Engaging children with social robot-led Nutritional Education

Introduction: Social robots have shown potential as engaging educational agents due to their physical embodiment and ability to promote social behaviors. Previous research has shown that robots can improve student motivation and engagement in primary school educational settings. This paper presents an exploratory research project on social robot-based obesity nutritional education in a school setting. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using the robot Pepper acting as a teacher to promote healthy nutrition and prevent overweight and obesity in primary school children. Study design: a school-based pilot intervention was carried out on with 34 fourth-grade children (9-10 years old) divided into two groups. The experimental group attended a lesson on the food pyramid with Pepper as the teacher and participated in storytelling and game-based activities on its tablet, while the control group underwent the same activities with a human teacher. Methods: The intervention’s efficacy was evaluated by administering questionnaires to participants at the beginning and at the end of the activities to measure changes on children’s knowledge and engagement. Results: Results suggest that Pepper outperformed the human teacher in terms of engagement, as perceived by the participants. Additionally, both groups demonstrated an increase in knowledge about healthy nutrition following the intervention. Conclusions: These findings indicate that social robots, show potential as effective educational agents on nutritional education in school settings. Longer interventions are needed to fully understand the potential of social robots in the framework of a nutritional school-based curriculum.