RoboThespian Robot Teacher Teaching Science in Israel Technion MadaTech
RoboThespian™ as its name implies, is a dramatic actor robot complete with gestures, facial expressions and so on. Now, thanks to collaboration between Technion and MadaTech- The Israel National Museum of Science, Technology & Space and The Gelfand Center for Model Building, Robotics and Communication at MadaTech, Thespian has gained summer employment as a teacher! One August 2012 morning we witnessed the first ever formal science lesson on the topic of levers, taught to a group of grade 5-6 Israeli students. This experimental live lesson was given in the framework of the project conducted by Prof. Igor Verner of the Technion's Department of Education in Technology and Science and Dr. Takuya Hashimoto of Tokyo University of Science together with Alex Polishuk and Niv Krainer of MadaTech and Technion. The goal of the experiment was to investigate the interaction between the learner and the teacher when mediated by a humanoid robot. RoboThespian™, produced by "Engineered Arts" of the UK, was bought two years ago by MadaTech for the robotics exhibition held there.
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