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STEM, ROBOTICS, CODING, MAKER’S SPACES OVERVIEW TEMPLATE

Jonathan Rowan

When the learning environment and information becomes stagnant or dull, student

engagement will decrease. Maintaining student enthusiasm for learning is a concern of

all educational professionals. A promising area for improving student engagement is the

utilization of virtual spaces, gamification, and creative workspace. Within these realms,

the implementation of STEM, Robotics, Coding, and Maker’s Spaces have flourished.

By connecting the learning environment to the skills necessary to navigate not

only virtual buy real spaces, educator can assist students in making the connection to the

critical thinking, problem solving, and creative skills they will need to flourish as the

world of technology continues to expand throughout their lives.

STEM

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathmatics encompass the STEM

program. The goal of STEM is to engage students in a hands-on methodology that

encourages group collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving.

Why is it significant?

STEM coursework is designed to give student learners skills that make them more

employable and adequate ability to meet current labor demands. As the world expands

on its technological capabilities, student learners must prepare to meet the future demand.

STEM is designed to create a well-rounded student, with each subject bringing in a

unique perspective to the education process. Science educates the students to the world

around them, including teaching them the capability to research and problem solve.

Technology prepares the students to face the challenges of an ever evolving technological

age in which they are preparing to solve problems that as of yet do not exist, but will with

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next generation technology. Engineering enhances the students ability to problem solve

and apply those skills in collaborative effort toward the completion of projects. Math

teaches students to analyze and gather information, make decisions and design solutions.

There is a recent effort to add a category to the acronym, A for art, creating

STEAM. Art has been added as to foster creativity. It’s argued that the ability to think in

the abstract may have tremendous power in the development of solutions to yet

unidentified problems and more importantly to visualize potential obstacles and thus

account for them. “By thinking outside of our existing knowledge, we can come up with

solutions that aren't immediately obvious. This type of thinking is essential for problem-

solving, decision-making, and critical thinking. Abstract thinking enables us to generate

new ideas, connect unrelated concepts, and look at the bigger picture” (Rupp, 2023).

What are the downsides and/or barriers and how might these be overcome?

It can be argued that a concentration on STEM may lead to a lag in other areas

such as social sciences and humanities. This lack of focus on social sciences may leave

students unfulfilled in emotional regulation, social development, and creativity.

Additionally, women tend to avoid STEM classes in large part due to peer pressure, a

lack of role model or modeling behavior in the field, as well as a misconception of what

STEM education is.

To encourage women to venture into STEM fields, educators have looked to the

“relatability” of the mentor or role model as an important consideration. “Relatability

here refers to how relatable someone finds a mentor or role model. What relatability

looks like in practice and how relatability may have a role in changing how girls perceive

STEM is, however, less explored. Where mentoring and role modelling are experienced,

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stories told by mentors and role models, storying, may contribute to both relatability and

identity development” (Millar et al., 2022)

What ethical considerations and best practices for implementation have been

identified?

Concerns with STEM education usually focus around the idea of “teaching silos”.

Teaching silos is a concept in which each area of STEM is taught independently of the

others, thus failing to create a connection between the skills and usefulness of each area.

By silo-ing the teaching, there would be no intergration of the skills and thus would not

meet the real world needs of students and would negligently ignore a foundational

approach that interweaves all aspects of STEM throughout subject areas.

Where is it going in the future?

Students are surrounded by technology almost 24 hours a day. Technology is

advancing at unprecedented levels and so, STEM education is evolving to meet these

demands. To prepare students to be accomplished in the real world, their education and

life experience cannot be that different from one another. Thus, STEM education must

continue to model itself to master current and future technological challenges.

Resources available in Mooresville, NC and the surrounding area.

Concord Lake STEAM Academy (concordlakeacademy.org) is a local charter

school who’s mission is to integrate STEAM education in a way that provies student with

the skills and knowledge to adapt to an increasingly technological world. Concord

STEAM provides a personal learning plan for each student so that there is autonomy in

the learning process and that mastery of skill is paramount.

