Classroom applications of educational robots for inclusive teams of students with and without disabilities

A cooperative learning environment with disabled and non-disabled student research teams used a robotic system to investigate phenomena in a manipulation-rich science education environment. The setting was an .inclusive third/fourth grade classroom in a neighborhood school within a large midwestern city. An innovative science education curriculum was developed which emphasized an inquiry-based approach. The research design involved both pre-testing and post-testing of student perfor ance in both pencil-and-paper tests and an actual experimental setting. Results were mixed, with students not performing as well on paper-and-pencil tasks in contrast to excellent performance on a transfer task. The results of social validity sampling procedures indicated that both students and teachers saw benefits through the use of the robot as a science tool. The implications of the research are discussed in terms of increasing interactions between disabled and non-disabled students and the functionality of the robotic device as an assistive tool. The needs for a future generation of highly capable and flexible robotic tools is discussed and some suggestions are made for the future.