Robotics!: With 25 Science Projects for Kids

Description

Age range 9 to 12 Some people think robots exist only in our imagination, but actually, robots are all around us. Robotics! With 25 Science Projects for Kids offers readers ages 7 to 10 an introduction to the history, mechanics, and future use of robots! Readers explore the history of robotics and discover how the first types looked and moved and what people expected they could do. Compare these early robots to those we have today, some of which don't even have bodies. Kids discover how robots have changed as decades have passed and see how they now look, think, sense, move, and do things. Robotics! also discusses all the amazing things robots do for us - help us around the house, go into and explore dangerous situations, build our cars and other products, assist during surgeries, and protect and entertain us. Learn all about early robots such as Unimate and Elmer and Elsie, and compare them to modern-day robots Robonaut 2 and ASIMO. Robotics! includes 25 science-minded activities to engage budding scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and artists and help answer the questions, what exactly is a robot and where do they come from? Kids also discover how technology such as computers and other electronics of the last 50 or so years played an important role in the development of modern-day robotics. Requiring little adult supervision and using common, easy-to-find (and often recycled!) materials, kids experiment, play games, and explore components of robotics. They also build a variety of things such as their own automaton, a robot hand, and a replica of Robonaut 2. Combining hands-on fun with interesting facts, cartoons, and sidebars, Robotics provides young readers with a fun introduction to this fascinating and important field.

Carmella Van Vleet is a former elementary school teacher and the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for kids, including Aviation: Cool Women Who Fly;Explore Electricity!;Great Ancient Egypt Projects You Can Build Yourself, from Nomad Press and To The Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space (co-authored with astronaut Kathy Sullivan). She lives near Columbus, Ohio. Tom Casteel is an illustrator and cartoonist that graduated from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2011. He has illustrated more than two dozen books for Nomad Press. He lives in South Bend, Indiana, with his family.

School Library Connection This title could easily be a textbook in beginning robotics classes. . . Each chapter poses an essential question that is repeated at the end of the book. There are many resources dispersed throughout the text. All new vocabulary words are printed in color and defined on the same page in a text box. Those same definitions are found in the lengthy glossary at the end of the book. Another boon is the QR code in each chapter that takes the reader to videos illustrating the concepts being discussed. Photographs illuminate the history of computing and robotics. Drawings are used to not only explain concepts, but also to show how projects will ultimately look and work. In addition to multiple ideas for projects available at the end of each chapter, there are games, journal ideas, flowcharts to help with planning, information about coding, and even jokes. All these extras will keep young readers interested and involved in the book. This is an excellent addition to any library serving elementary to middle grade students. Recommended. Praise for Carmella Van Vleet for Explore Electricity! National Science Teachers Association Recommends "Explore Electricity is written for an elementary age level, but middle school students would enjoy learning about historical background on electricity while completing the electricity projects. The contents of this book will captivate students with the electrifying topics. This book is a well-written resource for classroom teachers, students, and parents."