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Finalists of Educational Scenario competition

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Inspiring Science Education Conference 2016, Athens

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Inspiring Science Education Conference 2016, Athens

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Liquid Data

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Author(s): Eleftheria Karagiorgou, Vasileios Spahos

We know that robots are good for mechanical tasks - but here's a chemistry project for robots that don't mind getting their sensors wet.
What's the best way to make a connection between robotics and the school science curriculum? This is the challenge we set ourselves in developing Chembot - a robot that does simple chemistry experiments.

We were inspired to develop this activity because, as computer science teachers, we wanted to make a link to other branches of science - in this case, chemistry. So we set students the challenge of building a robot to answer this question: does the pH of a liquid change with temperature, or does it stay the same?

In this article, we describe the practical details of the Chembot activity, which needs around six teaching hours to complete and is suitable for senior high-school science students (age 16-19) with a basic knowledge of programming. Chembot also works well as an extracurricular activity, perhaps with the school's robotics club.

Image courtesy of Nicola Graf

Setting up the challenge

This project is all about thinking and working collaboratively. The students build the robots themselves using Lego Mindstorms robotics kits, and then equip them with suitable sensors to measure the temperature and pH of a liquid.

To help students develop and refine their initial ideas about how to approach the challenge, you can use a three-step, increasingly collaborative process:

1. Think: Students think independently about how to proceed, forming ideas of their own.

2. Pair: Students discuss their thoughts in pairs. This step allows students to articulate their ideas and to consider those of another person.

3. Share: Student groups share their ideas with a larger group, such as the whole class. Often students are more comfortable presenting ideas to a group with the support of a partner (from step 2).

To succeed in the challenge, the students also need to solve three problems in sequence:

1. How should the sensor and robot electronics be integrated to work together?

2. How will the robot manage to immerse the sensors into the liquid to take a measurement?

3. What do the results say about the relationship (if any) between the temperature of a liquid and its pH?

Materials

A finished Chembot
complete with sensors.
Image courtesy of Eleftheria
Karagiorgou and Vasileios
Spahos

For each small group (e.g. four students), you will need:

Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit

Lego Mindstorms EV3 software (free to download if you have a Lego account)

pH meter and adaptor, e.g. those made by Vernier

Lego EV3 temperature sensor

Computer, to write the code for the programmable robots

Liquids at room temperature: water, plus (optional) vinegar or Coca-Cola

Large bowl

Ice cubes or water heater (use both for a larger range of data)

Procedure

The activity consists of five phases.

Phase 1: Introduction

Duration: 30 min

First, discuss the following chemistry topics as a class:

The theory of acidity and the definition of pH as a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a liquid

pH meters and the pH scale (the lower the pH, the greater the acidity)

The challenge: to build a robot that can measure pH and temperature

The experiment: what data to collect and how to analyse the results

Then divide the students into small groups so they can start thinking critically about their construction plans and the elements needed.

Phase 2: Constructing the robots

Duration: 2 hours 30 min

This phase is carried out with the students in their groups of four.

The students build the basic robots using the Lego EV3 kits, then add the pH meters and temperature sensors to create the Chembots.

To make a Chembot, students need to make decisions about:

Robot morphology - what materials to use, what the robot will look like

Robot parts - which items from the EV3 kits to use

Phase 3: Programming and testing the robot

Duration: 1 hour 30 min

Working in groups, the students then programme their robots to carry out the temperature and pH measurements using the programming environment of Lego EV3, which is user-friendly and based on blocks. Each block represents a specific function. For example, one of the basic functions is the movement of the gears on the motors to control the sensors.

Once students think they have a working robot, they test it to resolve any remaining problems and challenges. This means ensuring that the sensors are working, the gears on the motors function well, the programming of the robot is correct, the construction of the robot is robust, and so on.

This is the most important and challenging phase - not only for the students but also for the teachers, who need to check that all the students understand what the aim of the project is and to help them with any problems they encounter.

Chembot embedding its
sensors into cold water to
takemeasurements of
temperature and pH.
Image courtesy of Eleftheria
Karagiorgou and Vasileios
Spahos

Phase 4: Performance and adjustments

Duration: 1 hour

Each group takes a turn using their Chembot to take measurements. You can set up a testing desk in the laboratory with bowls containing the different liquids. To obtain water at different temperatures, put water at about room temperature (25 ˚C) into a bowl. Cool it gradually by adding ice cubes or heat it using the water heater, repeating the process for each group.

The students then use their Chembots to measure temperature and pH, reading the results from the EV3 screen of the robot and recording them.

