“Robots are us” is a project that four PARTICIPATING schools, a German vocational college with a focus on mechanical engineering and mechatronics as the coordinator, a Spanish Secondary School with a focus on languages, ICT and tourism, a Norwegian Secondary School with a focus on science, technology and robotics, and a Finnish vocational college with an electro technology and robotics department intend to carry out together. The HORIZONTAL OBJECTIVE of the project is to teach students of all levels of education and backgrounds ICT competence, especially with respect to automated systems in order to prepare them well for “Industry 4.0” work places and the challenges of automation. This is done by building robots in international student groups and programming them according to requirements agreed upon by the students. A SECTORIAL PRIORITY is the integration of students who need more support (refugees, weaker students and drop-out students) in order to be fully integrated into the whole community of students. Moreover, female learners who need more motivation for dealing with technological subjects will be motivated to deal with ICT technology through this project-based approach. For this, special methodological schemes will be developed, applied and assessed. CONTEXT/BACKGROUND Digital skills are vital to reach the aim of increasing employment in youngsters (see also Europe2020 strategy) in Europe for those without labour (an average of 16.7 %) as the modern labour market requires and expects these skills and competences in the modern production and distribution industry. In forum discussions the viewpoint of representatives of companies will be considered and discussed. In order to achieve these ICT skills and competences, 2-3 robots will be built by students of the 4 schools in international teams which at the end present their robots in a competition where the robots are assessed according to the set requirements, including energy efficiency and sustainability. The robots will be practically built, programmed and improved. Constant exchange of experience between and at international ACTIVITIES about ICT solutions and with the help of ICT technology (email, internet, video conferences), practical programming, digital processing and publishing the results, pursue the prior objective mentioned above. International meetings will enhance ICT knowledge in automation as all schools complement each other with their equipment (Newton lab, students’ companies, know-how in micro-controlling, sensor technology, IT and electro-technology labs) and referring to their experience with the student target groups mentioned above as well as their project know-how. In the project quantitative and qualitative evaluation METHODS will be applied for the evaluation of the project: the status quo at the start, the process, the end of the project and its impact. Modern teaching methods like the Cooperative Learning approach by Norm Green, modern problem-solving techniques like Ischikawa and presentation and learning methods (e.g. meta plan, expert groups of students, group puzzle structures, expert interviews, lectures held by students, forum discussions) will be applied during all work phases. RESULTS Robots as learning objects, a Good Practice Guide how to teach ICT competences and the integration and motivation of students to deal with ICT technology will be produced. Schemes will be developed accordingly and advice will be collected so that a sound digital teachers’ Guide will be available publically as an open-source guideline. A bouquet of tested and recommended ICT project methods all documented in print, film and photo will help future users to organise similar ICT projects. IMPACT/LONGER BENEFITS New structures derived from these processes and the whole project’s Good Practice Guide and teaching materials will be implemented in the participating schools in curricula or modules/workshops, introduced to regional schools and authorities, also in teacher seminars as multiplier activities and presented nationwide in the participating countries on various direct and online platforms (e.g. eTwinning, Erasmus+ regional and national websites and newsletters, YouTube, Facebook and others). They will be spread to further networks of the participating schools and colleges all over Europe so that they can be used by interested teachers and institutions Europe wide or wider and long after the project has ended.
“Robots ‘R Us” is a project that four PARTICIPATING schools, a German vocational college with a focus on mechanical engineering and mechatronics as the coordinator, a Spanish Secondary School with a focus on languages, ICT and tourism, a Norwegian Secondary School with a focus on science, technology and robotics, and a Finnish vocational college with an electro technology and robotics department carried out together. The HORIZONTAL OBJECTIVE of the project was to teach students of all levels of education and backgrounds ICT competence, especially with respect to automated systems in order to prepare them well for “Industry 4.0” work places and the challenges of automation. This was done by building robots in international student groups and programming them to pick up trash on a playground simulating a beach and carry it back to a starting point. A SECTORIAL PRIORITY we achieved was the integration of students who need more support (refugees, weaker students and truants) in order to be fully integrated into the whole community of students. Moreover, female learners who needed more motivation for dealing with technological subjects were motivated to deal with ICT technology through this project-based approach. For this, four special support schemes have been developed, applied and assessed. CONTEXT/BACKGROUND Digital skills have been developed by all groups of students and they learnt about necessary further skills and competences in the modern production and distribution industry. In online discussions the viewpoint of representatives of companies have been considered and discussed. In order to achieve these ICT skills and competences, 5 robots have been built by students of the 4 schools in international teams which they at the end presented in a competition online. There the robots were assessed according to the set task, including energy efficiency and sustainability. The robots have been practically built and programmed. Constant exchange of experience at international ACTIVITIES about ICT solutions and with the help of ICT technology (email, internet, video conferences), practical programming, digital processing and publishing the results, reached the prior objective mentioned above. International meetings have enhanced ICT knowledge in automation as all schools complemented each other with their equipment (Newton lab, know-how in micro-controlling, sensor technology, IT and electro-technology labs) and exchanged know-how. The student company could not be integrated because of Corona. In the project quantitative and qualitative evaluation METHODS have been applied for the evaluation of the project: the status quo at the start, the process, the end of the project and its impact. Modern teaching methods like Cooperative Learning approach by Norm Green, modern problem-solving techniques like Ischikawa and presentation and learning methods (e.g. meta plan, group puzzle structures, expert interviews, lectures held by students, forum discussions) have been applied. Expert groups were not built as all students wanted to work on same level. RESULTS Robots as learning objects, a Good Practice Guide how to teach ICT competences and the integration and motivation of students to deal with ICT technology and other learning contents have been produced. Schemes have been developed accordingly so that a sound digital teachers’ Guide has been published as an open-source guideline. A bouquet of tested and recommended ICT project methods all documented in print, film and photo has been provided and will be shared further to organize similar projects. IMPACT/LONGER BENEFITS New structures derived from these processes, the Good Practice Guide and teaching materials have already been implemented in the participating schools in curricula and modules/workshops, introduced to regional schools and authorities. They have been given (not published yet) in some teacher seminars as multiplier activities already and are being presented internationally in a new and grand network of all participating schools including their partnerschools (see annex) for wider use. They are now presented and discussed on online platforms (e.g. eTwinning, Erasmus+ regional and national websites, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter). See project film: https://youtu.be/hq6D1fdY1s8