2. Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU

The objective of this research is to study the Scratch programming language as a didactic tool to teach functions. The introduction of didactic tools allowing comprehension in simple and attractive ways is required. Given the traditional teaching/learning system, it is necessary to organize participatory and collaborative dynamic classrooms, which allow the interaction of students in activities where the educator modifies his or her traditional role as an advisor and the students take a more active role in learning through their own effort. In this sense, three activities using the Scratch programming language are proposed: the first one refers to the linear and affine functions, while the second one deals with the quadratic function and the third one is related to the exponential function. The participants in this study were 30 future teachers. The study considers the combination of magisterial lessons and active didactic methodologies as demonstration method, cooperative learning and gamification, also including the applied assessment. The activities, methodologies and assessment were evaluated by the participants with results higher than 4 in 5-point Likert scale for all cases, preferring the active methodologies than magisterial lessons.

New technologies have offered great alternatives for education. In this context, we place robotics and programming as innovative and versatile tools that adapt to active methodologies. With the arrival of COVID-19 and lockdowns, physical resources were kept out of use, and the virtual lectures did not propose to incorporate these elements in a meaningful way. This recent situation raises as an objective of study the need to evaluate if robotics and programming are content that can be taught virtually in these circumstances, without physical resources and without face-to-face lectures. To do this, a mixed methodology consisting of questionnaires and interviews has been incorporated, aimed at primary education teachers, families, and primary education grade students. The results suggest that the virtualization of robotics and programming is a feasible and beneficial alternative for students, which allows the development of digital skills, while it is enhanced with the use of audiovisual materials and online resources. Even though face-to-face classes have other benefits not offered by virtualization, and teacher training needs to be up to the task to face this situation, it is a matter of time to respond to these situations and to guarantee a high-quality distance education.

Early algebra proposes to incorporate algebra in primary school from the first years of schooling. The success of this incorporation depends, to a large extent, on the training of teachers, so the objective of this article is to study whether the degree of algebraic knowledge of student teachers at the beginning of their training. To conduct this, 106 preservice teachers were given a questionnaire. This survey is based on two daily life situations. They had to propose tasks to develop algebraic reasoning in primary school students. Most of the participants designed tasks in which they assigned specific values to the indeterminate ones and solved them arithmetically. In this way, they transformed open situations and numerous opportunities to promote algebraic thinking in students through the generalization and representation of relationships and functions into closed single-solution problems that do not promote algebraic thinking. We can see from the results that the participants’ algebraic knowledge is insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to include in their training process the programs and experiences that will allow them to design tasks in order to detect and promote algebraic thinking in their future students. Sequences of tasks are presented to develop both situations by generalizing and representing relationships and functions, which can serve as a starting point for future training programs and experiences.

Educational robotics has come to the classrooms and is here to stay. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) learning has put the use of robots in classrooms in vogue, though these are mostly closed products and at a high price. The educational innovation project “Design, implementation and tests of a modular low-cost educational robotics platform” from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, expects to design an open, modular and low-cost educational robot to make robotics more accessible. One of the challenges which the project hopes to accomplish is for this robot to be able to adapt to any educational level, thanks to its modularity, from pre-school to university levels. This study analyzes the Industrial Design and Product Development Engineering degree students’ level of acceptance. Therefore, an analysis of the currently most used educational robots at any level has been made, comparing them to the project design. Moreover, a survey was passed to a total 78 students from several degrees to compare the level of acceptance, concluding that students show a general interest in the proposal, but not so among those of the study group, probably due to the lack of robotics knowledge. / La robótica educativa ha llegado a las aulas para quedarse. El aprendizaje STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) ha puesto en boga el uso de los robots en las clases pero, en su mayoría, son productos cerrados y a un alto precio. El proyecto de innovación educativa «Diseño, implementación y puesta en práctica de una plataforma modular de robótica educativa de bajo coste» de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria pretende diseñar un robot educativo abierto, modular y de bajo coste para hacer más accesible la robótica. Uno de los retos que pretende alcanzar es que dicho robot, gracias a su modularidad, sea capaz de adaptarse a cualquier nivel educativo, desde infantil hasta grados universitarios. Este estudio analiza el nivel de aceptación por parte de los estudiantes del Grado en Ingeniería en Diseño Industrial y Desarrollo de Productos, realizando un análisis de los robots educativos más usados en la actualidad en todos los niveles y comparándolos con la propuesta del proyecto. Además, se realizó una encuesta a 78 alumnos de ingeniería, concluyendo que muestran un interés general por la propuesta, pero no tanto entre los del grupo de estudio, probablemente debido a la falta de conocimientos de robótica.

The implementation of robotics in schools is inevitable in the years to come. Currently, this integration is not feasible for all schools (especially public ones) due to the high economic cost, which in most cases offer a closed system (both hardware and software) which limits the robot to a single educational level. The educational innovation project "ROBOT-EDULPGC, Design, implementation and implementation of a low-cost modular educational robotics platform" of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, seeks to offer an educational platform designed for use at all educational levels (multidisciplinary), with free hardware and software, and low cost, thus eliminating the economic barrier. This work reflects the results of a statistical study carried out on students of different engineering degrees, in particular those of the Degree in Industrial and Automatic Electronic Engineering, all belonging to the School of Industrial and Civil Engineering at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. A specific survey has been carried out, designed specifically to evaluate the integration of robotics in their degree as a teaching tool and on project-based teaching as opposed to traditional teaching. / La implementación de la robótica en los centros de enseñanza es algo inevitable en los años venideros. Actualmente, esta integración no es asumible por todos los centros (especialmente los públicos) debido al elevado coste económico, que en la mayoría de las ocasiones ofrecen un sistema cerrado (tanto en hardware como software) lo que limita el robot a un solo nivel educativo. El proyecto de innovación educativa “ROBOT-EDULPGC, Diseño, implementación y puesta en práctica de una plataforma modular de robótica educativa de bajo coste” de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, busca ofrecer una plataforma educativa pensada para usarse en todos los niveles educativos (multidisciplinar), con hardware y software libre, y de bajo coste eliminando así la barrera económica. Este trabajo refleja los resultados de un estudio estadístico realizado a estudiantes de diferentes titulaciones de ingeniería, en particular a los del Grado en Ingeniería Electrónica Industrial y Automática, todos pertenecientes a la Escuela de Ingenieros Industriales y Civiles en la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Se ha realizado una encuesta diseñada específicamente para evaluar la integración de la robótica en su titulación como herramienta didáctica y sobre la enseñanza basada en proyectos frente a la tradicional.