At RobotLAB, one of the things that we excite us the most is to visit young students and give them the opportunity to interact with our fantastic robots. This is when we feel truly fulfilled and satisfied with our efforts.

Recently, the Worthing High School in Houston, TX, was invited to San Francisco in order to enjoy a ground-breaking experience for its students. As we often do, we provide educational experiences with robots like NAO and Pepper. Our goal here is to discover how educational robots influence learning and students’ interest.

The robotics survey 2018 conducted on this occasion gave us valuable insights about this. As always, we are both pleased and surprised by the results

Outstanding Interest in Robotics and STEM

After interacting with NAO and Pepper robots, 95 percent of the students agreed that they want to learn more about robotics, programming, and everything in between. What is more surprising is that the other 5 percent didn’t disagree, they simply felt neutral about the statement.

In this same line of thought, we knew that 25 percent of the students were already interested in STEM careers. After the experience, we asked again. The number of students that were interested in these careers doubled, reaching 50 percent.

Bring NAO and Pepper Back!

Yes, it raised interest indeed. But did the students want them back? Just like it happened when we asked about interest in robotics and programming, 95 percent of the students stated that they want to repeat the experience with NAO and Pepper robots in the classroom as soon as possible.

Fun and Engaging Experience

One of the biggest challenges in education these days is to keep things interesting enough for students, allowing them to engage effortlessly in the long term. Survey after survey, we have found that one of the biggest perks in teaching with robots is increased engagement.

According to our recent survey, 75 percent of the students do consider that robots can improve their learning experience. 20 percent remained neutral about this statement and 5 percent disagreed.

However, more students agreed on that learning with robots is more fun, with 85 percent strongly agreeing, 10 percent partially agreeing, and a small 5 percent being neutral towards this statement.

Still, 95 percent stated joy and amusement while programming the NAO robot to dance on a desk in the classroom. The same proportion of students thought that having Pepper telling their stories was fun and engaging, making them greatly interested in the lesson.

The Bottom Line

We closed the experience by requesting honest feedback directly from the students. They shared their thoughts about the experience with NAO and Pepper robots, how they performed in the classroom, and how they could potentially shape learning in the future.

Here, NAO and Pepper received an overwhelmingly positive feedback. 95 percent of the students provided highly positive feedback on the experience, while the other 5 percent remained neutral about it.

As always, we'll continue to work hard at RobotLAB, finding new ways to bring innovation to the classroom and help new generations to become the best they can be through technology and joy.

Interested about having a training with us at your School?