Learning with Educational Robotics

The RoboCupJunior division of RoboCup is now entering its third year of international participation and is growing rapidly in size and popularity. This article first outlines the history of the junior league since it was first demonstrated in Paris at RoboCup-1998 and describes how it has evolved into the international sensation it is today. Although the popularity of the event is self-evident, we are working to identify and quantify the educational benefits of the initiative. The remainder of the article focuses on describing our efforts to encapsulate these qualities, highlighting results from a pilot study conducted at RoboCupJunior-2000 and presenting new data from a subsequent study of RoboCupJunior-2001. In 1998, Lund and Pagliarini demonstrated the idea of a children's league for RoboCup, using robots constructed and programmed with the Lego Mindstorms kit that could play soccer (Land and Pagliarini 1998).