The importance of robotics... And the lack of it.
How to encourage girls' interest in tech — Newsletter No.18
Schools are now expanding their use of educational robotics with various educational robotics platforms (e.g., Lego Mindstorms, M:bot). Recently, educational robotics has been brought into other content areas beyond STEM subjects such as arts, music and even into interdisciplinary classrooms, which can also be used to foster computational thinking (CT) skills.
Combining coding with robotics enables students to see their thinking in a more concrete form. As students code, they practice metacognition and can identify their mistakes in thinking — e.g., the robot is moving left instead of right.
Prior research has shown numerous interdisciplinary benefits related to stregthening computational thinking, while this one investigated factors that may lead to 4th and 5th-grade elementary school students’ development of computational thinking skills and found significant relationships between:
perceived competence,
enjoyment,
learning motivation, and
intrinsic motivation.
Another important finding was that problem-solving was a significant predictor of computational thinking skills.
Ok, I’m convinced. Let me purchase a robotic toy for my daughter!
This is easier said than done.
Check out the best selling robotic toys. Don’t you think there’s too many blue?
And any list you find, the end results is very similar.
You will also notice that you’ll hardly find anything by simply googling “robotic toy for girls”. Most of the results will be from online stores and search querries with that phrase without many meaningful results, apart from one purple puppy.
Why is this happening?
We started building robotic toys to tailor boys’ interest. For many different reasons, but let’s not get into that.
Then, we added a few products to be more “girly” by coloring the same toys and robots in pink or purple. Girls didnt’t buy them much.
So we concluded that girls are not interested in tech and robotics.
We believe they are, but we are so used to presenting and teaching about tech that we don’t know how to make it any differently than what it is now.
There needs to be more of us who are noticing and want to change this. So, if you haven’t yet, maybe this is the right time to help us get some more subscribers :)
Nothing at all?
There is 1% of robotic toys which are made with girls in mind, so if you are interested, here are some of them:
Smart Gurlz — a line of friendly self-balancing robots and action dolls that engage and encourage girls to learn to code. Connected via smartphone or tablet, and made for girls 6 and up.
UBTECH Unicorn Kit — This enchanted unicorn kit has everything needed to create a buildable, codable robot — or invent your own. In assembly phase kids are learning about robotics, and then with an app about coding.
LittleBits — colorful modular electronic Bits. They snap together easily using small magnets to build fully-fledged and functioning inventions. The kits help make learning about circuitry and electronics fun and imaginative.
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