Students touch space in Zero Robotics programming competition with free downloadable curriculum

This paper describes the free downloadable curriculum for the first national Zero Robotics Middle School programming competition where student code is uploaded to the International Space Station for a final competition refereed by astronauts with live video feed. The curriculum includes both printed and online content, and has been implemented this past summer as part of the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program 2013. Students who attended the programs reported significantly higher scores related to understanding of: (1) Research on the International Space Station National Laboratory, (2) The uniqueness of the research environment on the International Space Station and (3) Possible careers related to robotics. Over 90% of students reported that they would recommend Zero Robotics to a friend. The pilot Zero Robotics Middle School program has achieved its goal of leveraging the resources of SPHERES as a tool for Science, Technology Engineering and Math education, and plans to expand the program further next summer.