Arts and Bots Design Notebook

ARTS AND
BOTS
MY DESIGN NOTEBOOK
ASK
IMPROVE IMAGINE
CREATE PLAN

THIS DESIGN NOTEBOOK BELONGS TO:
Kristen Chaffins

Arts & Bots Quick Reference
Outputs - Light
Name and Image What does it do? Plug it in Icon
LED
It is a single color
light source with
controllable
brightness.
 Color  +Positive
 Black  - Ground
The colored wire of the LED indicates the
color of its light!
Tri-Color LED
It is a red-green-blue
(RGB) light source
which can produce
many light-based
colors.
 Red  RRed
 Green  GGreen
 Blue  BBlue
 Black  -Ground
Outputs - Motion
Servo
It is a limited range
motor with controls
for specific angular
positions.
 Yellow  SSignal
 Red  +Positive
Motor
It is an electric
motor with speed
control that can
rotate in either
direction
indefinitely.
 Yellow  +and -
Since both wires are the same color, the
motor can be plugged in two ways.
Switching them just changes which direction
is “forward”.
Vibration Motor
It is a small motor
that causes a
shaking motion
where you can
control the intensity
of shaking.
 Yellow  +and -
Since both wires are the same color, the
vibration motor can be plugged in two ways.
Switching them just changes which direction
the weight spins.

Inputs (Sensors)
Distance Sensor
It is a sensor that
detects how far
away something is.
Light Sensor
It is a sensor that
detects how bright
the ambient light is.
Temperature Sensor
It is a sensor that
detects the
temperature.
Potentiometer
It is a sensor that
detects how it has
been rotated.
Notes:
Version 1.1 – March 2012

AS
WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR
ROBOT TO LOOK LIKE?
WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR
ROBOT TO BE ABLE TO DO?

ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS
GOA
ASK
TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE AND PROGRAM A ROBOT
 WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR ROBOT TO LOOK LIKE?
 WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR ROBOT TO BE ABLE TO
DO?
IMAG
 RESEARCH
 BRAINSTORM IDEAS
 CHOOSE THE BEST ONE!
PLA  DRAW A DIAGRAM
 MAKE A LIST OF MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED
CREA  FOLLOW YOUR PLAN AND CREATE IT!
 TEST IT OUT!
IMPR
OVE:
 TALK ABOUT WHAT WORKS, WHAT DOESN’T AND
WHAT COULD WORK BETTER!
 MODIFY YOUR DESIGN TO MAKE IT BETTER
 TEST IT OUT!

IMAG
DESIGN BRAINSTORM
What do you want your robot to look like?
- I want my robot to look like a pulsar, which
is a neutron star. It will have a round ‘body’
with two beams coming from the sides.
What do you want your robot to be able to do?
- My robot will spin 360° around a ‘black
hole’ which will demonstrate the idea of
the pulsar pulsing as it does in real life.
Where did you find your idea for your robot?
- The idea came from personal experience.
When I was in ninth grade I was introduced
to pulsar astronomy and find it very
interesting. I thought that by allowing my
students to actually build the pulsar it
would give them more sense of an idea at
what the pulsar does.
OTHER QUESTIONS YOU WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOUR PARTNER ABOUT THEIR
ROBOT DESIGN

IMPR
WHAT WORKS? WHAT DOESN’T WORK? WHAT COULD WORK
BETTER?
1. Using a Styrofoam ball
as the pulsars ‘body.’
2. Allowing the pulsar to
sit on a plastic flower
pot to keep it rotating
in the right direction.
3. Using a flash light to
activate the light sensor
which causes the pulsar
to spin
4. Hiding the hummingbird
under a ‘moon rock’
made from an onion
container.
5. Attaching the pulsar to
a 360 motor to make it
rotate around.
1. Using a plastic bouncing ball
as the pulsar ‘body.’ It was
too heavy and would not stay
on the 360 motor.
2. Spray painting the plastic ball
silver. The paint didn’t stay on
the ball or dry.
3. Hot glue also does not stick to
the plastic ball.
4. Attaching LED lights to the
beams. When the pulsar spins
360 degrees the LED lights get
tangled and knocks the whole
pulsar over.
 I had to completely redo my
idea of what I was going to
use as my pulsar body in
order to get my pulsar to
spin. After the first day, I
thought I had figured it out
because the plastic ball was
spinning but when I tried
again on Day 2 it was too
heavy and came off the 360
motor. The spray paint also
did not dry and got all over
everything making more of a
mess.
1. I would really like for the
beams to have LED lights
on them in order to give a
better picture of what
pulsars do. If I had wireless
lights that would work
much better.
2. Also it would be better if
the pulsar could somehow
rotate 360 degrees without
being attached directly to
the 360 motor. This would
allow me to ‘float’ the
pulsar in the air which
would look more realistic. I
think if I would not have
run into the issues with the
‘body’ I could have had
more time to problem-
solve and figure out a way
to suspend the pulsar from
a Popsicle stick or another
object.

