Using Robotics for Teaching Critical Thinking, Problems Solving, and Self-Regulated Learning for Freshmen Engineering Students

Incoming freshmen engineering students at the university graduated from a wide variety of high schools which do not all adequately prepare these students for the rigors of an engineering course of study. One of the required courses, entitled “University Success”, covers a wide variety of topics ranging from university rules and regulations to study techniques and exam preparation. Within the framework of this course topics related to critical thinking and problem solving are addressed. The work detailed in this paper, sponsored by NSF, focuses on the use of robotics to introduce freshmen to engineering principles, evaluate their problem solving skills and expand their knowledge and use of self-regulated learning concepts / techniques in a concerted effort to improve retention and graduation rates in engineering. Self-regulated learning is an important but difficult concept to present to students. With selfregulated learning students learn to evaluate their study and learning strategies and to evaluate their own critical thinking and problem solving skills and strategies. The research presented in this paper examines the use of robotics as a targeted topic for the student to learn how to apply self-regulated concepts. In this laboratory setting the students exercise their problems solving skills and develop an understanding of how they are able to adjust / learn from both successes and failures. From their experience the students are able to gain a better understanding of how self-regulated learning is related to academic success. The individual problems used in this project are presented, along with a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of applying such methods for preparing freshmen for success in undergraduate engineering.