Makers will build an art-making “bot” that draws as it moves. They’ll use parts from an electric toothbrush or other small device. Once they have built their bot, they can observe and then change its movements to draw interesting patterns on paper.

Session Goals

In this session, makers will

• Deconstruct a small household device to see how it works and then repurpose its parts.
• Build a vibrating art bot that makes drawings.
• Investigate physical properties of motion, exploring how attaching different weights to a motor shaft changes the way a bot moves and draws.

✓ Getting Ready

For this session, makers will take apart an electric toothbrush or another small motorized device and give it a new purpose—reusing the electrical components to make an art-making bot.

To prepare for the session, it is important to try building a bot first. By trying it yourself, you can make sure that the materials you choose will work well for the activity.

Materials

• A small toy or household device that contains a circuit with a motor, battery power, and a switch (such as a disposable electric toothbrush, a mini-handheld electric fan, or a toy car)
• A plastic cup or bowl
• Drawing tools, such as markers, crayons, or chalk (avoid permanent markers)
• Fasteners (such as masking or electrical tape, double-sided foam tape, pipe cleaners, or rubber bands)
• Cork or old eraser
• Art supplies such as googly eyes or pipe cleaners
• Wires or copper tape and a wire cutter/stripper
• Butcher paper or large sheets of art paper
• Tools for deconstructing machines safely, such as pliers, screwdrivers, scissors, and safety goggles

Space and Tools Setup

You will need a lot of room on work tables for building the art-making bots. You will also need a wide space on a table or the floor to test your art creations. Keep in mind that your bots’ drawings will be more interesting if there are obstacles or walls that they can bump into, causing them to change direction. Cover the space with a few layers of butcher or art paper. If you are going to use markers, make sure the ink doesn’t bleed through the paper onto your floor or table.

Opening

For this session, makers will need to lean on each other for brainstorming, collaboration, experimentation, and remixing. You could set the tone for teamwork by opening this session with a classic Clubhouse group brainstorm known as a LEGO Doodle. The process of LEGO Doodling encourages makers to tinker, remix, experiment together, and dive in with a spirit of playful inquiry and collaboration.

LEGO Doodle

Introduce the activity by asking whether any of the makers ever doodle on paper. Then, explain that in this activity, everyone will try doodling using LEGO.

1. Invite everyone to sit in a circle around a table, and dump a big, messy pile of LEGO blocks (or other materials) in the center, so that everyone can reach the pile.
2. Ask the makers to pick up a few LEGO pieces that attract their attention. Tell them not to worry about what they are building. They can just fit the pieces together however they would like.
3. After a timed period, such as one minute, prompt the makers to pass their LEGO Doodle creation to the person to their right in the circle. That person then will add several more pieces to the object.
4. Repeat the process all the way around the circle. Return each creation back to the original Doodler.
5. Invite everyone to look at their object to see if a title comes to mind. Ask them to share their title with the group.
6. Reflect on how the Doodle experience made them feel as creators, which aspects made them feel motivated, and which made them feel challenged or “stuck.” How did working at a fast pace, receiving a Doodle from their neighbor, or seeing their original creation evolve help or interfere with their creative process?

Demoing

Make a few demo art-making bots of your own first, and have some examples ready to show. It’s good to show what the electronic device looked like originally, so your makers can compare before and after versions.

You can also show the makers different kinds of drawings created by your bots. Ask questions, such as these:

• What parts can you identify on the art-making bot that came from the original device?
• Which of these bots do you think made the most interesting pattern?

Building a First Project

This activity is inspired by the Scribbling Machines activity from the Exploratorium’s Tinkering Studio and the Art Bot activity on the Science Buddies website (see Additional Resources).

1. Open the device and find the circuit. Ask the makers to pair up or get in groups, and give each group a device and a set of tools for taking it apart (such as scissors, wire cutters, and pliers). Also provide them with safety goggles to use when taking the device apart.

   

2. Encourage them to take the devices apart carefully so that they avoid damaging the parts, because they will need to use them to build the bots.

1. Once the casings (usually plastic) are off, prompt makers to document in photos or sketches how the device is wired. They can lay out the parts on the table. You may want to suggest that they label the parts on the paper underneath, so they can remember the names of the parts and what they do.

1. Reconnect the circuit. Ask the makers to try to reconnect the circuit and make the motor spin once it is out of the casing.

