TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm

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published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
supported by the International Business Machines

This lesson plan, appropriate for grades 6-9, asks students to create a robot arm from common household materials that include paper clips, fishing line, cardboard, brads, pencils, rubber bands, and twine. The final product must be at least 18 inches in length and able to pick up an empty Styrofoam cup. As learners go through the design process they must work as a team to learn about simple machines, force interaction, torque, stress, and more.

This item is part of a collection of lessons and online games developed to help students think like an engineer and make decisions that apply an understanding of physics and engineering.
It is part of TryEngineering.org, a website maintained by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Editor's Note: See Related Materials for a link to the "Bionic Arm Design Challenge", an online game where users virtually design and test a bionic arm. Together, these resources meet a number of national science standards and offer solid opportunities to integrate physics with the practice of engineering.

http://tryengineering.org/lessons/robotarm.pdf

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Classical Mechanics - Applications of Newton's Laws = Dynamic Torque - Statics of Rigid Bodies = Stresses - Work and Energy Education Practices - Active Learning Other Sciences - Engineering	- Middle School - High School - Informal Education	- Instructional Material = Activity = Lesson/Lesson Plan = Problem/Problem Set

Appropriate Courses	Categories	Ratings
- Physical Science - Physics First - Conceptual Physics	- Lesson Plan - Activity - New teachers	Currently 0.0/5 Want to rate this material? Login here!

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Intended User:: Educator
Formats:: application/pdf
text/html
Access Rights:: Free access
Restriction:: © 2006 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Keywords:: applied physics, engineering physics, lever arm, mechanical engineering, robot arm, robotics, simple machine
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created March 14, 2012 by Caroline Hall
Record Updated:: March 14, 2012 by Caroline Hall
Last Update when Cataloged:: June 30, 2011

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AAAS Benchmark Alignments (2008 Version)

3. The Nature of Technology

3A. Technology and Science

6-8: 3A/M3. Engineers, architects, and others who engage in design and technology use scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. They also usually have to take human values and limitations into account.
9-12: 3A/H2. Mathematics, creativity, logic, and originality are all needed to improve technology.
9-12: 3A/H3a. Technology usually affects society more directly than science does because technology solves practical problems and serves human needs (and also creates new problems and needs).

3B. Design and Systems

6-8: 3B/M4a. Systems fail because they have faulty or poorly matched parts, are used in ways that exceed what was intended by the design, or were poorly designed to begin with.
6-8: 3B/M4b. The most common ways to prevent failure are pretesting of parts and procedures, overdesign, and redundancy.

3C. Issues in Technology

6-8: 3C/M2. Technology cannot always provide successful solutions to problems or fulfill all human needs.
6-8: 3C/M9. In all technologies, there are always trade-offs to be made.

4. The Physical Setting

4F. Motion

6-8: 4F/M3a. An unbalanced force acting on an object changes its speed or direction of motion, or both.
9-12: 4F/H1. The change in motion (direction or speed) of an object is proportional to the applied force and inversely proportional to the mass.

8. The Designed World

8B. Materials and Manufacturing

6-8: 8B/M1. The choice of materials for a job depends on their properties.
6-8: 8B/M2. Manufacturing usually involves a series of steps, such as designing a product, obtaining and preparing raw materials, processing the materials mechanically or chemically, and assembling the product. All steps may occur at a single location or may occur at different locations.

11. Common Themes

11B. Models

6-8: 11B/M5. The usefulness of a model depends on how closely its behavior matches key aspects of what is being modeled. The only way to determine the usefulness of a model is to compare its behavior to the behavior of the real-world object, event, or process being modeled.
9-12: 11B/H5. The behavior of a physical model cannot ever be expected to represent the full-scale phenomenon with complete accuracy, not even in the limited set of characteristics being studied. The inappropriateness of a model may be related to differences between the model and what is being modeled.

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<a href="http://www.compadre.org/precollege/items/detail.cfm?ID=11751">International Business Machines. TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, June 30, 2011.</a>

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TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2006), WWW Document, (http://tryengineering.org/lessons/robotarm.pdf).

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TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2006), <http://tryengineering.org/lessons/robotarm.pdf>.

APA Format

TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm. (2011, June 30). Retrieved May 23, 2013, from Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: http://tryengineering.org/lessons/robotarm.pdf

Chicago Format

International Business Machines. TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, June 30, 2011. http://tryengineering.org/lessons/robotarm.pdf (accessed 23 May 2013).

MLA Format

TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2006. 30 June 2011. International Business Machines. 23 May 2013 <http://tryengineering.org/lessons/robotarm.pdf>.

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@misc{ Title = {TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm}, Publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}, Volume = {2013}, Number = {23 May 2013}, Month = {June 30, 2011}, Year = {2006} }

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%D June 30, 2011
%I Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
%U http://tryengineering.org/lessons/robotarm.pdf
%O application/pdf

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%0 Electronic Source
%D June 30, 2011
%T TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm
%I Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
%V 2013
%N 23 May 2013
%8 June 30, 2011
%9 application/pdf
%U http://tryengineering.org/lessons/robotarm.pdf

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TryEngineering: Build Your Own Robot Arm:

Accompanies TryEngineering: Bionic Arm Design Challenge

An interactive simulation that allows learners to virtually design and test a bionic arm. They must meet certain criteria, including budget constraints.

relation by Caroline Hall

Is Supplemented By Dean Kamen's Artificial Arm

This 6-minute video chronicles the efforts of inventor/physicist Dean Kamen to develop a robotic arm with the functionality and dexterity of its human countepart.

relation by Caroline Hall

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