Northside Robo Art

Big Idea: To Create gyrating robots which make random and colorful art patterns with their marker legs.

Dates: May 16th and May 18th

Groups Participating: Northside Boys and Girls Club

Attendance: 28 kiddos

Software: Cricket Logo Blocks

Materials: Legos, logo motor, foam board, Dixie cups, crayola markers, hot glue, drill, zip ties

Directions: Start by cutting two foam boards or peg boards of the same dimension. Connect the two pieces of board with Dixie cups fusing them together with hot glue. Drill small holes at the corners of the board to place the markers which will serve as legs for the robot. The zip ties are used to hold the cricket and lego motor in place. On the top surface of the robot we placed the lego motor with spinning motion modules. The spinning creates a swinging motion which makes the robot gyrate. This movement makes the robot move and dance. Once the robot is complete, the kids have a chance to decorate the top surface personalizing their creation.
To test the robots tape a large sheet of paper to the floor, remove the marker lids and turn the robots on.

See the pie network for our inspiration for this project:
http://www.pienetwork.org/ideas/?Idea=61&s=0&search=paint

Associated Concepts: Observing the patterns made by each different style robot and each different program.

Best Part: High attendance, great interest and involvement. The kids learned to write cricket programs which we use for most of Design IT projects.

Worst Part: The teens at Northside are fast learners and finished their projects fairly quickly.

Improvements: Adding more steps or activity challenge to the project.