Teaching with Minirobots: The Local Educational Laboratory on Robotics

In this paper, we are going to present and discuss a few activities related to the application of minirobots in school education. The activities have been carried out in the framework of the Local Educational Laboratory on Robotics (LELR), which has been developed by Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) in collaboration with local Municipalities (i.e. Valdera Union) and a network of primary and secondary schools (i.e. Costellazione Network) in the Valdera area of Tuscany, Italy. The LELR is part of SSSA efforts to actively participate in the scientific and technological education of young generations, starting from school age. The laboratory is based on the deployment of robotics, in its several manifestations. in teaching activities. Drawing on preliminary activities and experiences, the paper will report on and discuss a few projects about teaching with minirobots in primary and secondary schools education, pointing out the relevance of promoting an interdisciplinary approach to minirobots educational activities – namely not limited to scientific and technological subjects – as well as developing a critical attitude towards scientific and technological progress in students.