Collaboration Between Parents and Children Using Robots

In this paper we report from a study where families (children aged 10–15 and parents) work together in their own homes on programming tasks with an educational robot Robomaster S1. The purpose of the study is to improve the science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and computational thinking (CT) competencies for both parents and children. The data collection involves self-recording and self-assessment done by the families after each completed task. In this paper we present and evaluate the method along with preliminary results from the data collection. The preliminary results provided insights about the collaboration and interaction with the robot and initial feedback about the method and tasks. The preliminary results indicated that the family improved their understanding of technology and programming. Furthermore, the children in the study supported the parent with explaining the mathematics concepts. We hope that the future results and studies can contribute to understanding the children-parent collaboration and how children use STEM and CT to solve problems while working with robotics.