5 Fun Activities To Earn the Daisy What Robots Do Badge

May 19, 2018

Time to read 5 min

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Have your girls ever been interested in robot development? If your looking for ideas to learn how to create and design, make robots move, and learn about the life of a robot with your girls, you have come to the right place. Using some of these activities below to teach your girls what robots do. Below are a few ideas to get you started.

We partnered with CodeSpeak Labs, which specializes in computer science education for kids, to bring you these resources.

Life Of Robot Activity Booklet

Before jumping into some ideas, do you want to skip all the planning? If so, use this Activity Booklet with interactive exercises that teach girls what robots are and how they work. These activities include a comic read aloud story, learning a robot sing-a-long, and designing a robot. With step-by-step activities, you can’t ask for a easier way to run your meeting. Learn more and get yours today!

Be sure to also checkout these other activities your girls will love:

Watch a Video of Robotic Pets

Watch this video of the cutest robots being used today. Not only are they adorable, but they help comfort elderly patients with dementia.

There are robotic cats, dogs, and even baby seals!

After watching this 4 minute video, your group can discuss:

Why do you think robotic pets are helpful to patients?
Why do you think some families of patients are reluctant to have their loved ones use the robotics pets?
Would you want a robotic pet? Why or why not?

Learn about a pioneering female engineer

A wonderful way to get girls thinking about what they can do with robotics and engineering is to introduce them to iconic female pioneers in the field.

Grace Hopper– also known as “Amazing Grace”– was one of the first computer programmers. She lived from 1906-1992. You can read more about her here.

There’s also an illustrated Children’s Book about Grace called Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code. The book includes a memorable anecdote about how Grace and her team discovered the world’s first computer “bug”– an actual moth that was stuck in the computer! We now call mistakes in our computer code “bugs”.

Code a basic robot

Code-a-Pillar is probably the simplest programmable robot on the market today. It works by assembling and disassembling the segments of the caterpillar, each of which has a specific command. By constructing it in the correct formation, the girls can make the Code-a-Pillar reach targets or simply do a musical tour around the house. It’s loud and flashy, and seems like something that would come out of the Disneyland Electrical Parade.

If your troop has mostly 5 year olds, they’ll get a kick out of it. You can order it for $35. If your troop is a bit older, I recommend you keep reading and check out Robot Mouse below.

Help Robot Mouse get to the cheese

Robot Mouse is one of our favorite coding toys for young kids.

Using Robot Mouse, students program instructions using the buttons on Robot Mouse’s back.

What we like:

It’s a great way for young kids to learn coding concepts without screen time.
The mouse actually moves! Sometimes Robot Turtles and other board games aren’t as exciting to students because they don’t move.
It comes with a set of tiles you can configure into mazes of increasing difficulty.
There aren’t too many small pieces. The most critical part (the robot) is big and easy for small hands to manipulate.
It’s not too expensive (<$40 on Amazon).

The main con is that they’re not that durable. Sometimes after repeated use, the robot will stop turning correctly or move at an angle– and even a slight error has an impact on the experience because the kids are programming the mice very precisely to complete the maze.

Your girls will love “pranking” people by programming the mouse to sneak up on people!

If you don’t want to spend the money to buy equipment or plan meeting, our Activity Booklet has step-by-step instructions with activities that don’t require any technology.

What do we do after your girls complete the activities?

Well of course give them the badge to display proudly on their vest, they earned it! You could also do a fun patch. Here is a real cute one:

Get Your Robotics Fun Patch Now

Additionally If you are like many leaders we want to award our girls when they complete something even beyond just the patch. One great way to show achievement is with a certificate. Don’t worry you don’t have to make them, I found a resource that has done all the work for you and all you have to do is print them and customize the certificates with each girl’s name, badge or award earned, date, and troop leader. Editable certificates perfect for awarding girls after earning a badge.

Related Activities For Multi-level Troops

If you have a multi-level troop you may want to use one of the variations to this program that is geared toward the age of your girls.

2nd – 3rd grade activities:

4th – 5th grade activities:

6th – 8th grade activities:

9th – 10th grade activities:

11th – 12th grade activities

Garden Fairy Adventure Kit

A family of 10 garden fairies are on a mission to teach your girls good values to live by. Your girls will go on a garden adventure helping their fairy friends plant their flowers, water their gardens, and learn how to put their values into action one activity at a time. Everything is planned for you, just gather the supplies and enjoy running your meeting. Learn more and get yours today.

Garden Fairy Fun Patches

You are going to love these cute adorable fun patches to put on the back of your girl’s vest. I partnered with a amazing company Advantage Emblems and they are producing and shipping the patches. You can buy them individually or as a complete set.