David and Alan Build Robots

Ideas to Try

Safety
Before you start, think about how to use this equipment safely. Will you need to wear safety gear? Check with your teacher if you are not sure about safety requirements.

Make Crawling Battlebots
You will need: two cotton reels, two rubber bands, two paper clips, two washers, two cocktail sticks, two sheets of card, scissors, compass, ruler, sticky tape, chalk. Paints, foil, etc. for decoration.

1. Push the rubber band through the cotton reel.
2. Hook the paper clip over one end of the rubber band and stick it to the end of the reel with tape.
3. Thread the other end of the rubber band through the washer.
4. Put a cocktail stick into the loop of rubber that sticks through the washer.
5. Use the cocktail stick to wind up the rubber band until it is tight.
6. When released, the crawler should move across the floor.




7. Cut out a circle of card, about 22cm in diameter. Draw a line from the outside edge to the centre of the circle.

8. Cut along the line you have drawn and then overlap the two sides of the card circle to make a cone. Tape the cone together on the inside and decorate the outside.
9. Pop the cone over your crawler to give it a shell. When the crawler is wound up, the cone will seem to creep along the ground.
10. Make a second crawler using steps 1–9. Try racing your crawlers, or wind them up and put them face to face inside a circle of chalk. Can one crawler push the other out of the circle?

Can you modify your crawler to make it go faster/further? (Hint: try increasing the rubber band power, or find a way of giving the cotton reel more grip against the ground.)

Make a Quiz Robot
You will need: two small bulbs in bulb-holders; thin plastic coated wire; battery and battery-holder; small and large cardboard box; sheets of A4 card; 12 brass paper fasteners; wire strippers, scissors, ruler, tape, glue, foil, paints or colours and information book/CD-ROM about a favourite topic.

1. Cut three lengths of wire. Strip about 2cm of plastic coating from either end of each wire. Connect the bulb holders together with one wire. Attach the bulbs to one of the poles of the battery-holder with the second wire. Connect the third wire to the other pole of the battery-holder.





2. Cut another length of wire and strip both ends as before. Add this wire to the opposite end of the bulb arrangement. Check that when the two loose ends of the wires are touched together, the bulbs light up. If not, re-check all your connections.





3. The small box will be the robot's head. Make two holes for eyes. Push the bulbs through the holes, keeping the bulb-holders on the inside. The battery-holder can be hidden inside the robot's head.

4. Glue the small box onto the larger one. Your robot now has a body. The two loose wires should hang down from the head on either side of the body.

5. Now make a quiz card. Use the information book or CD-ROM to research six questions and answers. Write the questions in random order in a column on the left-hand side of a piece of card. Put the answers in random order in a column on the right-hand side.

6. Push a brass paper fastener through the card beside each question and each answer.

7. On the back of the card, join each question to its answer by connecting the correct two fasteners with wire. Again, it's important that about 2cm of the plastic coating is stripped away from each end of the wire. Make sure all the connections are good and tight.

8. Fix your question and answer card to the robot's body, using some pieces of folded tape.

9. Test your Robot Quiz on your friends. They must put one of the loose wires on the fastener by a question and the other loose wire on the fastener by the correct answer. If they are right, the circuit will be completed and the robot's eyes will light up. You can make more quiz cards to use with your robot.

10. Use paints and foil to decorate your robot.