Fostering analogical reasoning and design skills through creating bio-inspired robotic models

This paper proposes an approach in which students are engaged in scientific inquiry of biological systems, and in construction of robotic models of these systems. Analogical reasoning is used as a thread of the proposed approach, tying together learning by scientific inquiry and learning by technological design. The research questions posed in our educational study address: pedagogical characteristics of the proposed approach, patterns of students' analogical reasoning, and students' attitudes towards the learning experience. We developed a learning environment and a curriculum and conducted courses to 118 middle school students involved in outreach activities and to 41 prospective teachers of science and technology. Dozens of robotic models were designed and constructed by our students in this framework. The models featured topics such as plant, animal, and human behaviors. Findings of our study highlight the potential of using robotic models in science-technology education. They show that the exploration of analogies can furnish a synergetic combination of learning-by-inquiry and learning-by-design and foster development of analogical thinking skills. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.