  Research has shown that Educational Robotics (ER) enhances student
performance, interest, engagement and collaboration. However, until now, the
adoption of robotics in formal education has remained relatively scarce. Among
other causes, this is due to the difficulty of determining the alignment of
educational robotic learning activities with the learning outcomes envisioned
by the curriculum, as well as their integration with traditional, non-robotics
learning activities that are well established in teachers' practices. This work
investigates the integration of ER into formal mathematics education, through a
quasi-experimental study employing the Thymio robot and Scratch programming to
teach geometry to two classes of 15-year-old students, for a total of 26
participants. Three research questions were addressed: (1) Should an ER-based
theoretical lecture precede, succeed or replace a traditional theoretical
lecture? (2) What is the students' perception of and engagement in the ER-based
lecture and exercises? (3) Do the findings differ according to students' prior
appreciation of mathematics? The results suggest that ER activities are as
valid as traditional ones in helping students grasp the relevant theoretical
concepts. Robotics activities seem particularly beneficial during exercise
sessions: students freely chose to do exercises that included the robot, rated
them as significantly more interesting and useful than their traditional
counterparts, and expressed their interest in introducing ER in other
mathematics lectures. Finally, results were generally consistent between the
students that like and did not like mathematics, suggesting the use of robotics
as a means to broaden the number of students engaged in the discipline.
