The impact of a robotics workshop on neurobiological mechanisms of executive and social functions in boys and girls: a longitudinal study.

For school recruitment, the schools were contacted through the municipalities. Subsequently, with the database of schools available for the study, we performed randomization with the statistical program STATA to generate a treatment and control group of 2 schools in each experimental group. The number of schools needed for this study was calculated based on estimates of observations needed to observe statistical differences using the G*Power program. This sample size was calculated considering that repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with inter- and intra-subject factors will be performed, considering an effect size f 0.2, an alpha error of 0.05, a power of 0.95, two groups (intervention and control) and two measurement moments per group (pre and post-intervention). Considering that in most intervention studies there is a loss of participants for various reasons (in the educational context e.g. they change educational establishment), we considered recruiting 10% more than the calculated sample size (Gupta et al., 2016), reaching a final recruitment number of 94 children in fourth grade (9 to 10 years of age).
For this study, 94 children in fourth grade (~9 years) will be recruited and followed until seventh grade (~12 years). Half will participate in the intervention group (who will receive the robotics program) and the other half in the control group (who will not receive the robotics program). The children in the control group will receive a kit of school materials at the beginning of the year, which will be the equivalent of the robotics kit received by the children in the intervention group. The robotics program includes two weekly sessions of 90 minutes each, which are carried out during the whole school year within the school day, in which the children, through the learning of the essential elements and techniques of robotics, will work on executive functions and socioemotional skills. They will work with Lego robotics sets and curricular planning adapted for each grade where learning objectives of the discipline and social and emotional objectives are integrated. The program is taught per course group by a robotics instructor and a teacher from the school.

There will be a pre-intervention evaluation and four post-intervention evaluations separated by one school year. Behavioral and electroencephalographic data will be recorded at each evaluation.

2024-04-15

2025-04-30

Behavioral instruments are used to measure variables such as: motivation, purpose, self-efficacy, sense of belonging, self-esteem, teacher-student bond, attention and cognitive flexibility.
Las dimensiones de exploración de los registros electrofisiológicos son:
Cartas tiempo-frecuencia, que permiten analizar las diferentes oscilaciones cerebrales asociadas a ciertos procesos cognitivos
Análisis de conectividad funcional, que permite describir los patrones de interacción dentro y entre las diferentes regiones del cerebro

The design is a quasi-experimental design that contemplates the collection of a baseline and four measurements at the end of each school year over a period of four years of implementation.
The sample size corresponds to a total of 84 participants, of which half will correspond to the intervention group (who will receive the robotics program) and the other half to the control group (who will not receive the robotics program).

Not available

Computer randomization

Schools accessing the implementation with a school vulnerability index (SVI) greater than or equal to 70% in the Metropolitan Region.

Yes

4 schools

84 students

2 treatment group schools, 2 control group schools

For school recruitment, the schools were contacted through the municipalities. Subsequently, with the database of schools available for the study, we performed randomization with the statistical program STATA to generate a treatment and control group of 2 schools in each experimental group. The number of schools needed for this study was calculated based on estimates of observations needed to observe statistical differences using the G*Power program. This sample size was calculated considering that repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with inter- and intra-subject factors will be performed, considering an effect size f 0.2, an alpha error of 0.05, a power of 0.95, two groups (intervention and control) and two measurement moments per group (pre and post intervention). Only two measurements were considered in the calculation, given that the study seeks to provide knowledge from the first post-intervention assessment, given the relevance of finding effects that are not only statistically significant, but also scientifically distinctive, and then follow the effect of the intervention over time. Considering that in most intervention studies there is loss of participants for various reasons (in educational context e.g. they change educational establishment), we considered recruiting 10% more than the calculated sample size (Gupta et al., 2016), reaching a final recruitment number of 94 children in fourth grade (9 to 10 years old).