This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I've included it here so you can participate and learn, too!

Spark together electric motors, build homemade burglar alarms, wire up circuits and build your own robot from junk! Create your own whizzing, hopping, dancing, screeching, swimming, crawling, wheeling, robot during class. We'll cover hot topics in electricity, magnetism, electrical charges, robot construction, sensors and more.

[am4show have='p8;p9;p98;p11;p38;' guest_error='Guest error message' user_error='User error message' ] Materials:
  • AA battery case (Jameco 216081)
  • Two AA batteries for your battery case**
  • A couple of LEDs (You can use any under 3V, but if you need recommendations, try Jameco 2-lead LEDs or 3-lead LEDs)
  • Set of 10 alligator wires (Jameco 10444)
  • One or two 1.5-3V DC motors (Jameco 231925)
  • Index card
  • 6 brass fasteners
  • Two large paper clips
  • One foam block (2” cube or larger)
  • 1 wooden clothespin
  • 10 wooden skewers
  • Drill & bit the size of the motor shaft diameter
  • Hot glue gun, razor and adult assistant
  • OPTIONAL: Buzzer (Jameco 24872)
**Note about batteries: The cheap dollar-store kind labeled “Heavy Duty” are recommended. Do not use alkaline batteries like "Duracell" or "Energizer" for your experiments with us during this class. (We'll explain during the class.)



Download the worksheet for this teleclass HERE.

Key Concepts

A robot not only moves but it can also interact with its environment and it does that by using sensors, like light detectors that can see light, you can have motion detectors that can sense movement, touch sensors, pressure sensors, infrared light sensors, proximity sensors, water detectors, spit sensors, detecting all different kinds of stuff!

Robots need electricity to make the motors move, the LEDs light up, the buzzers to sound, and more. When you move electrons around, that’s what creates the electricity. When you rub a balloon on your head for example, you’re picking off the electrons from the atoms in your hair and sticking them on the balloon. There's a static charge on your head due to the extra electrons.

The electrons have a negative charge, and so just like the north and south poles of a magnet attract each other, the negative charge of the electron is attracted to positive charges. That’s why your batteries have plus and minus signs on them. Electricity is when the electric charge is moving around inside the wires in the circuit.

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Comments

6 Responses to “Special Science Teleclass: Robotics”

  1. Amanda McKee says:

    My husband had a day off today, so we took made these robots with the kids (ages 6 and 8). They each made one from some recycled materials and new materials. When we were done, the kids set their robots against each other in a battle of their bots and loved it!!! Thanks for making this possible!!!! We all had a blast and learned a lot!

  2. Actually, a kid did’t have skewers and told me he stuck markers on the robot instead, and I thought it was such a great idea that I made a video so other kids could do it also!

  3. Laura Swick says:

    where do you learn how to make the drawing robot.

    Moira

  4. Which parts are you looking for? Look at the main shopping list for this unit and you’ll find places to purchase the items you need. I also suggest ripping apart old electronic toys to get the motors and battery cases – it’s cheaper and more fun to salvage stuff from old things like this!

  5. Corrinna Smith says:

    We will be nagging Mum and Dad to get them!
    Any suggestions where we can get a good but cheap motor? (We live in Australia.)

    Thank you!
    From Juliette, (12), & Briar, (10).
    P.S. I think we had a bit of trouble sending the last question. It did not load properly, and left off the rest of the coment.

  6. Corrinna Smith says:

    Dear Aurora,

    We loved this teleclass, but didn’t have the materials to make the robot.