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Can a Social Robot Stimulate Science Curiosity in Classrooms?

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Abstract

This study investigates whether the presence of a social robot and interaction with it raises children’s interest in science. We placed Robovie, our social robot, in an elementary school science class where children could freely interact with it during their breaks. Robovie was tele-operated and its behaviors were designed to answer any questions related to science. It encouraged the children to ask about science by initiating conversations about class topics. Our result shows that even though Robovie did not influence the science curiosity of the entire class, there were individual increases in the children who asked Robovie science questions.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the staff at the Higashi-Hikari elementary school, its students, and their parents for their cooperation. We also thank Prof. Naomi Miyake (Univ. of Tokyo) for her helpful advice and Kanako Tomita who helped conduct the experiment. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 21118001, 21118003, 21110008, 25240042, and 25280095.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent Robotics and Communication Labs, ATR, 2-2-2 Hikaridai Keihanna-Sci. City, Kyoto, Japan

    Masahiro Shiomi, Takayuki Kanda & Norihiro Hagita

  2. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Iris Howley

  3. Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Nakacho, Koganei City, Tokyo, Japan

    Kotaro Hayashi

Authors
  1. Masahiro Shiomi
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  2. Takayuki Kanda
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  3. Iris Howley
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  4. Kotaro Hayashi
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  5. Norihiro Hagita
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Correspondence to Masahiro Shiomi.

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Shiomi, M., Kanda, T., Howley, I. et al. Can a Social Robot Stimulate Science Curiosity in Classrooms?. Int J of Soc Robotics 7, 641–652 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-015-0303-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-015-0303-1

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