Introduction to educational robotics in rural areas for the development of an obstacle detector controlled by a mobile app

Abstract

This article describes the implementation of a robotic obstacle avoidance prototype, controlled by the interaction of an Arduino board and as a mobile application, it strengthens the learning processes in the tenth grade students of the Hermes Martines Agricultural School located in the municipality of Morales-Cauca. , promoting digital literacy, through the integration of emerging knowledge areas, "programming and robotics", facilitating digital resources, pedagogical proposals, that help mediate learning in traditional pedagogical models of knowledge "natural sciences" [1], to develop critical thinking skills highlighting decision making and problem solving in relation to computational thinking, aimed at expressing ideas with argument from logic, symbolizing everyday situations and synthesizing; Necessary skills in the development of a knowledge-focused society. The methodology to collect the information consisted of: applying a pretest and a posttest to the tenth grade group, to measure critical thinking skills, where a sample of 20 students was collected. The tests had exercises to evaluate the processes involved in the critical thinking skills investigated; After applying the pretest to the experimental group, the prototype was implemented with the students. The results obtained reflected that critical thinking skills were enhanced by 25% above the pretest. It is concluded that the implementation of technological mediations such as block programming and robotics motivate the student and promote a better learning environment [2], thus allowing students to increase their critical thinking skills.