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Beginner Level 1
Lesson 4
Gear Ratio Activity
Now that you have learned about gear ratios, lets build a machine and to test your knowledge.
Step 1: Build the lifting mechanism
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Follow along with the video and build the machine
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Once it is build, rotate to hand crank to check if the arm moves.
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Gather small objects around you to use for the following activity (pencil, computer mouse, scissors)
Step 2: Try to pick objects up using your robot!
Challenge 2: Find five different objects around the room and test if the robot can hold them.
Challenge 1: Try to pick up a pencil with your robot
Challenge 3: Move the arm of your robot up or down, see if your robot can still hold your objects.
Challenge 4: Find some heavy and some light objects. Does the robot lift them the same? Discuss with your team.
Hint: If the robot is having a hard time lifting an object, change the gear ration as shown in the video
Step 2: Let's talk to Robbie the Robot and his friends about testing!
What are some of the objects your team tried to lift? What was easy to lift?
Hi Robbie! We lifted a spoon and some paperclips. The lighter objects lift faster and the heavier lift slower!
What even is testing?
Testing is when you make sure that your robot can do what you built it to! This robot was built to lift things.
Hey, does anyone know why my robot couldn't pick up our scissors?
The scissors were probably too heavy or fell out of the bucket.
Maybe try a smaller object and take note of what was different!
Testing is important!
When testing, be sure to test multiple times, even if it works the first try, to be sure it works.
If it doesn't work, then keep trying to make a new design until the robot can do it's task over and over again!
Congrats you've completed Beginner Level 1!
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