B ACKGROUND O F S TUDY
P ROBLEM S TATEMENT
S COPE OF S TUDY
O BJECTIVES
R ECYCLE
According to the Ministry of Statistics Malaysia (2014), a total of RM2321.4 million was spent on environmental protection itself in 2012, and 61.3% of the total expenditure was subscribed to the actual operating expenditure. Furthermore, the program also incorporates the government's efforts to increase recycling awareness and practice recycling.
T EACHING T HE P EOPLE TO R ECYCLE
Relatively, most schools in Malaysia have implemented a recycling program and disclosed the existence of a recycling circle in the school as part of extracurricular activities. In addition, the program introduced by the recycling club is not only about discussing the importance of recycling, but also including the proper way of handling waste materials, such as proper segregation of waste materials to the appropriate waste site.
E ARLY C HILDHOOD E DUCATION
In addition, teaching recycling in early childhood education can foster children's interest in nature. Activities that expose children to the environmental program are able to promote the development of positive feelings and attitudes towards nature, as well as provide them with opportunities to explore elements of the environment (Boyle, 2006).
R OBOTIC A PPROACH IN E ARLY E DUCATION
It will help children to understand more broadly how people and nature are connected. By following the four basic principles of constructionism in early childhood education, which are learning by planning, using a concrete object to build and explore the world, recognizing powerful ideas, and the importance of self-reflection as part of the learning process, the constructionist approach is able to encourage children to explore and learn new concepts and ways of thinking (Bers, Ponte, Juelich, Viera, & Schenker, 2002).
E XISTING R OBOTIC E DUCATIONAL A IDS R ELATED T O R ECYCLING
In addition, the introduction of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in early childhood education has promoted the use of robotics as part of the learning process. However, this robot is owned by Wastewatch and used as part of their program.
C OMPARATIVE S TUDY
This phase will conclude the research project from the overall findings of the project. It will relatively depend on the location of the language available in the robot.
I NTRODUCTION
This chapter will further discuss and explain the methods used throughout the project. The first part is the research methodology, which highlighted an overall approach to the methodologies, and the second part is the development methodology, which describes the method used to develop the module of the robot approach.
R ESEARCH M ETHODOLOGY
- Identifying Problem Statement and Objective
- Further Investigation
- Prototyping
- Testing
- Results and Discussions
- Conclusion and Recommendation
The first stage of the research methodology or project is to identify the problem regarding the project that focuses on the recycled material and environmental education in the educational system. However, a brief survey of the research area should be carried out before formulating the problem statement and purpose of the project. The analysis results of the studies will be discussed in the results and discussion phase, which is the fifth phase of the research project.
Prototyping, which is also known as the development phase, focuses on the development of the learning module of the robotic approach as a teaching aid. The testing phase is underway to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed teaching aid method, which is the prototype. Discussions will be based on the findings of the analysis on the details of the results from the surveys, as well as the testing.
D EVELOPMENT M ETHODOLOGY
- Initial Planning
- Planning and Requirements
- Analysis and Design, and Implementation
- Testing
- Evaluation
- Deployment
In the planning phase, details of what needs to be done are finalized, which includes tools needed for the development and the requirements of the prototyping. The requirements serve as a guideline for the development of the prototype to ensure that the development is done accordingly. Apparently, the deployment will only proceed if it meets all the requirements of the development, which is after evaluation and review of the prototype.
The evaluation phase is the analysis phase of the result from the result of the test. The final result from the analysis of testing will be compared as an assessment purpose, whether it meets the requirements of the project. However, if it does not meet the requirements for development, the analysis and design phase will go through another cycle, continue to implementation and on to testing and evaluation until it meets all the requirements.
T OOLS
The deployment phase will serve as a basis for preparation before proceeding with testing in a real environment, which is the testing of results in a research or project perspective. In addition, this methodology meets the criteria for a gradual program development approach, as it must adapt to the continuous review of program development. Program, in the context of the methodology, refers to a module that is also the software that drives the operation of the robot to perform human-robot interaction (HRI) for the proposed approach.
