SBIR Phase II: Algebra Immersion Robotics

This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II project uses an iterative design research method to investigate the technical and curricular innovations need to maximize the algebra learning value of educational robotics. The research objectives of this project address: 1) software tools to make core algebra concepts accessible and useful in a robotics context; 2) activity design; 3) curricular architecture; and 4) evaluation, including summative evaluation of learning outcomes. If successful, this SBIR Phase II project will lead to products enabling over a million young people to gain confidence and conceptual grounding in algebra. The project will help to break down the artificial and detrimental wall between school mathematics and the tools and concepts that underlie the information economy. Finally, this research will demonstrate advances in the structure of learning environments, showing how rigorous learning can be more portable, more individualized, and more interwoven with creativity and play. This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).