Monday, January 30, 2012

Robots at Pacheco!


This last Wednesday we had the opportunity to visit the kids at Pacheco elementary once again. We came armed with a bucket of neat solar robot kits that teams of students would get the opportunity to play with. Kids could chose from a number of models, such as a race car, windmill, airboat, or walking dog.

We started out by reviewing the basics from last week and then went over the different sources of power for an electric motor. We gave a quick explanation of how electric motors work, then set the kids loose to build their robots.

My group built the airboat and had a ton of fun using the lamps we brought to drive it around the sink. A few other groups built the walking dog, race car, and boat as well. The kids were having a blast watching their robots cruise around the room!

After everyone had successfully built a working model, we had the kids tear everything down and then build a race car for each group. Once everyone had finished, we took all of the cars outside in the sun and raced them down the sidewalk. The kids absolutely loved this part, and I had a pretty good time myself. It was really funny to watch them all running down the road screaming at their cars to go faster.

Afterwards, we packed everything up and headed out, another successful lesson completed! This coming week we'll be doing the same lesson with a different group of kids. Looking forward to it!

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