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Hacking Coin Tosses
One of the first engineering projects you can try with your kids is hacking coin tosses. Let’s face it, luck plays a pretty big role in many aspects of life, from gambling to sports. When it comes to flipping a coin, luck plays a big role in determining the outcome. As you probably know, a coin toss is a quick way to pick a random winner for something like who gets to go first in a game. This experiment will show how difficult it is to predict the outcome of a coin toss without any outside help. You’ll want to start with a normal coin. Take the coin and scratch it along a rough surface. After scratching the coin, you’ll want to use a black light to look for fluorescent marks or residue. If you are able to find a fluorescent mark or residue from a chemical that is typically not found on a normal coin, then you’ve successfully created a marked coin. If you and your kids can successfully create a marked coin, you should be able to predict the outcome of all coin tosses for the rest of the day.
Self-driving robot
If your kids are interested in robotics, one of the best engineering projects for beginners is a self-driving robot. Robots are cool by their nature, and it’s even cooler when they are autonomous and do their thing without any human input! While you can buy self-driving robot kits online, you can also create your own by using a Raspberry Pi computer, a few sensors, and a servo. A servo (short for servomotor) is a small rotary actuator that can rotate and move on a specific axis. The first thing you’ll want to do is pick out a kit for a Raspberry Pi computer. You can find these kits online, or but to save money on UPS domestic shipping you can visit your nearest local tech or computer store to get one. Once you have the computer, you’ll want to plug it in and install the Robot Turtle software. Once the software is installed, you’re ready to start creating your robot. Next, you’ll want to decide what sensors you want to put on your robot. Sensors are useful because they can tell your robot how far away and what’s in front of it. You can get sensors that tell you how far away something is, how hot or cold it is, the level of light in the room, or even if there’s water in the air. For your first robot, we recommend getting a distance sensor and a light sensor. Finally, you’ll want to pick out a servo. You can get a medium-sized servo that will work well for most robots. As you finish building your robot, you can also consider adding wheels and a plastic or wood base for your robot.
LEGO robotics project
A great robotics project is a LEGO robotics project! You can buy robotics kits that come with instructions to build different robots, but you can also build your own robot with LEGOs to create a one-of-a-kind robot that’s all your own. The great thing about this project is that you can let your creativity run wild. You can build a simple robot that moves back and forth on a single track or something more complex, like a robot that can stack LEGOs or pick up objects. Building your own LEGOs robotics project gives you the opportunity to learn how robotics work and how robots are programmed.
