This month for Maker Monday we made art bots!
I don’t remember where I first saw this idea, but I heard about it at ALA a couple years ago, and its been popping up all over the place. True confession: I’d been saving this idea, and then all of a sudden it was the Friday afternoon before Maker Monday, and I didn’t have a plan or time to order supplies, so I spent my weekend buying 25 electric toothbrushes (plus some chocolate) and a couple huge packs of markers at the dollar store. Then I crossed my fingers that I didn’t get too many kids to show up.
I raided the supply closet and made a sample. I showed the kids how it worked, and we talked about making sure the Bot could stand on its legs and balancing out the weight of the battery. Then they started dissecting toothbrushes and building!
Vital supplies:
Cheap electric toothbrushes
Batteries (Don’t forget the batteries! My entire library just happened to be out of AA batteries the day of the program… I was bribing people for their spare batteries, and pulling them out of the Wii remotes)
Body parts. I used styrofoam cups, but I originally saw it done with pieces of pool noodles. Really anything lightweight that will hold a battery and can have legs attached.
Markers for legs.
Tape. I used leftover patterned duct tape.
Extras:
Anything to decorate! I had: pipe cleaners, pom poms, styrofoam balls, paper scraps, and google-y eyes.
I covered all our tables with butcher paper so the kids could test their Bots, which turned out to be a good idea. I filmed all the bots as they made them, and they enjoyed making sure the Bot performed well for the camera!
