Junkbots

Friday 16th March 2012, the junkbots project moved to year 6 at Roade Primary School.  The aim was to Look in to how to use electric motors to make junk move, along with the effect of weight, surface contact effects and positioning of the weights. The task was to make something that could move along a table as quickly as possible. Good example is the 'sleigh' shown above, a mixture of straws, yoghurt pots, pens, plastics and electric motors. What was especially good about this one was - it went in a straight line, shaking its way along and even carried its batteries. This was especially good as usually these junkbots have a tendency to spin around. The group that developed this one investigated repositioning the batteries, thereby adjusting the weight to get it to travel in a straight line. Thank you to the year 6 at Roade Primary School for inviting me, lots of budding engineers there. If you want to know more about Junkbots please contact:  scott.turner@northampto...

A collection of videos from Hayley Stevenson's junkbots work including insect-like robots And here is what it drew: Taken from:  http://junkbots-hayleystevenson.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html Taken from:  http://junkbots-hayleystevenson.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-9-fan-racer-comes-to-life.html Junkbots and lego robots combined:  taken from:  http://junkbots-hayleystevenson.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-18-my-last-day.html   Here is the video summarising her work: Taken from:  http://junkbots-hayleystevenson.blogspot.com/2011/08/update-video-montage.html

Ceisie2011 conf View more presentations from Scott Turner 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. This paper focuses on the programming part of the project, providing reflections on the activities.

The junkbots activities were carried out in four one hour sessions at Guilsborough School, Northamptonshire. Pictures from the event:

The aim of this project is to introduce concepts of environmental sustainability, engineering and computing. In a fun and educational project that uses the STEM subjects. The project is delivered by university staff and students going into schools to provide guidance and support in the production of the robots. This project sets out to engage pupils with a set of activities over 12 hours that provides an insight into STEM subjects. The workshops will be structured in the following way: Activity 1 Introduction to waste management, its impact, recycling and reuse. An introduction to the idea of making robots from rubbish. Activity 2 Involves some problem-solving exercises (approx. ½ hour), and then in groups investigate adding ‘junk’ with a new electrical components such as batteries and motors to use vibrations to move the robots. Activity 3 To apply some of the ideas on problem solving and use of materials developed previously to build a little junk-clearing robot. ·   ...

Three schools have taken part of the project (62 students in all), so time to reflect on and summarise the project so far. Waste Management The waste management activities seem to engage from the point of view of helping them to understand their own impact both positively and negatively. “...it was cool to know what my carbon footprint is.” “... made me think about all the waste in the world.” “[I] now recycle” "Lots of information which was useful..."(Student BW-B) "I learnt a lot and calculating my carbon footprint was great" (Student BW-J) "I learnt about [Eco] stuff" (Student BW-S) "I found the waste management activity helpf[ul] because it showed me the truth of what we could do to help the earth" (Student BW-T) "I liked the presentation we were given...interesting facts which we will remember a long time" (Student BW-V) Junkbot building "We had the [f]reedom to show the teachers what skills we have" (Studen...