PL
DESIGN MATERIALS: WHAT MATERIALS WILL YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR ROBOT?
1.Styrofoam ball
2.Pipe cleaners
3.Plastic flower pot
4.Cotton balls
5.Aluminum foil
6.Box
7.Black foam paper
8.Glow in the dark planets
9.Silver spray paint
10. Hot glue gun
11. Hummingbird
12. 360 motor
13. Light sensor
14. Computer
15. Masking tape

PL
DESIGN SKETCH: SKETCH YOUR ROBOT

Arts and Bots Project Development Worksheet
Project Title: Pulsar Astronomy
Project Leader/Liaison:
Participating Teachers:
The Purpose and
Main Features of
the Project:
Preparing the launch:
Curricular
objectives and
scope of the
project:
Learning activities:
Learning outcomes
and assessment:
Resources and
support:
Project Showcase:
Kristen Chaffins
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the rotation of a pulsar
to my students. The main features of this project are the 360 degree
rotation and the light sensor that uses a flashlight to rotate the pulsar.
In order to prepare for the project, I did research on how pulsars
rotate and how the pulsar looks. Pulsars are technically not visible
but this is what they are believed to look like.
 Students will analyze the movement of a pulsar.
 Students will grasp how pulsars rotate and give off radiation.
The students will interact with the pulsar by using flashlights
to get the pulsar to move. This will allow the students to
have a more hands on experience in working with the
concept of pulsar astronomy.
The learning outcomes of this lesson are for students to
understand the rotation of pulsars, as well as how they form
and how they can be analyzed. Students will also learn about
binary systems and harmonic. The assessment for this lesson
will be an analysis of pulsar plots. After the students are given
all the information about pulsars, they will be able to analyze
pulsar plots that are produced using the radio telescope.
Resources that will be used will be some astronomy websites, as
well as a video that demonstrates what pulsars are. I will also use a
database to allow students to analyze pulsars and RFI.
The robot will be shown on the second day of instruction, once the
students have a base knowledge of pulsars.

ARTS and BOTS Interview Questions
To identify the "story" behind each robot, try to cover the following points, and
develop the ones that sound more interesting for each specific interviewee. Of
course, if anything else comes up in the conversation that is interesting and not
part of these points - dig deeper.
 Tell me about how your robot works – what electronic parts did you use and
what do they do?
 Identify decisions made (materials, technology, programming, story)
 What did you enjoy the most about this process, what was the most
rewarding part of the experience? Why? How so?
 What was the most challenging part of this assignment for you? Why? How
did you overcome / resolve it?
 What did you learn from this project (about robotics and the curricular topic)?
 Show / describe the robot doing its thing (+ the assignment if relevant)
1. My robot rotates 360 degrees around a flower pot. I used a 360° motor
to rotate the robot as well as a light sensor. When it gets to dark, the
light sensor causes the robot to start the sequence of rotating for 8
seconds.
2. I decided to make my robot a pulsar because I thought it would give the
students a more hands on way to understand the rotation of a pulsar.
They would be able to see it, instead of just hearing about it. I decided
to use the 360 motor because I needed the pulsar to make a full
rotation. I originally started with a plastic ball as the body of the pulsar
and it was too heavy and caused the pulsar to turn over. The spray paint
also did not dry to the ball causing a mess. I saw another student in our
class using Styrofoam balls for planets and thought that would be the
best way to go about making my robot.
3. I think the most rewarding part was when I saw the final project actually
working. I had many different problems that came up throughout the
process and to see the robot work how I wanted was very rewarding.
4. The most challenging part was getting my robot to actually work. I had
a vision and my materials picked out before I started working on the
robot and when everything that I originally planned didn’t work, I got
very frustrated. I had to restart the whole robot two days into the
process. Eventually I started with new materials that were lighter and
the robot turned out just the way I had originally had planned.

5. I learned that robotics were not as hard as I expected. I also learned that
I could easily incorporate robotics into a lesson that would enrich my
student’s experience. Overall, I really enjoyed using robotics as part of
a lesson plan. It was an eye-opening experience that proved to me that
I could do something I never thought I would have been able to do.

Arts and Bots Design Notebook

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