Master Thesis
An Educational Programming Environment for Teaching the Principles of Machine Learning using LEGO MINDSTORMS
study thesis education lego aiTo complete my master’s degree at the University of Applied Sciences, I wrote my master’s thesis titled An Educational Programming Environment for Teaching the Principles of Machine Learning using LEGO MINDSTORMS.
Abstract
The German education system is on the verge of raising a generation of digital illiterates. We are in desperate need of up-to-date and motivating teaching content and tools for computer science education to make prevailing topics such as artificial intelligence more accessible to the general public.
The underlying work seeks to tackle these problems. It depicts the current state of research of the interdisciplinary field of educational sciences and machine learning still in its infancy and proposes new learning objectives for teaching machine learning in high school classrooms. In the scope of this work, a state-of-the-art visual programming environment is developed, including an interface for solving tasks created specifically for the use of machine learning with LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 to match current trends and efforts in computer science education. This thesis is completed by gathering practical insights through diverse workshops. The results of these workshops make a strong case for the underlying work being effective in giving a well rounded introduction to the world of machine learning.