Exploring Programming Concepts and Robotic Sensors: How to Organise Them Within Educational Content

In this paper, we present a set of six activities using the Lego Spike Prime robotics kit. The primary learning objectives of these activities are to develop students’ programming and algorithmic skills, computational thinking, and soft skills. Our research introduces one of the possible appropriate command sequences combined with the specific sensors of the selected kit. This approach aims to respect the cognitive difficulty of the tasks based on the age of the students and, simultaneously, exploit the motivational potential of educational robotics. Unlike traditional programming, this allows teachers to incorporate hands-on activities as a modern element of teaching. The activities are designed with consideration for the framework and needs of the Slovak education system, specifically for a 90-min computer science lesson in lower secondary school. We conducted qualitative research in three different schools with students aged 10 to 15. These students were not necessarily robotics enthusiasts. Each task in every activity is briefly described, along with the commands taught. These activities are the result of our iterative research and multiple implementations in the educational process, encompassing the design idea, used sensors, and commands.