Every year in ITGS the 12th-grade HL students are presented with a case study that they need to explore, research and prepare responses to. This year they are focused on a case study that involved smart shelves, VR mirrors and customer service robots. One of the requirements of this work is that students engage in primary research. Robots are also a focus area of the SL curriculum.
Wendys El Salvador and Zacamil Hospital in El Salvador both use customer service robots for slightly different purposes so it made good sense to contact one of them to explore further. What better opportunity than to interact with the robots, observe them in action, interview the people who make use of them and oversee their operation and also explore their impacts on customers through interviews and direct interaction with the robots. We contacted Wendys a few weeks back and set up an appointment to visit.
Today was the day! Students had already collaborated on two pages of powerful questions in ITGS Class, in preparation for the visit and spent a good portion of the visit interviewing the restaurant manager as well as testing out the robot, putting it through its paces while exploring its interfaces, hardware and the sensors it uses to help it navigate. They even had the opportunity to interview a few customers and adopt the role of customers.
This was a fantastic experience full of relevant explorations and discussions which will not only help the students to better understand the impacts of customer service robots on society but also aid them in preparing for the analytical writing they will engage in throughout the remainder of their IB journey.
Here is the link to the photo gallery from the trip. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed taking part in it.
