Anastasia Sofroniou, Bhairavi Premnath, Costas Sisamos, Sofia Almpani, Emily Sisamou (2025)

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This study analyses the impact of manipulative learning tools, specifically the Engino toy blocks, on the mathematical performance of pre-primary students, especially in understanding the sections of counting and addition. The research hypothesis states that students using Engino toy blocks will perform significantly better than those using traditional learning methods. An experimental design of randomly assigning the students was employed, involving 50 students divided equally into an experimental group (students who used Engino toys) and a control group (students who did not use Engino toys). Statistical analysis included mean comparison, standard deviation and independent t-test to analyse performance differences. Findings indicate that students in the experimental group performed better, showing a mean value increase of approximately 37% compared to the control group, and a p-value was also found to be less than the significance level of .05. The large effect size of 0.83 demonstrates a strong influence of using the toy blocks in their learning experience. These results highlight the effectiveness of Engino toy blocks in improving engagement and deeper understanding of the concepts in early mathematics education.

Dr Anastasia Sofroniou, Miss Bhairavi Premnath, Mr Costas Sisamos, Dr Sofia Almpani, Dr Emily Sisamou (2024)

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The objective of this study is to examine the student performance for students of pre- 1 primary studying mathematics, which involve the use of employing Engino toy blocks in their 2 lessons. This inclusion aims to promote student engagement and optimise their learning experience 3 in this particular field. Encouraging the utilisation of Engino activities among students during 4 their classes also enhances their comprehension of intricate concepts. The statistical results show 5 the students using Engino toy blocks performed better than those who didn’t while learning the 6 two modules, counting and addition. A sample of 50 students are considered with 25 each in the 7 Experimental Group and the Control Group for this study. By incorporating creative initiatives, 8 such as interactive games and team-based exercises, into lesson plans for mathematics, teachers may 9 effectively engage young learners to improve team work and communication. Furthermore, the 10 advancement of mathematical techniques for prospective educators can accelerate the implementation 11 of comprehensive instructional methodologies and practical application of problem-solving skills. 12 Consequently, this promotes the understanding and skills of both teachers and students within this 13 field.

Vakkou, K.Α., Hovardas, T., Xenofontos, N., Zacharia, Z.C. (2023).In: Noroozi, O., De Wever, B. (eds) The Power of Peer Learning. Social Interaction in Learning and Development. Springer, Cham.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29411-2_6

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The objective of this exploratory study was to implement peer assessment for pedagogical design in integrated STEAM education and to compare expert and peer feedback, in this regard. We engaged pre-service teachers registered in an undergraduate programme for primary education in a formative/reciprocal peer assessment arrangement, where they had the chance to act as both peer assessors and peer assessees. Although global measures of validity (correlations between total scores of expert and peer assessors) and reliability (correlations between total scores of different peer assessors for the same pedagogical scenario) were satisfactory, there were assessment criteria for which peer assessment failed to be valid and/or reliable and which should deserve more attention in future training sessions. We found peer over-scoring across all assessment criteria. There were also indications of participant preference of expert feedback over peer feedback, where the later included fewer justifications of quantitative scores and suggestions for change.

Hovardas, T., Xenofontos, N., Vakkou, K., Kouti, G., Pavlou, I., Arampatzi, K., & Zacharia, Z. (2021). Paper presented in the EARLI SIG 20 & 26 Conference, 14 - 16 September, 2022, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

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Educational robotics provides an excellent opportunity for orchestrating open-ended learning activity sequences in inquiry learning that involve a trajectory with questioning and exploration instead of the more close-ended trajectory with hypotheses and experimentation. In the present study, we developed and implemented an educational intervention in real classroom contexts, which intended to integrate inquiry-based learning and educational robotics. We planned for multiple iterations, where students were engaged in subsequent cycles of design, programming, testing, and revision. To monitor and evaluate student performance, we assessed the quality of learning products delivered by students. Our objective was to examine if student performance improved within and across iterations. Participants were 46 Cypriot primary school students, who worked in groups of two (5 groups) or three (12 groups) to design routes of a robotic vehicle in a hypothetical neighborhood, translate these instructions into block-based programming creating flow diagrams, test the movement and behavior of the GINOBOT and improve their flow diagrams so that the observed movement and behavior match their instructions. The same cycle was repeated in four iterations with increasing programming complexity. In contrast to previous research, which has documented a decreasing trend in achievement when young children were engaged in multiple lessons of block-based programming of increasing difficulty, our results indicate that students progressed within each iteration as well as from one iteration to the next. Our constructionist approach can be exploited for assessing student performance in open-ended learning settings with few participants, where control groups cannot be easily compared to experimental groups, and where pre-post tests would most probably fail to grasp the richness of student actions and paths.

