  Robotics sets have been successfully used in elementary and secondary schools
in conformance with the 'learning through play' philosophy fostered by LEGO
Education, while utilizing the Constructionism didactic approach. Learners
discover and acquire knowledge through first-hand tangible experiences,
building their own representations in a constructivist learning process. Usual
pedagogical goals of the activities include introduction to the principles of
control, mechanics, programming, and robotics [1]. They are organized as
hands-on learning situations with teamwork cooperation of learners,
project-based learning, sharing and presentations of the learners group
experiences. Arriving from this tradition, we focus on a slightly different
scenarios: employing the robotics sets and the named approaches when learning
Physics, Mathematics, Art, Science, and other subjects. In carefully designed
projects, learners build interactive models that demonstrate concepts,
principles, and phenomena, perform experiments, and modify them in elaboration
phases with the aim to connect, create associations and links to the actual
underlying theoretical curriculum. In this way, they are collecting practical
experiences which are prerequisite to successful learning process. Based on
feedback from children, we continue upon two previous sets of activities that
focused on Physics and Mathematics, this time with projects built around games.
Learners play various games with physical artifacts in the real-world - with
the models they build. They acquire skills while playing the games, analyze
them, and learn about the underlying principles. They modify the game rules,
strategies, create extensions, and interact with each other in an entertaining
and engaging settings. This time we have designed the activities together with
the children, students of applied robotics seminar, and a student of Applied
Informatics.
