The PI is developing curricular materials based on educational robotics, gaming, and computer vision for the first-year calculus course. An example project is based on a throwing robot. By spinning an arm at a controlled speed and releasing a ball bearing at a precise angle, the robot can accurately toss the bearing several feet into a coffee cup. Students are using calculus to compute rotation speed and release angle. The intellectual merit of the project comes from 1) providing new technology for calculus education, 2) motivating students with robotics activities which give them a better understanding of the uses of calculus, and 3) contributing to the emerging body of scholarship on educational robotics in the university mathematics classroom. The broader impacts of the project include 1) providing instruction to several hundred students with the new materials, 2) training future teachers from the UGA College of Education in technology-based mathematics education, and 3) training faculty from seven campuses with the new materials. The project is providing a new robot platform for students to use in investigating the problem of throwing a ball onto a target, software to track thrown objects for teaching projectile motion, and an interface to a Bluetooth-controlled toy car with accelerometer to learn about acceleration, to calculus classes on seven campuses. The new materials are being evaluated by an external team, using the Student Mathematics Motivation assessment, to see if they increase student engagement with mathematics.