Students should analyse their results and try to answer the initial question: what (if any) is the relationship between the temperature of water and its pH? Each group should produce a graph showing their results (this can be done using Excel), as well as their answer to the main question, and any information gathered about the pH of the other liquids.

Phase 5: Results and discussion

Duration: 30 min

Finally, the results are discussed as a class. Can the students use their understanding of acids and pH to explain their results?

They should have found that there is a relationship between the temperature of water and its pH: the higher the temperature, the lower the pH. So why is this?

The pH scale represents the concentration of hydrogen (H⁺) ions in a liquid. But it is the inverse logarithm (to base 10) of the concentration - so the more hydrogen ions there are, the lower the pH.

For example, at 25 ˚C, the concentration of H⁺ ions in pure water is 10⁻⁷, so its inverse log is 7, and thus the pH is 7. As the temperature of water rises, the number of molecules that are dissociated into H+ and OH - ions increases.

The dissociation process happens to more molecules at higher temperatures, so there will be a higher number of H+ ions - and the pH will fall. For example, at around 50 ˚C, the concentration of H⁺ ions is about 10-6 (which is ten times larger than 10⁻⁷), so its inverse log is 6 and its pH is 6. If the temperature of the water falls, the opposite happens: the concentration of hydrogen ions falls, so the pH increases.

You might like to challenge the students with this question: does the decrease in pH mean that the acidity of water increases with temperature? In fact, this is not the case: for each H⁺ ion there is still an OH - ion, so the water is still neutral. For a liquid to be acidic, it must have an excess of H⁺ ions.

End note

At the end of the project, we asked students to complete a short questionnaire about the project. All of our students appreciated this attempt to create an interdisciplinary hands-on activity in the classroom - in fact, they would like this to happen more often in STEM curriculum subjects.

The students also gained an important insight from this project, beyond the details of robotics and chemistry: every field of science is not autonomous, but is connected to other sciences "like links in a chain", as one student aptly commented.

Acknowledgements

This project was one of the seven finalists in the Inspiring Science Education Scenario Competition 2015-2016, and was presented in the Inspiring Science Conference 2016 in Athens, Greece.

Resources

License

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Chembot: chemistry with robots - scienceinschool.org

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We know that robots are good for mechanical tasks - but here's a chemistry project for robots that don't mind getting their sensors wet.

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Conquering Educational Robotics and Coding

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According to several surveys, Educational Robotics has the potential to transform the way we perceive the teaching and learning procedures…

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eSafety Ambassadors p.11

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2016

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WROHellas, Athens 2016

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Media creator of 78 projects with my students

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Computer Science and Robotics teacher, Code Girls Educator, Maker of videos about Educational Robotics and STEAM projects implemented with/by my amazing students!
STEM with LEGO Mindstorms EV3, LEGO WeDo2.0, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Makey Makey, Edison

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Translation and Update in Greek of Online Safety Policy Template for schools

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Eleftheria Karagiorgou is on Hackster.io. Come share your hardware projects with Eleftheria Karagiorgou and other hardware makers and developers.

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MIBES 2016

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Runner-up in Category A - Inspiring young people from diverse backgrounds with space sciences

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Celebrating excellent space science teaching Competition - National and Global Competition Winners

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Πανελλήνιο Σχολικό Δίκτυο

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Το Scientix βραβεύτηκε ως μια από τις 100 σπουδαιότερες εκπαιδευτικές καινοτομίες του κόσμου! - Πανελλήνιο Σχολικό Δίκτυο

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Το δίκτυο στην υπηρεσία της Εκπαίδευσης

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Πανελλήνιο Σχολικό Δίκτυο

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2ο online eSafetyLabel Συνέδριο 10/10/2020 - Πανελλήνιο Σχολικό Δίκτυο

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Το δίκτυο στην υπηρεσία της Εκπαίδευσης

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Members of the Scientific Committee and juries

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Chembot: Chemistry with Robots, one of the most-read articles for 2017

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Year in review: our ten most-read articles

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Have a look at some of the most popular articles from the last four issues of Science in School.

