Program Date: 3/21/19
This program was scheduled for early January but we had a snow day and I had to cancel! It was late March by the time we were able to make it up, but it was such a fun program.
Kids LOVE robots, and I looked really hard for a couple of robots that they could DIY easily (and without a soldering iron). I ended up with two types of robots: a little guy who has light up eyes, and a scribbling robot!
I am going to go one robot at a time, and outline how we made them.
**(This combination worked out SO well because the first robot used the bristly part of an electric toothbrush, and the second one used the handle/motor part. I couldn’t have planned it any better honestly.)**
DIY Light Up Robot Bugs
The link for these cute little guys is here. In the end, they look like this:
I needed quite a few materials for this one:
Electric toothbrush tops (normal toothbrushes will be cheaper if you are not doing the scribble bot also. But if you are, buy the electric toothbrushes for that one and just use the tops for this bot. Super easy!)
LED Lights (I bought color changing ones!)
Tape
I diverted slightly from the original link instructions. I had the kids tape the black wire of the coin motor to the bottom (the side with no engraved info) of the 3V battery, and then tape the red wire to the top of the top of the battery. Some of the coin motors didn’t have much exposed wire on the end, so they had to be *really* particular and make sure that the exposed wire touched the battery directly. When you get it right, the robot will buzz ONCE, lightly.
After that, we had them tape both the coin battery and the coin motor onto the toothbrush, bristles down. Once the battery and motor are secure, the LEDs slide easily around the battery if you don’t bend the wires. On LED lights like this, there is 1 wire prong that is *slightly* longer than the other. The longer side goes with the RED wire, and the shorter sides goes with the BLACK wire. If you get them backwards, the LED will not light up.
The kids were really thrilled with how their little guys turned out!
Scribble Bots
The link for these wacky robots is here. In the end, they look like this:
These guys were so cool but we struggled a little getting them exactly right. For this robot you will need:
Electric toothbrushes (You can leave them intact if you aren’t using the bristles for the light up robot from above) (I bought Meijer brand when they were on sale!)
Pool noodles sections
Thin markers (cheap ones because you will be giving them away)
Rubber bands
Duct tape
White paper (we used 11×14)
Google eyes (optional)
Permanent markers (optional)
Stickers (optional)
Pipe cleaners (optional)
The first step for this robot was handing out pool noodles and toothbrush handles! The toothbrush handles weren’t quite as wide as the pool noodle holes, so they slid right through. This is where the rubber bands came in! We had the kids wrap a couple of rubber bands around the thickest part of the handle, to make them a little wider and help them stay lodged in the noodle hole. This part was heavy on trial and error. If it was too *tight*, the vibration didn’t move the robot enough to make him scribble. But if it was too *loose*, the same thing happened. It was a very specific process and we had to try different combinations with different kids.
Once the toothbrush handle was secured inside the pool noodle, I let the kids pick out 3 marker colors. I chose browns when I made my example so the kids would have the best colors to pick from. We let them pick 1 marker at a time, and went around the tables 3 times so it was fair.
The next step was duct taping the markers to the pool noodle, cap side down. This was another error-full step. I assumed that the markers being level would be the best, so the robot didn’t tip over. After experimenting over and over with one little girl’s robot, we discovered that one marker being *slightly* longer than the rest made it off balance *just* enough to make the vibration actually move the robot.
After that they could decorate their robots. We gave them google eyes and pipe cleaners and stickers and markers and let them decorate their robot however they wanted!
After the decorating, we turned the toothbrushes on and watched the robots scribble! A few worked WAY better than others, and there are so many variables it was hard to figure out why. We did our best! But the kiddos had fun watching the robots move around and mark up their paper!
I apparently was too busy troubleshooting to get photos of the actual building process but here are some after photos!
I am SO glad we were able to find time in the schedule to make this program up because it was so cool and the kids loved it!
Miss Meg's Library 