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Robotics (in education)

Robotics in education can serve a dual purpose. Robotics education develops

student learners critical thinking and prolem solving skills, but secondly there is a

growing emphasis on how robotics can develop social skills in special needs students or

overtly shy students.

Why is it significant?

Robotics provides an array of benefits for student learners. “Robotics is the

subject where it has the potential to impact the concept of engineering at all levels from

pre-K to graduate levels. Robotics offers a way for kids to become technologically fluent.

And it also helps them to learn mathematics and scientific principles through the inquiry-

based style of learning” (Playtolabs, n.d.). Robtics engages students in the development

of skills they will need to success in a digital age. As many traditional human performed

jobs are transitioned to robotics, students will need a knowledge base to thrive in the

workforce.

What are the downsides and/or barriers and how might these be overcome?

The primary downside to robotics instruction in schools is the cost. Robotics

systems and robots are cost prohibitive to have in schools. The average cost of a

Mechatronics, Robotics, adn Automation Engineering program across the 78 colleges that

offer the program in the United States was $27,697. This high cost makes in implausible

that secondary schools with limited budgets can afford to spend resources to support

these programs.

A second downside to robotics education is that the inevitability is that more

robotics means less skilled workers in the labor force as robotics fill the void. Robots can

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work longer, with increased efficiency, and perform dangerous tasks. These upsides

negate the need for human workers at an exponential level.

Unfortunately, this may not be something that can be overcome. Some skilled

and many unskilled workers will be replaced by robotics in the near future. It can be

argued that there will be a small increase in highly skilled workers that must invent,

program and service robotics, this small uptick cannot offset the large amount of human

workers that will lose their positions to a more efficient worker.

What ethical considerations and best practices for implementation have been

identified?

Ethical concerns with robotics often center around the idea of “roboethics”.

Roboethics focuses on how robots are designed to act and whether they can be

programmed to act in an ethical way. “Roboethics --also called machine ethics-- deals

with the code of conduct that robotic designer engineers must implement in the Artificial

Intelligence of a robot. Through this kind of artificial ethics, roboticists must guarantee

that autonomous systems are going to be able to exhibit ethically acceptable behavior in

situations where robots or any other autonomous systems such as autonomous vehicles

interact with humans” (Veruggio & Operto, 2020). Additionally, there is a concern

whether there are legal and socio-economic considerations that should be addressed.

Where is it going in the future?

It’s estimated that robotics manufacturing could become completely autonomus

within the next 20 years. This is due to the advancements of artificial intelligence (AI)

and the Internet of Things (IoT). With the potential that this will replace traditional jobs,

students must prepare themselves with a different skill set to create, program, and service

a new and emerging market.

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Resources available in Mooresville, NC and the surrounding area.

VoltEDGE Robotics Team (voltedgerobotics.tk) is the first organized robotics

team, sponsored by Lowes, and cofounded by the town of Mooresville. It is a

collaborative effort between Mooresville Graded school district and Iredell-Statesville

schools as an offshoot of the countywide STEM initiative.

Coding (in education)

Coding, often referred to as programming, teaches students to instruct computers

through text, block, or binary language. In essence, coding is its own form of literacy,

the same as language arts or a foreign language.

Why is it significant?

Coding is an important tool to empower students with the abilities to problem

solve, be persistent, increase confidence. Coding instruction also empowers students by

engaging them in animation and gamification that mimiks real life application in a way to

bolster a students’ confidence in themselves.

Coding instruction also gives the student the opportunity to experiement, which

may also lead to their experiencing failure. The student has the opportunity to experience

what it is like to find failure and how to work through it. This again serves to boost their

confidence that they have a skill set that allows them to experience obstacles and still

overcome them.

What are the downsides and/or barriers and how might these be overcome?

The downside to coding is that there is a steep learning curve as students adapt to

a skill that is dis-similar to anything they have previously experienced. Additionally the

meaning of data and its’ subsequent consequences can often be distorted.

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Additionally, it is difficult at best and impossible at worst to program ethics or

value judgements into code. Coding takes into account only the variables that are

programmed in so that an ethical code becomes difficult to create as there are often too

many variables to account for.

What ethical considerations and best practices for implementation have been

identified?