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Lab presentation with students to Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President of Athens 2004, 06/2020

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Educational Robotics Lab 7th Senior High School of Trikala

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Educational Robotics Lab 7th Senior High School of Trikala

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7o ΓΕΛ Τρικάλων

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The movie

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7o ΓΕΛ Τρικάλων

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Ολυμπιάδα Ρομποτικής WRO India 2016

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TriRoboNauts, Greece

One of the 10 projects that have been selected by the StarT jury as nominees from over 800 projects

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The StarT-programme for project-based learning

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The StarT jury has chosen the International LUMA StarT Award 2017 nominees, of which there are ten in two different categories. They have been selected from the projects of over 800 learning communities from 36 countries from around the world. The winners are to be chosen by the StarT jury. In addition, the public's most voted favourites are to be announced at the StarT gala, organised in the grand ballroom of the University of Helsinki on 23 rd of May at 13:00. The minister of education of Finland, Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, will hand the awards at award gala.

Project nominees

Ten projects have been selected by the StarT jury as nominees for the International LUMA StarT Award 2017. They are shown below in alphabetical order according to the project title. The more detailed assessment criteria you can find here. The playlist of the project videos can be found from here.

1. Cave project, Agrupamento de Escolas Cidade do Entroncamento
Francisco Gonçalves José Dias Rute Nunes,
The learning diary of the team is available here.

2. Flight/Aviation project, Echipa Multitouchnme, Georgeta Cozma, Chereche Nicoleta Students: Mihalca Patrik , Mihai Olariu, Codru Erdei, Toni Caia,
The learning diary of the team is available here.

3. Mathematics of the chestnut, Szivárvány Kindergarten, Kistelek, Éva Virágné Szqcs and Csilla Novák,

The learning diary of the team is available here.

4. Nature and environment project, Šiaurės licėjaus, Lina Kiliauskait's kindergarten group,

The learning diary of the team is available here.

5. Programming and robotics project, TriRoboNauts, Spahou Stefania, Staridas Vasileios, Roumeliotis Fotios, Stafila Galini, Siomos Nektarios,

The learning diary of the team is available here.

6. Protect & live project, Büyükçekmece Atatürk Anatolian High School, Nilgün Erentay's and Nejdet Köker's group,

The learning diary of the team is available here.

7. SOS glove project, Semesta Billingual Boarding School, Bryan Tanamas Fachry Adam El-Yaqien Mucharam Sultan Gemilang Kemadi,

The learning diary of the team is available here.

8. Stars and space project, Salesian School Santo Domingo Savio, Jose Maria Diaz Fuentes, José Illana Lope Jimena Díaz del Álamo Elena López Sevilla Laura García Morcillo Ana Soledad Lara Fernández,

The learning diary of the team is available here and here.

9. Weather ball project, Veikkola secondary school, teacher Aki Kukkonen and students of classes 5A + 5B + 7-9,

10. Well being project about bread, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Supranee Sitthipairojsakul's group, Thailand
The learning diary of the team is available here.

The Best Practices of the Learning Communities

The International LUMA StarT Education Award 2017 is given to three learning communities for best practices related to carrying out StarT. The more detailed assessment criteria you can find here. The International LUMA StarT Education Award 2017 nominees chosen by the StarT jury are shown below in alphabetical order according to the project title. The playlist of the videos can also be found from here.

1. Collaboration among geography, chemistry and social studies teachers in an interdisciplinary project, Pirkkala secondary school, Kati Lahtinen, Finland

2. Collaboration of education and teacher training programme through StarT, MTA-SZTE Science Education Research Group, Faculty of Science and Informatics US, Erzsébet Korom, Hungary

3. Collaboration with Physical Cultural and Sports Centre, Jonava children' nursery-kindergarten "The Sun", Natalija Zuravlioviene, Lithuania

4. Collaboration with several different actors; one collaboration partner was Park Tarabya Kindergarten / İstanbul, Kindergarten Satulaiva, Taipalsaari, Kirsi Rehunen, Finland

5. Collaborative StarT fair, Odessa ORT Zhabotinski school, Anna Michurina, Ukraine

6. Community outreach, Green group, Khadija Azaitraoui, Morocco

7. Developing a learning module for studying mathematics in one's surroundings, IES Santo Domingo, Eva Acosta Gavilán, Spain

8. Developing student workshops in learning community, Primary School " Miroslav Anti", Gordana Hajdukovi-Jandri, Serbia

9. Involving the entire school community in StarT, Betygala Maironis gymnasium, Saule Tiskuviene, Lithuania

10. Series of activities to foster STEAM education in primary schools, De Creatieve STEM, Sanne Cools, Belgium

Congratulations to all the nominees and thank you to all that have participated in StarT 2016-2017! Welcome to StarT again next year!

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The best of StarT 2017 - The StarT-programme for project-based learning

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The best of StarT 2017 The StarT jury has chosen the International LUMA [...]