Resourceful Robots
Explore through a hands-on activity how using technology and robotics can help tackle current environmental issues.
In this workshop, students are introduced to the field of robotics, including the design, construction and operation of robots. To begin, students learn about the 3 components of a circuit and build their own circuit motor. Students will use their motor to create a robot that will help solve an environmental issue. Afterwards, they will write the robots "brain" code or pseudocode based on how their robot will function based on the 5 senses. Lastly, students will be introduced to Scratch and try to execute the pseudocode and make it function on the screen.
What You Need
Physical Requirements
- Working surface (such as tables or desks) are required for this workshop.
- Access to a computer and projector for the presentation.
Activity 1: Circuit Construction
- One DC motor
- One battery holder
- 2 AA batteries
- One piece of electrical wire (approx.13 cm long)
- One piece of tinfoil (approx. 6cm long)
- Piece of electrical tape
- Scissors
Activity 2: Building the Robot
- Glue
- Tape
- Cardboard, paper, and/or tissue paper
- Plastic water bottles, cups, cans and/or cartons
- Craft supplies, such as popsicle sticks, straws, pipe cleaners, pompoms and/or cotton balls
- Drawing utensils, such as markers, paint and/or crayons
Activity 3: Robot Brain
- Piece of paper
- Writing utensil
Activity 4: Coding with Scratch
- Computer, tablet or phone
Guide:
Presentation:
Additional:
Kit management note: The sites are responsible for creating and maintaining this kit. There is an option to allow students to take home their creations (including the motor circuit). Before proceeding with the workshop, please decide whether your site is able to replace the materials and if not, communicate that with the facilitating volunteers to ensure you have enough supplies for the next visit.
Safety Notes
Ensure you are familiar with Let’s Talk Science’s precautions with respect to safe outreach to youth. These precautions can be found in the activity manual for this activity.
Ensure that all batteries are in good shape and working order. Discard any batteries that are leaking or look damage. For more information with Alkaline AA Batteries, refer to the Article Information Sheet.
Keep the circuit away from water. Do not ingest or place any materials (batteries, wire) near your mouth.
Do not hold the wire to the aluminum foil for longer than 15 seconds, the circuit will start to heat up and possibly short-circuit.
What To Do
Introduction
- Briefly introduce the field of robotics, which includes the design, construction and operation of robots.
Activity 1: Circuit Construction
- Discuss the 3 main components of a circuit: An energy source (i.e. battery), an energy receiver (i.e. light bulb or motor) and an energy pathway (i.e. wires).
- Using the Instructions for Activity 1, guide students through building their circuit. The volunteer can choose to build a motor alongside the students, or give them the instructions to build it by themselves.
- It is a good idea to test each circuit before moving on to the next activity.
Activity 2: Building the Robot
- Discuss examples of environmental issues that the world is currently facing.
- Ask “how do you think we could incorporate robots into helping the Earth?”.
- Using the presentation, go over some examples of how robots can be useful in protecting the environment.
- Explain their mission: to design a robot that solves a given problem using their motor.
- Go over the three scenarios (Jamie’s Lake, Casey’s Smog and Tom’s Forest).
- Give students time to decide which scenario they would like to work on. The volunteer will provide the materials either by:
- Allowing students to pick out what they want and how much they want.
- Breaking up the materials by scenario (different materials for each scenario).
- Establishing a payment system by providing each group/student a set amount of “money” and assigning a cost to each material.
- Give the class about 40-60 minutes to work on their robot.
Activity 3: Robot Brain
- To begin, ask “how do robots think?”.
- Discuss the four steps of how a robot thinks:
- The robot senses its surroundings.
- The information gets passed on to a perception module of an image (or sound).The image (or sound) get’s turned into an understanding that the “brain” can use to decide.
- The “brain” chooses how to act depending on how it is programmed.
- Finally, the robot executes the action.
- Discuss the 5 senses that help a human function (sight, touch, heart, taste and smell) and apply them to the “brain”.