Hovardas, T., Xenofontos, N., Pavlou, I., Kouti, G., Vakkou, K. & Zacharia, Z. (2021).

Paper presented in the 15th International Technology, Education and Development Conference, 8-9 March, 2021, Online Conference. INTED2021 Proceedings, pp. 4364-4371. ISBN: 978-84-09-27666-0. ISSN: 2340-1079. https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2021.0890

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We present a bundle of four lesson plans focusing on a robotic kit of ENGINO (www.engino.com), which builds on an inclined plane model. The lesson plans target upper elementary students and can be implemented as an interdisciplinary STEM project. Our pedagogical design has two main pillars. First, it uses as its organizing principle physical or digital artefacts created by students themselves, while undertaking learning activities, termed “learning products”. These can be stored in student portfolios and can be reused or reworked in forthcoming learning activities. In this regard, learning products can serve for purposes of formative assessment, self-assessment and peer assessment during the lessons. The second pillar of our approach is an integration of educational robotics, game-based learning and inquirybased learning. We planned iterations of inquiry cycles with the robotic kit and programming based on a concrete working scenario providing the goal and narrative of the game as well as the rules to be followed (sorting recycling material by using the inclined plane). The feedback gained through the iterations guide the optimization of the major learning artefact (inclined plane). Namely, the operation of the inclined plane is optimized to meet the goal of the game through the iterations by means of add-ons and programming.

Hovardas, T., Xenofontos, N., Pavlou, I., Kouti, G., Vakkou, K. & Zacharia, Z. (2020).

Paper presented in the annual international conference Innovative Learning Summit, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) and co-sponsored by the International Journal or E-Learning.

In T. Bastiaens & G. Marks (Eds.), Proceedings of Innovate Learning Summit 2020 (pp. 343-357). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved September 8, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/218821/.

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A considerable majority of studies during the last two decades revealed that the use of robotics results in learning gains for the students engaged in educational interventions in K-12. In the present paper we wish to integrate three different topical areas which have remained largely separate up to date, namely, educational robotics, game-based learning and inquiry-based learning. We exemplify this integration by means of a project (bundle of three lesson plans) termed the “Mars Challenge”. Students are immersed in the game through a narrative which runs throughout the project and secures its open-ended character, while peer assessment is employed to promote gamification and develop a community of practice around the challenge. Moreover, partially worked examples are recommended as support offered to students for managing cognitive load. Our work has been undertaken within the frame of the GINOBOT project, funded by the Cypriot Research and Innovation Foundation.

Dimitris Dimitriou, Costas Sisamos

Educational Sciences Magazine 2016, Issue 2/2016 (pages 176-189) / University Of Crete, School of Educational Sciences - Department of Education.

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A new educational software of three-dimensional, digital model design was given for trial to elementary and secondary school students. This article presents the results of the pilot program. The software by the name Engino KidCAD fills-in a basic gap of the Design and Technology lesson concerning how students design their building ideas. The Cypriot

curriculum suggests the use of CAD design systems within the classroom, but there is no such software available in education. The research provided some interesting views and reactions from educators and students, while it brought up its great educational value, as far as the development.

Marinou Irene, Almpani Sofia, Sisamou Emily, Sisamos Costas

In Proceedings of the 3rd Panhellenic Scientix Conference for STEM Education, Athens, Greece, 23-25.09, 2022, ISBN 978-618-84221-4-8

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STEM education involves a huge range of strategies that help students apply concepts and skills from different disciplines to solve meaningful problems. Instructors across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines have begun to implement escape room activities as effective and engaging learning tools in their classrooms. Educational Escape Rooms (EER) epitomize the concept of problem-solving and out-of-the-box thinking. The current study examines the effects of a Mixed (Physical and Digital) Educational Escape Room (“Newton’s Kidnap”) on STEM principals, deeper subject comprehension, motivation and engagement using Engino robotics for students 8-15 years old. We created a STEM-based EER for kids who participated in a robotic summer camp in Cyprus. At the end of the lessons the students, in small groups using an Augmented Reality app “Newton’s Kidnap”, tried to escape from a hotel room that was transformed into Newton’s Lab. We evaluated the whole experience through a validated questionnaire to 40 of the 56 students that played the game. Results indicated that mixed escape rooms using digital storytelling and hands-on activities (like building robotic models) can enhance the cognitive benefits and learning outcomes, motivate and help students of primary and secondary school cooperate, via an enjoyable experience.

