RoboTICs:Implementation of a robotic assistive platform in a mathematics high school class

Abstract

The Mathematics program created by the Mexican Ministry of Public Education (SEP) aims to have high school students with active development of a critical, logical thinking, creativity, and broad general knowledge to be able to argue and structure their ideas practically and logically. Although there have been constant changes in educational programs to improve, Mexico has consistently placed itself in the last places of The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial international survey which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. One of the reasons given is that Mexican students are not sufficiently motivated during classes, resulting in a decline in academic qualifications. In the present report, we developed and implemented an experimental protocol that allows us to improve the levels of focusing on high school students during a math class using an NAO robot. Three different scenarios were studied: one with a mathematics teacher traditionally giving a complete class, another where the robot teaches the course and finally one where both the teacher and the robot cooperate to provide explanations and exercises. Electroencephalogram (EEG) readings were used in the students to observe levels of attention, while a group of Psychology students monitored their physical behavior through a body language analysis protocol.