Ethics for coding instruction in schools deals less with the actual coding and more

with the intent with which coding is used. There are ethical boundaries that must be

taught to any student interested in learning to code. These boundaries must never be

crossed. They include creating harmful viruses, cyberbullying, and fraud.

“Teaching coding ethics to kids is essential for preparing the next generation of coders

for the increasingly complex and interconnected digital world. It is not enough to simply

teach the technical skills of coding; children must also learn the ethical principles that

underpin responsible programming practices” (Codiska, 2023). In this case, teaching

skill is simply not enough, there must be instruction on the ethical practices that go with

these skills to prepare students for real world experience.

Where is it going in the future?

“According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, software developer jobs are

expected to grow 21% through 2028 — far above average for other occupations”

(Massimine, 2023). A vast number of industries are recognizing the benefits of

technology upon their daily operations. Having a basic understanding of programming

languages will give students a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

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Resources available in Mooresville, NC and the surrounding area.

The Coding Boot Camp (bootcamp.charlotte.edu/coding) is a collaborative effort

with UNC Charlotte to provide hands-on training in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and

jQuery. There mission is to educate computer programmers with the skills and ethical

values to achieve a mastery of computer programming and coding.

Maker’s Spaces

Maker’s spaces are becoming more prevelant not only in schools, but in students

everyday lives through gaming. A maker’s space is an area that becomes a collaborative

working or gaming space, designed and modified by the users, thus giving each user a

chance to grow with an environment that is constantly changing.

Why is it significant?

Maker’s spaces are significant because they encourage hands-on

experiementation. Students have the opportunity to be creative and personalize their

learning strategies, based on their skill level, and make changes to existing concepts by

developing their own methods, ideas, or process. This free spaces are the epitome of

creativity and abstract thinking. More importantly they foster self-guided

experiementation.

What are the downsides and/or barriers and how might these be overcome?

The downside to a maker’s space, specifically in classroom learning, is that

generally there is no oversight. These spaces can be difficult to organize and do not

allow for the traditional delivery of educational material. Instructors also need to be

vigilant for safety and security concerns.

What ethical considerations and best practices for implementation have been

identified?

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The goal of a maker’s space is to encourage collaboration and learning, however,

the unique challenge of a maker’s space is that there is no singular authority for

oversight. Many of the maker’s spaces are anonymous, so safety and security of the

students is of real concern. Cyberbullying, predatory behavior, and grooming are real

concerns and as of yet have no real solutions short of not allowing students unmonitored

access.

Where is it going in the future?

[Begin your paragraph(s) here.]

Resources available in [insert your city and/or state] and the surrounding area.
MakerSpace Charlotte (makerspacecharlotte.org) is an online platform in which

participants can utilize their creativity and bring ideas to life. It is a community

workshop where individuals can use tools to collaborate, share ideas, and learn from one

another.

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References

10 reasons why kids should learn robotics. (n.d.).

https://www.playtolabs.com/blog/robotics-for-kids/10-reasons-kids-should-learn-
robotics#:~:text=Conclusion,improve%20the%20world%20around%20them.

Massimine, C. (2023, January 26). What’s the future of coding? Medium.

https://medium.com/geekculture/whats-the-future-of-coding-289dcda98327

Millar, V., Hobbs, L., Speldewinde, C., & van Driel, J. (2022). Stakeholder perceptions
of mentoring in developing girls’ stem identities: “you do not have to be the
textbook scientist with a white coat.” International Journal of Mentoring and
Coaching in Education, 11(4), 398–413. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmce-11-2021-
0100

Rupp, E. E. (2023, February 6). What is abstract thinking? 10 ideas to improve your
skills. ABLE blog: thoughts, learnings and experiences. https://able.ac/blog/what-
is-abstract-thinking/

Veruggio, G., & Operto, F. (2020). Roboethics: A bottom-up interdisciplinary discourse

in the field of applied ethics in robotics. Machine Ethics and Robot Ethics, 79–85.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003074991-9

Why programming is important, today, and for the future?. Codiska. (2023, May 22).
https://codiska.com/articles/why-programming-is-important-today-and-for-the-
future/

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