Sofia Almpani and Dimitris Almisis

In: Malvezzi M., Alimisis D., Moro M. (eds) Education in & with Robotics to Foster 21st–Century Skills. EDUROBOTICS 2021. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 982. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978–3–030–77022–8_13

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The emerging domain of robotics provides a creative tool for engaging young children with the engineering and artistic components of STEAM. Educational activities based on dance can captivate student interest in arts while exploring foundational technological ideas. The paper describes vignettes of dance-based activities utilizing the ENGINO E30 kit. The objective of this work is to explore ways to use a robotic kit to create a science-art integrative STEAM project, named DancENG. The DancENG project has been designed by creatively integrating dance, music, engineering, and math concepts, aiming to cultivate aesthetic sensitivity in parallel with problem-solving and engineering-thinking skills of elementary school students. It has been implemented to 20 5th graders of a Greek elementary school to indicate the practical use of the framework.

Georgios A. Demetriou, Member, IEEE, Antonis Lambrou, Nikleia Eteokleous and Costas Sisamos

2013 21st Mediterranean Conference on Control & Automation (MED), Platanias-Chania, Crete, Greece, June 25-28, 2013

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The Engino Robotics Platform Controller, which is presented in this paper, is a control box intended for primary and early secondary education students. It is usedto teach basic control, robotics and technology based courses. Along with the controller a series of external sensors have been developed that can be directly connected to the controller. The controller and the sensors allow students to build robots and other automated or interactive systems using the Engino components.

Αίμιλη Σίσαμου

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Αδιαμφισβήτητα, η ραγδαία εξέλιξη της τεχνολογίας και του διαδικτύου έχουν επηρεάσει καθοριστικά τις γνώσεις και δεξιότητες που χρειάζεται να έχει ο σύγχρονος άνθρωπος, ώστε να ανταποκρίνεται αποτελεσματικά στις κοινωνικές και επαγγελματικές απαιτήσεις της εποχής μας. Δεξιότητες όπως είναι η κριτική σκέψη, η δημιουργικότητα, η συνεργασία και η αποτελεσματική επικοινωνία κρίνονται πλέον ως κομβικές για τον άνθρωπο του 21ου αιώνα. Οι δεξιότητες αυτές φαίνεται να αναπτύσσονται σε υψηλότερο βαθμό όταν τα παιδιά ασχολούνται με μαθήματα που προέρχονται από τα πεδία της Φυσικής, της Τεχνολογίας, της Μηχανικής και των Μαθηματικών (STEM), γι΄ αυτό και υπάρχει έντονο ενδιαφέρον για εκπαίδευση STEM τελευταίως σε πολλές χώρες του κόσμου. Η ενσωμάτωση της ρομποτικής στην εκπαίδευση με στόχο την αύξηση του ενδιαφέροντος των παιδιών στα μαθήματα STEM αποτέλεσε πραγματική καινοτομία. Στην παρούσα εργασία διενεργείται μια ποιοτική έρευνα που στοχεύει στη διερεύνηση μιας νέας πρότασης διδασκαλίας, η οποία ενσωματώνει την τεχνολογία της ρομποτικής με στόχο τη διδασκαλία μαθημάτων STEM, αξιοποιώντας το ρομποτικό πακέτο Engino® Robotics PRO.

Σίσαμου Αίμιλη

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Περίληψη

Η εργασία αποτελεί μια ποιοτική έρευνα που διενεργήθκε με σκοπό τη σε βάθος διερεύνηση των στάσεων και αντιλήψεων των εκπαιδευτικών σχετικά με την προοπτική ενσωμάτωσης της ρομποτικής πρώτιστα ως εργαλείο μάθησης, και κατα δεύτερον λόγον ως μια καινοτόμα διδακτική προσέγγιση για τη διδασκαλία των γνωστικών αντικειμένων της Επιστήμης, Τεχνολογίας, Μηχανολογίας και Μαθηματικών (STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) στη δημοτική εκπαίδευση της Κύπρου.