Build a Simple Special Delivery Robot for Valentine's Day

By Amy Cowen on February 12, 2018 4:00 PM

Get creative and build your own Valentine's Day Special Delivery robot!

Three photos show a pink valentines themed vibrobot carrying heart-shaped candies

Special Delivery! Use paper, craft materials, and creative thinking to turn a simple vibrating robot into a Valentine's Day delivery bot! www.sciencebuddies.org

From Simple Vibrobot to Special Delivery

All you need to make a simple vibrating robot (a vibrobot) is a battery and a motor. With these basic electronics parts, students can experiment create robots that shuffle around. With toothbrush heads, students can make toothbrush-head Bristlebot robots. But challenging students to experiment with other options for bodies, legs, and feet makes for hands-on STEM fun. The Junkbots activity and Vibrobots project idea at Science Buddies guide students in building simple robots with a range of materials. Students can use everyday craft materials, creative thinking, and a few electronics parts to design and build their own clever and cute robots.

Creative STEM

The Valentine's Day robot shown above and in the following video is a simple vibrobot with a body and legs constructed from paper and glue.

Valentine's Day Candy Delivery Robot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXVBU4gTPl0

What will your special delivery robot look like? Get creative with vibrobots and try all kinds of different materials for robot bodies, arms, and legs. How will a robot with pipe cleaner legs move compared to a robot with legs made from paper or paperclips? Put your questions to the test to find out!

Learn More

For related introductory robotics projects, activities, and inspiration see the following:

Free Educator Lesson Plans

Teachers can lead in-class robotics exploration with students using the Vibrobots— Tiny Robots from Scratch or Building Junkbots—Robots from Recycled Materials lesson plan. Lesson plans are NGSS-aligned and contain background information for teachers, suggested topics for classroom discussion, directions for a hands-on activity, a worksheet, and an assessment. (View all Lesson Plans)

Bristlebot Kit

The Science Buddies Bristlebot Kit contains the specialty parts needed to experiment with vibrobots, junkbots, toothbrush-head Bristlebots, the ArtBot, or the BrushBot. Depending on the project or activity, you will need assorted craft materials. The Bristlebot Kit is available from Home Science Tools.