Athletes jumping off a diving board. A duck circling a pond. Planets rotating in space. What do all these things have in common?
They鈥攐r at least, their robotic representations鈥攁re products of a two-day workshop at the Boulder Public Library, where high school students designed and assembled their own cardboard robots.
Paper robots created by students at the Boulder Public Library makeathon. Photos by听HyunJoo Oh.
CU Boulder scientists,听in collaboration with Sherry Hsi at听the , recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to teach workshops through their project. Not only are these 鈥渕akeathon鈥� events fun, but students also learn basic engineering principles: design, build, test. The project is changing traditional models of education听and helping shape these students鈥� futures.
鈥淭he intent of our work is to provide things for kids to do,鈥� said Mike Eisenberg, a professor in the and the . 鈥淲e think in those terms rather than thinking in terms of teaching skills听or even teaching particular content.鈥�
HyunJoo Oh, a graduate student at the , was inspired to launch the Paper Mechatronics project three years ago, after seeing a . She thought such projects could have potential for education.
鈥淲hat if we design tools to invite beginner artistic designers to explore this hands-on learning?鈥� she recalls asking herself.
Oh created , a program with templates for shapes and types of movements. She also created electrical parts and workshop formats so students can have everything they need to design and build their ideas.
Since then, Oh has taught seven Paper Mechatronics workshops around the country. Some are two-hour events, some last a whole week. At workshops, the students receive a brief instructional lecture. Then, they use FoldMecha to pick out a mechanical motion and parts for their robots. They print and cut out the parts听and then get artistic. A simple motor animates their finished robots.
At an event at the Children鈥檚 Creativity Museum in San Francisco, for example, a group of high school students created a 鈥渞obot petting zoo.鈥澨齋tarting with simple movement modules, the students made animals like a slithering snake and a duck that flapped its wings when fed.
Oh is impressed with students鈥� creativity. 鈥淚f we work with 10 people, 10 people interpret [the project] in 10 different ways,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the most exciting part for me, because it鈥檚 very diverse and expressive in a dynamic way.鈥�
The project has also welcomed girls who might otherwise be intimidated by programming and engineering, said Oh. She taught a workshop in 2016 to six middle school-aged girls at the Digital Youth Divas summer camp in Chicago. Oh noticed some of the girls seemed reluctant to participate at first.听
鈥淭hey already have a mental burden鈥攖hey think it's cool, but they just don't think it's their thing,鈥� said Oh. But, the girls became more and more interested as the week-long workshop progressed.
鈥淎s they are really engaged in the activity in their own way and building up their story, they really make it work,鈥� she said.
The new grant will help the Paper Mechatronics team to improve these workshops and bring them to more museums, schools and libraries. In the future, Oh wants to create a paper mechatronics kit, with instructions, software and materials, in which the moving parts are already cut out, taking out the need for a laser cutter.听
鈥淭he longer-term view is that what we really want is for kids to be interested in science, math, engineering,鈥� said Eisenberg. 鈥淥nce they have a narrative story about who they are and what they鈥檙e interested in, you can trust the process from that point鈥攖hat they will learn the material.鈥�
