Junkbots

The junkbots project was carried as one of the activities at the celebration of two years of Lab_13 at Irchester Community Primary School . Three groups spent around an hour developing the drawing junkbots (an example of what one is can be found in these image). The session basic revolves around two main activities: - Showing that a motor can be made to vibrate and can they think of a way to use this and other materials around them (make sure there are pens/pencils around) to make a drinks can move. - Next stage is can they modify their robot to make it draw. Details and session plans can be found at:  http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/junkbot-project-case-study-and-session.html   If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

ABSTRACT:  The School of Science and Technology at the University of Northampton have been working with local schools to create robots made from junk and also to use robots programmed by the students to perform simple rubbish clearing exercises. This is an initiative by the University to introduce environmental sustainability, engineering and computing to students in schools. If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

During National Science and Engineering Week 2013, as part of the activities provided by the University of Northampton, the Junkbots project returned as part of programme of activities to South End Primary School, Rushden, northamptonshire, UK.  National Science and Engineering Week is annual event celebrating science and engineering activities ( http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/national-science-engineering-week ) Last year during the same week Junkbots also formed part of the activities (see  http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/junkbots-goes-south.html ). This time we worked with two classes - a year 2 and a year 5 class; building the drawing junkbot. Examples of previous drawing junkbots are shown above. Approximately 50 children took part across the two 45 minute activities. Essentially  a drawing junkbot is based around a drinks can that: - draw patterns without anyone touching it; -carried the battery pack or not depends on the age of...

Related to the junkbots project. Taken directly from  http://lab13network.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/rubbish-reduce-reuse-recycle-into-toys/    Rubbish – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle into toys!    Lab13 at Irchester (@Lab_13Irchester) by   lab13network Waleed and Jacob searching for goodies! Year 5 students at Irchester have been working on a very exciting project with the Dept. of Waste Management, University of Northampton. Dr. Waleed Montasser and Louise Maxwell, and Bianca, Evie and Livia (Brazilian visiting students) work alongside our Year 5s to design, plan, resource and make different Science Takeaways all using reusable and recycled materials. Science Takeaways will be a set of four science kits with different experiments for children to borrow for the weekend and try at home. They will collect data or test hypotheses and add to the kit if they think of some new way of using it. However, we wanted to keep these ta...

Taken from a blog written at Irchester Primary School  http://lab13network.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/dads-robot-lab/ about a robot activity. For more details about Lab_13 go to:  http://lab13network.wordpress.com/   Dad’s Robot Lab! Posted on   November 28, 2012   Hi! This is Morgan and Emily. Our Dads come to Dads Club in Lab_13. Last week, we had some visitors! They demonstrated how all of the robots worked. There were some amazing remote controlled robots and a Lego robot. The name of the person who worked with all of the extraordinary robots was Scott Turner. We were amazed by the robots. Thank you for coming.  The Lego robot could be controlled by the computer. The other robot could do handstands, roly-polys and cartwheels. Some were doing gymnastics, walking, bowing and dancing. The Lego robot just went all over the place!   Emily’s stepdad, Robin, said “ It was fantastic – I want a robot for Christmas.” ...

Just a quick bit, but Alexandra (can find more at  Alex's reflections ) talks about her time as a student and includes her work on the Lego robots from the Junkbots projec t. If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

Popular posts How to build junkbots: Old toys In a previous blog entry the idea of using drinks can and an unbalanced motor was discussed. but what else have the projects participants t... How to build junkbots: Drinks can, unbalanced motor The junkbots project has now being running for 18 months in Northamptonshire, UK. But how have the junkbots being built? A video produced by... How to build junkbots: Wheels don’t always work well Back to the main approach, simplest way and probably the quickest:- A body (drinks can and drinks bottles usually) and an unbalanced motor -... Huxlow Pt 2: Lego Robots  The second half (programming lego robots) on the junkbots project has been carried out at  Huxlow Science College  on 28th February 2011. ... Toys from trash Arvind Gupta has produced a lot of work on turning junk into toys that aim to demonstrate the engineering ideas in an very interesting (wel... Brooke We...