One-Hour Activity

One-Hour Activity

Can you dig it? Program a robot animal! It doesn’t look like a robot, but it digs like one! Program a robot to help dig after an earthquake disaster. Learn how biomimicry – biological inspiration – can teach us how to build robots. We will program using MakeCode and build with the Hummingbird robotics kit.

In this one-hour activity, students learn about animal adaptations and about biomimicry, the study of nature to inspire design.   

Using text and videos, students explore four animals (pocket gopher, mole rat, pangolin, and mole) and analyze the features that make them good diggers. Students then build a motorized digging robot that mimics some of these features, like paws, claws, and teeth.     

This activity uses the Hummingbird Robotics Kit and craft materials. Students build robot appendages and attach them to prebuilt servo motor stands. Students then test their designs by digging through shredded paper. 

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