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Art Bots (Resource Exchange)

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

Pre-college Engineering Education Division Technical Session 12

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education

Page Count

6

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34164

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/34164

Download Count

392

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Paper Authors

biography

Emma Michelle Monson University of St. Thomas

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Emma Monson is an undergraduate studying Elementary Education with a STEM co-major at the University of St. Thomas.

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Deborah Besser P.E. University of St. Thomas

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Dr. Besser, PE, ENV SP, holds a PhD in education and MS and BS in civil engineering. Currently, she is civil engineering chair and Center for Engineering Education director. Previous experience includes faculty positions in diverse universities where she has taught a variety of coursework including steel, timber, concrete and masonry design, construction, engineering economy, engineering graphics and engineering education. Prior to teaching, Dr. Besser, a licensed engineer, was a design engineer with HNTB-CA, where she worked on seismic retrofits and new design of high profile transportation structures.

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Annmarie Thomas University of St. Thomas

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AnnMarie Thomas is a professor in the School of Engineering and the Opus Colluege of Business at the University of St. Thomas where she is the director of the UST Center for Engineering Education. Her research group, the Playful Learning Lab, focuses on engineering and design education for learners of all ages.

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Debra Monson University of St. Thomas

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Debbie Monson, Ph.D., is currently a faculty member in Teacher Education at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN. Debbie's work in Engineering Education is a result of collaboration with the Center for Engineering Education at St. Thomas. Her interests include educating teachers and preservice teachers in ways that prepare them to teach integrated STEM topics to their students and the connections to mathematics that integrated lessons provide.

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Abstract

Art Bots, is a STEAM middle school lesson which provides electrical circuit and robot design experiential learning and includes adaptations. This lesson was constructed for and tested in an out of school STEAM program for middle school girls. Several faculty, students, partners and source materials have influenced the design and continuous improvement of this lesson plan. The lesson begins with an engineering challenge to create an art robot which will provide whimsy and joy which is consistent within the program context of empathy in engineering. Key to the machine design lesson is the take-apart, that is reverse engineering, lesson which includes a low cost electronic toothbrush. Each learner develops an understanding of how machine designers are trained and in the process unearths their own offset motor, wire, and battery pack. Additional materials supplied to the learners for robot body creation includes markers and additional art supplies. Through coaching students explore the multiple approaches for constructing their robots as they consider how they may help someone other than themselves. Empathy is an important project focus as learners develop a design which will allow other people to create a drawing when they may not be able to do so on their own. For example, the learners were asked to make an art bot that they could give to a young boy who does not have functionality in his hands and is not able to draw on his own. By giving students a way to make the project less about themselves and more about other people, they were more inclined to make it work properly. Although they were encouraged to make the Art Bot for someone else, we also want them to have a personal connection to it and do this by giving them materials to decorate and name their bot.

Monson, E. M., & Besser, D., & Thomas, A., & Monson, D. (2020, June), Art Bots (Resource Exchange) Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34164

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