Relationship of robotic implementation on changes in middle school students' beliefs and interest toward science, technology, engineering and mathematics

This quantitative study evaluates the impact of using robotics as a content organizer to teach a mathematic concept between math and technology education classes in a middle school of the students beliefs and interests toward STEM concepts.;The analysis was based upon pre and post belief and interest survey responses by the participating middle school students. Ten schools from Pennsylvania participated in the study over the spring semester of school in 2010. Twenty teachers (one mathematic and one technology education) worked in collaboration on the study which lasted between 2 and 6 weeks. A total of 107 students participated in the study.;The results were not statistically significant for all items but overall the differences were significant to support the hypothesis that the utilization of robotics as a content organizer could have a positive influence on middle school students' beliefs and interest toward STEM concepts.