explore through problem-based learning, where debugging and hypothesis testing are required. Students become engaged as they solve real-world and relevant problems using robots. Robotics-integrated instruction deeply connects to the constructivist learning theory, as it allows students to learn through meaningful experiences—experiences that promote their sense of autonomy when solving problems and serve as a platform for developing essential career skills.
Based on the insights gained through research and personal experiences with robotics in education, we believe that robotics-integrated instruction offers students numerous opportunities for growth. Robotics-integrated instruction engages students through not only computational or engineering and design processes, but also through the development of soft skills, such as teamwork, collaboration, and communication. While there are barriers to integrating robotics technology into the classroom, we believe it is essential for teachers to be aware of the benefits of incorporating robotics-infused experiences to promote student learning. Furthermore, there are a plethora of types of robots that could be used in the classroom, therefore, for the purpose of this presentation, the LEGO Spike Prime robot will be used. However, we believe that witnessing even one type of robot in action is enough to demonstrate the importance and benefits of using them as an instructional tool in the classroom across all disciplines.
Bloodworth, A., Conner, A., Miller, C., Franco, L., Foutz, T., & Hill, R. B. (2023). Robotics and coding: A framework for examining cognitive demand. Journal of Technology Education, 35(1), 7–31.
Bai, S., & Tian, P. (2025). Educational robotics may enhance students’ conceptual knowledge, applied skills, and learning attitude in STEM education : A meta-analysis. Educational Technology & Society, 28(4), 274–303.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Learning With Robotics: Engaging Students of All Abilities With Robotics Integrated Instruction
Room 3150
Participants in this session will gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of integrating robotics in the K-8 classroom, across all disciplines, to engage students of all dis/abilities. Participants will engage with LEGO Spike Prime robots to experience the usefulness and versatility of robotics in education.