- Give each group or student a piece of paper and a writing utensil.
- They will write or draw their “brain” code or how the robot will function based on the 5 senses.
- Ask the students to write 2 or 3 bullet points for each of the 5 senses.
- To make it more difficult, add in some challenges that all their robots may overcome. See page 19 of the Resourceful Robots for examples.
Activity 4: Coding with Scratch
Note: This activity can be done on the same day or given to the teacher as a follow-up activity to be completed another time.
- Introduce the students to Scratch. To start, click “create” on the main page of the Scratch website.
- Give students the chance to play around with the blocks and see what they can do by themselves.
- Students will take the ideas that they wrote in the previous activity and try their best to make it function on their screen.
- If the students have not used Scratch before, do a quick demonstration to show how the program works. Show:
- How to move an avatar
- How to create a new avatar
- How to change the background
- How to make the avatar talk or make sounds
- Loops & statements (if necessary)
Wrap-Up
- Review topics discussed in this workshop.
- Discuss possible careers related to the topics discussed in today’s workshop and what students will need (education, experience, etc.) to get into those careers.
Discovery
In Activity 1: Circuit Construction, when the red wire touches the tinfoil it creates a closed circuit. The electrons are able to flow all around the circuit and make the motor spin. When the circuit connection becomes open, the motor stops spinning. In this set-up, the black wire was connected to the negative leg of the motor - if it was attached to the positive leg, the circuit still would have worked except the motor would spin the other way!
In Activity 2: Building the Robot, everyone's robot will be different and that is because every student has built something unique! In the real world, there’s not a universal design, engineers must think about features that work best with a specific task they want their robots to perform.
Pseudocode acts as the bridge between the brain and the computer code and is an essential skill to master in the world of computer science. In Activity 3: Robot Brain, students plan out their robot’s functionality based on the 5 senses, which is like writing out what they want their code to do!
In Activity 4: Coding with Scratch (optional), students apply their pseudocode to Scratch and see how helpful having pseudocode really is!
Fields relating to technology are becoming more popular as the world continues to move through the digital age. This workshop covers physics, engineering, and computer science, by not only giving students an opportunity to learn the steps in building a robot but also experience various branches in science and how each one intertwines together to form a common goal.
- For building circuits, check out the 'It's Electrifying' workshop to learn more about electricity!
- For designing, come up with a new themed robot using the circuit kit! For example, try to create a bristle bot or make an art bot.
- For coding, look more into advanced coding languages, such as Python.
Guide:
Presentation:
Additional:
Web:
What's Happening?
In Activity 1: Circuit Construction, when the red wire touches the tinfoil it creates a closed circuit. The electrons are able to flow all around the circuit and make the motor spin. When the circuit connection becomes open, the motor stops spinning. In this set-up, the black wire was connected to the negative leg of the motor - if it was attached to the positive leg, the circuit still would have worked except the motor would spin the other way!
In Activity 2: Building the Robot, everyone's robot will be different and that is because every student has built something unique! In the real world, there’s not a universal design, engineers must think about features that work best with a specific task they want their robots to perform.
Pseudocode acts as the bridge between the brain and the computer code and is an essential skill to master in the world of computer science. In Activity 3: Robot Brain, students plan out their robot’s functionality based on the 5 senses, which is like writing out what they want their code to do!
In Activity 4: Coding with Scratch (optional), students apply their pseudocode to Scratch and see how helpful having pseudocode really is!
Why does it matter?
Fields relating to technology are becoming more popular as the world continues to move through the digital age. This workshop covers physics, engineering, and computer science, by not only giving students an opportunity to learn the steps in building a robot but also experience various branches in science and how each one intertwines together to form a common goal.
Investigate Further
- For building circuits, check out the 'It's Electrifying' workshop to learn more about electricity!
- For designing, come up with a new themed robot using the circuit kit! For example, try to create a bristle bot or make an art bot.
- For coding, look more into advanced coding languages, such as Python.
Resources
Guide:
Presentation:
Additional:
Web:
