By Dr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR
DIGITAL JOURNAL
September 24, 2025
Robot for interactive play. — Image by © Tim Sandle
Virginia Tech researchers have received a grant worth more than $500,000 from the U.S. National Science Foundation. This money is to be used to expand robot theatre, an after-school programme designed to help children to explore robotics through performance-based learning.
We occupy a world where human-robot interaction is constantly evolving. This means that learning to interact with machines at an early stage can confer many advantages. Through the programme, grade school children can gain firsthand experience collaborating with robots using art as a medium.
With the initiative, students can spend afternoons dancing with robots, acting alongside them, using them to make music.
The after-school programme engages children through four creative modules: acting, dance, music and sound, and drawing. Each week includes structured learning and free play, giving students time to explore both creative expression and technical curiosity.
Older children sometimes learn simple coding during free play, but the program’s focus remains on embodied learning, like using movement and play to introduce ideas about technology and ethics.
Myounghoon “Philart” Jeon, professor of industrial and systems engineering in the College of Engineering, came up with the idea for the programme in 2015 while at Michigan Technological University.
Jeon launched the first robot theatre program the following year and has spent nearly a decade refining the experience and collaborating across disciplines to bring robotics education to children throughout the community.
“The idea is to help children learn about science, technology, engineering, arts, and math while using robots,” Jeon explains. “The programme culminates in a performance where the children and robots act on stage together. Now, we’ve added a strong focus on robot and AI [artificial intelligence] ethics, and we want to learn more about what teachers and students need from the program as we develop a curriculum to share.”
Building on the success to date, the grant will enable researchers to add a sharper focus on AI ethics, conduct needs assessments with educators and children and formalize the curriculum so it can be shared more broadly.
Understanding students’ knowledge about AI, robots, and their literacy in these areas is a key goal. The next wave will begin to focus on social and ethical boundaries to ensure students use these technologies responsibly now and in the future. This includes integrating the programme with climate change awareness.
The grant will further the team to formalise the programme’s foundation through literature reviews, focus groups, and workshops with educators and children. This additional research will help identify how young learners currently encounter ideas about robotics and AI and where gaps exist in teaching ethical considerations.
The expanded curriculum is set to weave in topics such as fairness, privacy, and bias in technology, inviting children to think critically about how robots and AI systems affect people’s lives. These concepts will be introduced not as abstract lessons or coding, but through storytelling, performance, and play.
September 24, 2025
Robot for interactive play. — Image by © Tim Sandle
Virginia Tech researchers have received a grant worth more than $500,000 from the U.S. National Science Foundation. This money is to be used to expand robot theatre, an after-school programme designed to help children to explore robotics through performance-based learning.
We occupy a world where human-robot interaction is constantly evolving. This means that learning to interact with machines at an early stage can confer many advantages. Through the programme, grade school children can gain firsthand experience collaborating with robots using art as a medium.
With the initiative, students can spend afternoons dancing with robots, acting alongside them, using them to make music.
The after-school programme engages children through four creative modules: acting, dance, music and sound, and drawing. Each week includes structured learning and free play, giving students time to explore both creative expression and technical curiosity.
Older children sometimes learn simple coding during free play, but the program’s focus remains on embodied learning, like using movement and play to introduce ideas about technology and ethics.
Myounghoon “Philart” Jeon, professor of industrial and systems engineering in the College of Engineering, came up with the idea for the programme in 2015 while at Michigan Technological University.
Jeon launched the first robot theatre program the following year and has spent nearly a decade refining the experience and collaborating across disciplines to bring robotics education to children throughout the community.
“The idea is to help children learn about science, technology, engineering, arts, and math while using robots,” Jeon explains. “The programme culminates in a performance where the children and robots act on stage together. Now, we’ve added a strong focus on robot and AI [artificial intelligence] ethics, and we want to learn more about what teachers and students need from the program as we develop a curriculum to share.”
Building on the success to date, the grant will enable researchers to add a sharper focus on AI ethics, conduct needs assessments with educators and children and formalize the curriculum so it can be shared more broadly.
Understanding students’ knowledge about AI, robots, and their literacy in these areas is a key goal. The next wave will begin to focus on social and ethical boundaries to ensure students use these technologies responsibly now and in the future. This includes integrating the programme with climate change awareness.
The grant will further the team to formalise the programme’s foundation through literature reviews, focus groups, and workshops with educators and children. This additional research will help identify how young learners currently encounter ideas about robotics and AI and where gaps exist in teaching ethical considerations.
The expanded curriculum is set to weave in topics such as fairness, privacy, and bias in technology, inviting children to think critically about how robots and AI systems affect people’s lives. These concepts will be introduced not as abstract lessons or coding, but through storytelling, performance, and play.
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