2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The landscape of K-12 education is continuously evolving, with a growing emphasis on integrating emerging technologies into curricula to prepare learners for the future workforce. Robotics education stands at the forefront of this evolution, presenting both opportunities and challenges. This literature review scans the current state of robotics education in the K-12 space and explores its relevance, impact, and implementation within educational systems. We filtered out 20 papers in the domains of STEM, AI, and robotics education that looked at the high school population in both formal and informal settings. These papers study interventions integrating robotics into the current formal/informal educational programs and evaluate student participation, engagement, learning outcomes, and a sense of belonging. We studied the motivations for using robotics and styles of implementing Robotics in the K-12 formal and informal spaces. From our synthesis, we infer that robots are traditionally used as toys, teaching supplements, and extrinsic motivators for K-12 learners, revealing the underutilization of robotics. It is analogous to using pens and pencils to teach learners to hold chopsticks but, what if we could teach them how to write and draw with the pens instead, and see what stories they want to tell? Interestingly, the underutilization of robotics presents an opportunity to tap into the learners’ intrinsic motivations by empowering them to take ownership of their learnings and thus foster creativity, problem-solving skills, and 21st-century competencies. However, like STEM education, which strives to be equitable, accessible, representative, inclusive, and free from stereotypes, robotics education faces comparable challenges in attracting and engaging a diverse range of participants. This highlights the need for an intentional approach to introducing robotics in both formal and informal spaces. In this paper, we spotlight literature that suggests alternative modes of presenting robotics that aim to not just broaden but also retain participation. These findings can inspire and help inform future robotics programs, particularly informal educational initiatives, to bridge existing gaps in accessibility and motivation and maximize robotics’ potential to develop STEM knowledge and critical life skills in students.