This paper describes the process that allowed us to evaluate experiencing knowledge construction processes in simulation research on robotic manipulators by students in a course on Foundations of Industrial Robotics (FIR) in engineering, starting from the design and implementation of a simulation environment of actual robotic manipulators. In general, this research favored inductive learning and learning from guided discovery by the students ensuring the design and experimentation of a number of didactic situations that allowed them to build their own knowledge. That is why this research considers the cognitivist theories of teaching and learning, demanding –from the students– greater activity of an intellectual character and sharpening their sensory characteristics. Within this context, the errors made during this learning process are seen as an important factor in the knowledge construction process, because being wrong invites the students to motivate themselves to try different solution alternatives. Therefore, some of the learning situations studied in this proposal are the following:
• Integration of different areas of knowledge, since robotics is a multidisciplinary science. • Operations with manipulable objects, favoring going from the abstract to the concrete. • Appropriation of graphic language as if it were mathematical language. • Operation and control of different variables in a synchronic manner. • Development of systemic thought. • Constructing and testing the students' own knowledge acquisition strategies by means of pedagogical orientation.
Proceedings of the 11th International CDIO Conference, Chengdu, China, June 8-11 2015