发表机构
Purdue University（普渡大学）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
本文提出ARC枢纽框架，通过大学培训本科生导师支持农村K-12机器人教育，试点显示显著提升，模拟表明40年可覆盖印第安纳州74%学校并产生992个项目。
AI 中文摘要
K-12机器人与人工智能教育仍难以规模化，尤其是在缺乏持续技术指导的农村地区。像FIRST这样的项目提供了竞赛途径和教学机会，但并未消除对本地编程和机器人专业知识的需求。我们提出了人工智能、机器人与社区（ARC）框架，这是一个基于枢纽的框架，其中大学培训本科生导师，并为附近的K-12团队举办研讨会。成熟的学校项目可以成为二级枢纽，支持更多学校，从而形成一个自我强化的教育循环，使指导范围在地理上传播，甚至可能超线性增长。我们首先在一所大学进行了试点部署来评估ARC。该试点创建了三个农村机器人团队。在五点李克特量表中，K-12编程知识、资源获取和实践机会的平均增长分别为2.00、2.25和1.25分。同样，本科生在教授技术概念、调整解释、管理团队以及发现指导工作令人愉快且有意义的信心分别增加了1.29、1.14、1.00和1.14分。此外，我们创建了ARC增长的空间马尔可夫模型，并以印第安纳州为测试平台进行模拟。在中等条件下，我们发现ARC在40年后覆盖印第安纳州1,925所公立K-12学校中的74%，并产生992个机器人项目，而自然增长下预计仅有161个。这些结果共同表明，ARC能够创建和支持农村机器人项目，培训本科生人工智能和机器人导师，并有可能在区域内扩展指导范围。
英文摘要
K-12 robotics and AI education remains difficult to scale, especially in rural regions lacking sustained technical mentorship. Programs like FIRST provide competition pathways and instructional opportunities, but they do not eliminate the need for local programming and robotics expertise. We introduce AI, Robotics, & Community (ARC), a hubs-based framework where colleges train undergraduate mentors and host workshops for nearby K-12 teams. Mature school programs can become secondary hubs that support additional schools, creating a self-reinforcing education loop where mentorship reach propagates geographically and can even grow super-linearly. We first evaluate ARC through a trial deployment at one university. The trial created three rural robotics teams. On five-point Likert surveys, mean increases in K-12 programming knowledge, resource access, and practice opportunities were 2.00, 2.25, and 1.25 points. Likewise, undergraduate confidence teaching technical concepts, adapting explanations, managing groups, and finding mentoring enjoyable and meaningful increased by 1.29, 1.14, 1.00, and 1.14 points. Additionally, we create a spatial Markov model of ARC's growth and simulate it using the state of Indiana as a testbed. Under moderate conditions, we find that ARC reaches 74% of Indiana's 1,925 public K-12 schools and produces 992 robotics programs after 40 years, compared with 161 projected under natural growth alone. Together, these results show ARC can create and support rural robotics programs, train undergraduate AI and robotics mentors, and potentially scale mentorship across a region.
