A cross-generational robotics project day: pre-school children, pupils and grandparents learn together

Using robotics to interest kindergarten children in science and technology in a playful way is a rather new idea in educational robotics. Aiming to foster the integration of robotics already in pre-school education this paper presents an innovative robotics project for kindergartens. Initialized by the Graz University of Technology and the University of Teacher Education, the project involved different scientific and educational institutions. The focus was put on the cross-generational aspect, integra ting kindergarten children, pupils up to the age of thirteen as well as senior citizens in order to initiate a vital social process between the different age groups. Within the project a robotics day in a kindergarten offering eleven different hands-on experiments, where children could ac- tively participate, was organized. The goal of the project presented in this paper was to familiarize children in preschool age as well as young school students with science and technology using different robotics platforms as pedagogical tools. Aiming at the investigation of the impact of the robotics project a first qualitative evaluation was conducted.