Have you enrolled your kid in robotics classes?
If yes, then you must be wondering about robotics projects for kids that can be built at home. And if your storage cupboard is overflowing with half-used craft supplies, old cardboard boxes, and discarded plastic bottles, you are actually sitting on a gold mine of engineering materials.
Working on a robotic project does not require any new purchases or expensive materials. Though advanced robotics eventually requires coding, the initial basic engineering in robotics projects for kids doesn’t have to be complex. Your aim should be to just make them do the fun physical and mental workout.
To help you get started without any confusion, here are 5 simple robotics projects for kids that can be built at home and do not require any expensive materials.
Things needed for this project: a toothbrush, a 3V coin-cell battery, and a micro vibration motor.
Start with cutting the head of the old toothbrush; tape the motor and battery to the top on the toothbrush bristles. You will notice a vibration that makes the little brush scurry across the table like a live bug. This experiment teaches your kid about how kinetic energy creates motion.
Things needed for this project: Some discarded delivery boxes, a couple of plastic medical syringes, and a thin rubber tube filled with water.
Cut our strips off the cupboard and join them together with loose pins so they can bend like a human elbow. Connect the two plastic syringes using the thin tube, and fill the system completely with water. Attach one syringe to your cardboard arm and hand the other to your child. When they push the plunger on their end, the water pressure will force the cardboard arm to lift and move, introducing them to fluid mechanics and mechanical joints.
Things needed for this project: A flat sheet of cardboard, 4 plastic bottle caps, 2 wooden skewers, a small 3V-6V toy motor, a tiny plastic propeller, an AA battery pack, and a plastic straw.
Take all the pieces of the plastic straw, glue them together to the bottom of your cardboard sheet. Slide the wooden skewers through them to make it work like an axle. Then attach the bottle caps to the ends of the skewers to make your wheels. Next, mount your toy motor to the top of the car, attach the propeller, and wire it to the battery pack. When the propeller spins, it pushes air backward, generating the physical thrust needed to propel the mechanical car forward across the floor.
Things needed for this project: A small 2V solar panel cell, a micro-vibration motor, a paperclip, thick copper wires, and a soldering iron or electrical tape.
Bend the thick copper wires to create a stable, four-legged insect boy chassis. Mount the tiny collar panel and vibration motor directly onto this wire frame. Connect the motor wires to the solar panel’s terminals. Take your child outside into direct sunlight, or use a bright desk lamp. The moment light hits the panel, it converts solar energy into electrical current, causing the bug to buzz and move across the ground on its wire legs.
Things needed for this project: A disposable paper cup, 3 or 4 colored sketch pens, a 3V toy motor, an AA battery pack, an AA battery, tape, and a small uneven weight ( may be a piece of eraser or a bottle cap)
Tape the sketch pens around the open edge of the paper cup so it can stand up on them like legs. Turn the cup over and tape the toy motor and battery pack securely to the top. To create a mechanical imbalance, push the piece or eraser, or bottle cap off- center into the motor’s spinning shaft. Pop the caps off the pens, place the bot on a large sheet of chart paper, and connect the battery.The uneven weight will throw the motor off balance, causing the cup to spin and dance wildly across the page, leaving behind a unique scribble art pattern.
Remember, your kids are still small and building a robot doesn’t require a high-tech lab. All you need is to willingly make them sit with you and experiment with things under your supervision. The above mentioned simple projects can be performed at home and help your child learn technology. It isn’t limited to learning on screen but it also needs ideas, creation, and manipulation in real life.
If your child loves thinking and playing with new things, STEM robotics projects can be the best for them. Enroll them at Jainam classes to boost their level and push their natural curiosity to something real and function.
