Science and technology shape our daily lives more than ever but experts in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, and Engineering & Math’s) are missing on the job market. European Industry needs high skills in Science and Technology to develop innovation and to be successful globally. With the project EURLAB we want to increase students' interest in scientific and technical studies by using new teaching and learning approaches in the field of engineering, particularly Robotics. To achieve this goal, we organize a partnership of 3 technical schools from Germany, Italy and France and the company Dassault Systèmes as associated partner from France to create, develop, implement and disseminate good learning practices and educational materials. Why Robotics? Robotics is a motivating industry that allows learning of Science and Technology at school. It mixes different technologies like mechatronics, electronics, optoelectronics, embedded software, energy, nanomaterials, artificial intelligence and connections. It is used in all areas: transport, industry, logistics, agriculture, health, leisure, defense, education. EURLAB will consist in a collaborative workspace with a learning environment and a virtual laboratory but also in a network of connected physical laboratories of each participating school and the partner company. We will organize a pooling of skills and resources to create a European Robotics Laboratory in the sense of FABLABs (FABrication LABoratories). Students and teachers will share information, technologies and creative ideas about engineering and robotics. They will learn how to design, construct and program engineering systems and robots. Teachers will create this collaborative workspace with a learning environment (innovative content, methodologies, hands-on and projects) and a virtual laboratory (interactive content simulating real laboratory) during the first year of the project. This workspace will be reachable from any PC or mobile device. So Students will be able to access to learning content from anywhere. Some "hands on" devices (for instance, robot arm) and machines (for instance, 3D printer) in physical laboratories will be connected on the internet. So students from other schools in Europe could access to them and use this transnational Robotic FABLAB. The physical laboratories of each school will be also used for training workshops on robotics with the approach of "Learning by Doing" and "Collaborative Learning". Students and teachers from each school will gather during the meetings of the second and third year of the project to create real robots using these approaches and tools available. During the last meeting there will be a multiplier event with exposition, where we present the workspace and all the products (robots) the students have been manufacturing. After an evaluation of the work and the impact on students, partners will select the best learning contents, practice, hands-on and projects to publish on an open educational resource website to disseminate the results to the interested public in general. They will present the results in national events and fare trades on education and publish them on educational websites and in specialized magazines. The partners are three technical schools with complementary high level skills and great expertize in pedagogy. Dassault Systèmes, the associated company partner, a world leader in 3D software for Industry, will bring authoring tools and expertize in 3D software and Systems Engineering. The company is involved in Technology and Engineering Education and operates a laboratory (“DS Learning Lab”) exploring, documenting and disseminating new educational practices. Lycée Louis Armand in France has high level skills in Mechanical design and Manufacturing. The school has experience in Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD-CAM) and in rapid prototyping using a 3D printer. The German school, HNBK has high skills in electronics, automation, IT, mechatronics, programming and software engineering. It is specialized in electronic rapid prototyping with Arduino technology. The ITI "A. Monaco" of Cosenza is one of the most popular technical schools in southern Italy. It has high skills in programming, remote control and networking. They have won the first place in the national stages of the International competition 'Robocup Jr' in 2012 and in April 2014. Through the proposed model we will: - Introduce students to the product lifecycle and enhance their intuition of how today’s engineers use principles of Science and Mathematics to develop a product by sequentially and systematically following different stages of the product design lifecycle. - Provide students an opportunity to develop and utilize their imagination and ideation skills. - Develop students’ teamwork and communications skills by fostering collaboration.
EURLAB is an innovative project to create, develop and disseminate good learning practices and educational materials in Robotics and STEM with new approaches of "Flipped Classrooms", "Learning by Doing" and "Collaborative Learning". Science and technology shape our daily lives more than ever but experts in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, and Engineering & Math’s) are missing on the job market. European Industry needs high skills in Science and Technology to develop innovation and to be successful globally. With EURLAB, we want to increase students' interest in scientific and technical studies by using new teaching and learning approaches in the field of engineering and in particular Robotics, a motivating industry that allows learning of Science and Technology at school. To achieve this goal, we have organized a partnership of 3 technical schools (with high level complementary skills and a great expertise in pedagogy) from Germany, Italy and France and from Dassault Systèmes as a partner of french school to create, develop, implement and disseminate good learning practices and new teaching materials. Lycée Louis Armand, France, has high level skills in computer-aided mechanical design and computer aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) and rapid prototyping. HNBK in Germany, has great skills in electronics, computer and mechatronics. The ITI "A. Monaco" of Cosenza, Italy, one of the most popular technical schools in southern Italy, has great skills in programming, remote control and networking.It has gained good results introducting robotics in his educational activities: in this regard, the title of 'World Technical Champion' obtained in Brazil within the international demonstration for schools called 'Robocup Junior'. Dassault Systèmes, the Associate Partner, the world's leading provider of 3D software for the industry, develops 3D authoring tools for industry and systems engineering. The company is also involved in teaching engineering by disseminating new teaching practices. During three years, the partners have developed educational content for learning Robotics (called "Robotic Experiments"). These contents were tested during three 10-day Robotics Workshop bringing together students from all three schools. At each Workshop, each team of three students (one French, one German and one Italian, aged between 15 and 18 years old), without prior knowledge in Robotics, carried out complete robotic experiments (design and manufacturing) learning and collaborative work. At the end of these experiments, each team was able to realize a project of robotic creation in a very short time (two days) while being inspired by the robotic experiments realized previously. The teams then presented their robotic achievements and a poster in front of a jury of professors. Prizes (best design, creativity, poster, ...) then rewarded the teams during a presentation ceremony of the results of the workshop. In parallel, more ambitious collaborative robotic projects (teleoperated arm, robot musician, exploration robot) were made by teams of students from each school using the latest innovative design and collaborative work tools in Engineering (Platform 3DExperience de Dassault Systèmes). These robotic systems will be installed in the physical laboratories of each school and connected to the Internet, allowing other students to interact with them. After 3 years of teachers work and students tests during collaborative and creative workshops, all EURLAB team is proud to announce that: EURLAB is now a multi-dimensional space to learn, in a new way, Robotics and its associated technologies: A. A digital space, www.eurlab.org, of open source teaching materials for students, teachers and makers for learning, creating and testing robotic systems: • Mind maps of robotic experiments with teaching materials: courses, videos, 3D animations, CAD files, programs; • Teacher kit & Maker Kit with methods and guides; • Virtual laboratory to test its programs, connected to the robotic systems present in the physical laboratories (the Labs). B. Physical spaces (the Labs) for collaborative learning and creation: • Provide robotic workshops for students and teachers • Serving as models for FabLab receiving Makers • Host robotic systems that can be controlled by the virtual laboratory C. A digital platform for collaborative design and simulation of robotic systems: • Allows execution of tests of virtual robotic systems • Allows the creation of parts, carried out by rapid prototyping (3D printing, laser cutting, ...) Thanks to EURLAB, participating students and teachers have developed their skills of collaboration, creation and communication by learning and working differently. The vast majority of students have pursued scientific or technical studies. We hope now, through the multidimensional space EURLAB, to impact the largest number of students and teachers in Europe, both by the approaches implemented and by its content related to Robotics.