Making Robots

The girl's first robots

Both Isabel and Sophia told me they were interested in making robots. So I looked around for a good introductory kit and found this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BUPFPLI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

It was a fairly decent price at $15.00, so I grabbed two for the girls. The girls were VERY excited about these kits coming and couldn't think about anything else once they arrived via UPS. They had to power through homework and house chores before I let them get the kits out :-).

The kit comes with good instructions in poster form. We got these out first and taped them to the wall near our workspace.

Minimal tools are needed: scissors, a Philips screwdriver and wire cutters are suggested. We also grabbed some Scotch tape to put the posters up on the wall.

Both of the girls were fairly faithful to the directions, but it was necessary for me to help them as the pieces are somewhat complex and there are many ways to put together a non-functional spider.

Both the girls and I really enjoyed the kit and the finished product is fun to analyze, watch and play with.

It was especially good for the girls to put together the parts, not necessarily understanding what they were for (the locomotion is not intuitive for people that are not mechanically minded) and then later seeing it all come together and work. I really enjoyed doing this.

Some Q&A with the girls. Isabel's responses are in blue and Sophia's are in purple.

Q. Was building a robot like what you thought it would be?

A. No, it was much more difficult than it looked.

A. Yep.

Q. What was our robot useful for, anything?

A. I think it was useful for carrying messages as long as the message person was straight in front of the robot.

A. It was useful for nothing. It was fun to watch though.

Q. How would you improve the spider robot to make it cooler?

A. Have it have sensors so that if something is in it's way it can turn left or right. I would also make it go a little faster.

A. I would make it have little hands so that when ever it see'd something it would pick it up and put it where it was supposed to be.

Q. Would you like to build more robots?

A. Yes.

A. Yes.

Q. What kind of robot would you like to build next?

A. I would like to build a trashcan robot, it has little arms that grab things off the ground and put it in itself.

A. I would build a kangaroo robot because kangaroos are jumpy and I like to jump.

Climbing at the gym

Fun times at the climbing gym

Both of my girls were interested in going to a climbing gym. We had some time a couple of weeks ago and stopped by a bouldering gym in Lehi:

I haven't been to a climbing gym in years and was pleasantly surprised to see one fairly nearby. So, off we went. The prices were fairly reasonable and the quality of the routes was great. There was a large kids area where we spent a lot of our time that has problems that are appropriate for shorter arms and legs.

Isabel and Sophia got right into it.

Both Sophia and Isabel have similar physiques and almost the exact same height, so they were able to talk to each other about the different problems that they worked through. Sophia did very well at being patient and analytical which is very characteristic of how she approaches things.

Isabel was not as patient as Sophia, but was able to do some more difficult problems because she has some insane upper body strength.

You may notice in these pictures that the girls weren't able to keep their climbing shoes on, they rubbed the back of their heels raw fairly quickly and it became too painful. Pretty typical of rented shoes unfortunately, if you decide to try it be prepared for this and bring medical tape and some topical analgesic to increase endurance :-).

Here's some Q&A I did with the girls. Isabel's responses are in blue and Sophia's are in purple.

Q. What did you think of climbing?

A. Amazing! I would like to do it again sometime, but maybe next time I should wear bigger shoes.

A.Great! When I was learning something I thought about my muscles because they help you climb which is really cool.

Q. Did you think that climbing was hard?

A. I thought it had small things that were kind of hard to hold on to.

A. Not that much and it was also really fun too and there were goals in the middle.

Q. Could you climb for hours and hours like your Dad used to?

A. No! Because, if I climbed for hours and hours and hours and hours I would feel all achy and horrible.

A. Probably not, I would have some fun because I love climbing because that is how Monkeys live.

Q. What muscles do you think are important for climbing?

A. My hand and finger muscles and arm muscles.

A.Leg muscles, toe muscles, arm muscles, finger muscles and your arm muscles.

Q. Do you remember anything you learned while climbing?

A. I learned that you can't also use jugs to hold your hands, you have to hold onto all sorts of things.

A. Always keep your muscles straight or crunched up.

Sugar Crystals and Headstands

Sugar Crystals

Both of my girls have expressed an interest in Chemistry (Dad's horribly nerdy influence causes these sorts of things). This week we decided to do an experiment with sugar crystals. We read on several sites that we needed a saturated solution and about 1 weeks worth of waiting time to make crystals grow on a string tied to a pencil, suspended above the solution of water and sugar. Dad also read that a super saturated solution could yield crystal growth in as little as a few hours. Naturally we went for the super saturated solution. Unfortunately, I think our execution was off. In Isabel's own words:

"Well, we were seeing what would happen when we made our solution. But the solution kindof turned out wrong. We wanted faster growth, so we used the super solution. But when it was done, the crystal didn't even grow on the stick. Instead, it grew on the entire cup. Our whole cup of solution turned into a crystal."

Sophia's observations are as follows:

"Cool. It did take a long while for it to stop dissolving. At least an hour I think."

When the girls were asked if they would like to do the experiment again and what they would do different they said:

"Maybe this time we should not dissolve so much sugar in the water, we should dissolve a little less. Maybe we should make the water hotter so it will dissolve quicker."

"We should boil it a little bit less."

Sounds like these girls are forming hypothesis and are ready to become great chemists.

Headstands

Since we did a brainy activity (Chemistry), we also wanted to do something fun with our bodies. So Dad and the two girls spent a considerable amount of time on the lawn, learning to do headstands. Daddy was the champion, his headstand lasted a full 43 seconds before Victor tackled him. Sophia and Isabel also had their own personal records for headstands.

Person	Record time
Daddy	43 seconds
Isabel	4 seconds
Sophia	5 seconds

Comments from Isabel:

"I thought the headstands were pretty cool, but learning them was pretty hard. So what I think we should do is learn an easier way to do them. Like maybe we should do them on a wall. Doing them outside was really fun even though it was hard. Or if that is too hard, let's stick to something we know like handstands and just figure out how to hold them longer."

From Sophia:

"Maybe we should do handstands next time. It would be fun if we did handstands, they would be really easy and also really hard. But I still like doing them with my sister and my Dad."

Conclusion

A successful daddy time was had. Next time, we will take more(than 0) pictures.