Action Research on Flipped Robotics Instruction

Robotics and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) has become a growing field as technology continues to advance. Now, many schools have robotics programs to meet this interest in the hope of preparing and educating students with the knowledge and skills to not only participate and compete in robotics competitions but also to prepare them for future careers. There is a large interest in robotics among students and schools as it is a fun, engaging and hands on activity. Robotics however, does require a lot of time and resources, as students need to learn a variety of skills and information before they can apply their learning in designing, creating, programming and driving their robots. To better address the time and resources required for robotics I created a flipped instructional setting using Google Classrooms that would take students through the various parts of the robots and go over examples and information needed for them to make their robot. Prior to class, students learned on their own from online instructional modules and then review and apply their learning during in-class activities. The purpose of this action research is to assess the effectiveness of a flipped classroom setting on the robotics team at a public school on Oahu. Class observations and data on student work and progress was collected. This presentation will examine the strategies and process that was used to develop this flipped classroom instruction.