According to Montalban (2012), a robot is able to repeat the same thing and not get tired (as stated by C, n.d.).
E VALUATIONS AND T ESTING M ETHOD
- Prototype Testing
- Teaching and Learning Evaluation
The second part of the speech test will be performed after starting the robot. The speech mechanism evaluation focuses on the robot's ability to perform the speech mechanism. The testing will depend on the speech recognition to perform the sorting mechanism testing.
Assessment focuses on successfully sorting the item being recycled into the correct bin. Since the speech engine, speech recognition and classification engine are interdependent, the testing part will be covered with some test cases. However, the speech engine could be separated into a few parts, as some parts of the testing do not depend on the speech recognition and classification engine.
T EST C ASES
Summary Sorting action of the robot - "paper" as speech input Precondition Requires a fully loaded program [TC01]. Summary Sort action of the robot - "glass" as speech input Precondition Requires a fully loaded program [TC01]. Summary Sorting action of the robot - "plastic" as speech input Precondition Requires a fully loaded program [TC01].
Summary Robot sort action - "metal" as voice input Prerequisite Requires a fully loaded program [TC01]. The second run is performed with the intervention of the robot as a learning aid for the teacher during the teaching session. In comparison, the intervention of the robot during the teaching session had resulted in a major improvement in the learning process of the students.
S URVEYS
- Surveys on Recycling Awareness
- Questionnaires
- Recycling
- Recycling Rates
- Exposure of Recycling at Early Childhood
Based on the results obtained from the questionnaires in Figure 4.3, 92% of the respondents had shown to be familiar with the term. However, 3% of the respondents indicated that they are not familiar with recycling and the term 'green'. In addition, only 5% of respondents have come across the term 'green', although they are more familiar with recycling.
It has shown that 54% of respondents strongly agree on the importance of recycling and always discuss the importance of recycling among their family, friends and even strangers. Apparently, 5% of respondents do not think that recycling is important and indicated that they do not agree to discuss the importance of recycling. From the results obtained in the questionnaire as shown in Figure 4.9, 95% of the respondents agree that the exposure of recycling in early childhood would be good and could increase awareness of the importance of recycling.
P ROTOTYPE T ESTING
- Booting of Program
- Introduction (After Booting of Acknowledgement)
- Sorting (After Booting of Acknowled gement)
- Teaching and Learning Evaluation
However, in the second run of the first group with the intervention of the robot in the teaching session, the result shows a significant improvement compared to the first run. The results finding showed that the robot's presence had significantly improved the students' understanding of recycling, especially as they were able to sort the item into the correct bin. In addition, the students show more interest in the subject with the existence of the robot as a teaching aid, which sorts items into the correct bin and pays more attention to them.
Nevertheless, the relative difference between the two results is due to the fact that the first group was taught twice compared to the second group. Obviously, the result of the direct intervention of the robot would improve the teaching and learning process with the presence of the robot as an auxiliary learning tool. In addition, the product is ready for use in a real environment under the supervision of a teacher.
S UMMARY
In conclusion, the findings from the project on the use of the NAO robot as an auxiliary teaching tool for pre-school teachers focusing on preschool students can sustain the attention of young children or students to become more attentive during teacher instruction compared to using the robot as an auxiliary learning tool. In addition, the use of the N AO robot, which is also a humanoid robot, is able to attract young children's interest in learning and encourage young children's participation in the learning session due to the robot's interactive features such as animated movement and speech function. In addition, the findings of the project showed that the proposed approach significantly improved the teaching and learning process in preschool education.
Relatively, it has also shown that the proposed approach is able to positively increase the absorption of knowledge from the teaching and learning session. However, the proposed approach will be able to nurture the interest of young children to practice recycling and stimulate curiosity to understand the importance of recycling. Furthermore, the approach is able to promote public awareness of the importance of recycling, thus introducing it at a young age.
R ECOMMENDATION
The determinants of recycling intention behavior among the Malaysian school students: an application of theory of planned behavior. Greening the environment through recycling: an empirical study. Management Of Environmental Quality: An International Journal.
