Can a Social Robot Stimulate Science Curiosity in Classrooms?

This study investigates whether the presence of a social robot and interaction with it raises children’s interest in science. We placed Robovie, our social robot, in an elementary school science class where children could freely interact with it during their breaks. Robovie was tele-operated and its...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of social robotics 2015-11, Vol.7 (5), p.641-652
Main Authors: Shiomi, Masahiro, Kanda, Takayuki, Howley, Iris, Hayashi, Kotaro, Hagita, Norihiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Control
Engineering
Mechatronics
Questions
Robotics
Robots
Science
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Summary:This study investigates whether the presence of a social robot and interaction with it raises children’s interest in science. We placed Robovie, our social robot, in an elementary school science class where children could freely interact with it during their breaks. Robovie was tele-operated and its behaviors were designed to answer any questions related to science. It encouraged the children to ask about science by initiating conversations about class topics. Our result shows that even though Robovie did not influence the science curiosity of the entire class, there were individual increases in the children who asked Robovie science questions.
ISSN:1875-4791
1875-4805
DOI:10.1007/s12369-015-0303-1