Motivation is a key ingredient for learning: If the learner is motivated, you may hope for some success. If she/he is not, you may as well stop here. Educational robotics has proven to be an excellent tool for motivating students at all ages from 8 to 80. This paper describes the RoboCupJunior robot competitions for kids, which are instrumental to sustain motivation over a significant period of time. This increases the chances that the learner acquires more in-depth knowledge about the subject area and develops a genuine interest in the field. Since 2004, each year over 2000 teams of students are estimated to have participated in RoboCupJunior competitions worldwide.

Gerhard K. Kraetzschmar, Martin Bader, Rolf Bayer

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