Now makers are ready to design and build their art bots. You can help guide them through the following steps.

1. Gather materials.

   Gather and lay out the basic parts for an art bot: a body (such as a plastic cup), legs (markers or other drawing tools), and joints (fasteners).

2. Add the motor and battery.

   

   If you’re using a cup as the body for your bot, turn it over so the flat part is on top. Then fasten the circuit with the motor and a battery to the top.

   Tape or attach the power source (usually a battery or battery pack) to the bot’s body somewhere near the motor. Make sure connections are tight and parts are stable on the base. If the battery doesn’t have a holder, wrap a rubber band around the ends to keep the wires in place.

3. Add a wobble.

   

   

   If you want your bot to move around, you’ll need to throw its movements off center. Adding a weight to the rotating motor makes it vibrate, which will help it wobble or wiggle, and thus move in interesting patterns. The motor inside a disposable electric toothbrush already has some weight on the shaft that makes it vibrate. If your motor does not have additional weight, you can press a cork, eraser, popsicle stick, or glue stick onto the rotating shaft of the motor. You can also add leftover craft supplies (such as beads) onto your weight—an off-center weight swinging from the shaft will make the bot shake and hop even more.

4. Give your bot some legs to stand on.

   To add some legs, tape at least three markers around the rim of the cup, pointing down. You can also use crayons, chalk, pens, or dry erase markers.

5. Add an on/off switch.

   Check the wire connections of your battery to your motor. If you just tape these wires permanently to the battery, you won’t be able to turn off the motion. Stop and think about how to make a simple or triggered switch using parts left over from the original device.

   

   

6. Create a persona for the bot.

   Add some personality to your art-making bot by adding eyes, pipe cleaners, and bells. Set your creation loose to move around.

Taking It Further

Once the makers have successfully created their art-making bots, encourage them to bring all the bots to a common place, such as the community table or a bot “ring” on the floor, and get them to start drawing together. Step back and encourage the makers to observe the movements of the bots.

As everyone watches their bots together, ask questions such as these:

• How are the designs of the bots different? For example, do they differ in the placement of the motor, the materials used, and how parts are attached?
• How does the design of the bot affect the patterns it draws?
• What might you change to draw different kinds of patterns?

Generating Ideas

Explore how individual bots can interact to make collaborative designs. Prompt makers to create interactions between their bots to make more complex and interesting drawings together.

Open Make

During Open Make time, encourage makers to keep tinkering and refining their bots.

Here are a few suggestions you could make:

• Attach another motor and observe the new drawing patterns.
• Add more markers or other drawing instruments.
• Add a sensor to turn the motor on (such as a photoresistor or reed switch).
• Add other design features (such as making the bot look like a fictional character).

Sharing and Reflecting

Gather for a reflection circle. You can prompt makers to document what they learned in their journals.

Documenting and Displaying

Encourage makers to stop and document the steps along the way as they build each version of their bots. Invite them to take digital photos or to make sketches in their notebooks or journals.

Ask makers to take turns building the bot and capturing their progress with photos. Invite them to take notes about which changes worked or failed, and about which materials worked best. Later, they can use these in-process photos to tell a story of the “birth” of their art-making bot.

Makers can look at the artwork that the bots created and choose their favorite drawings to display.

Story from the Computer Network: Art Bot Fashion Show

Members from the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services Clubhouse in Sacramento, California, drew on their love of fashion to put together an “art bot” showcase with a fashion runway theme.

Clubhouse Coordinator Kelly Ann Adams and the other facilitators discovered that many of their makers were especially interested in fashion. So, during the open make time, they encouraged the makers to design a costume for their bots. The makers then tinkered with the bot movement so the bots could “walk” down a ramp covered in paper. They chose their favorite art-bot drawings and put them on display.

At their final showcase, the makers hosted a fashion show, where each art-making bot walked down the runway drawing unique patterns. The makers then showed their family and friends how their bots worked. The makers auctioned off the art-bot drawings as a fundraiser for future Start Making! activities.

Additional Resources

• Exploratorium’s Scribbling Machines: tinkering.exploratorium.edu/scribbling-machines
• Science Buddies—Art Bot: bit.ly/science-buddies-art-bot
• Switch Basics- Sparkfun: learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/switch-basics