Kids, Robots and Computers

My son is in the fourth grade and his science class just finished a unit
on robots. Now I think I have a future NASA scientist on my hands. He
keeps showing me drawings of robots he wants to invent to help him with
his chores. Any ideas to encourage his interest without spending too

Jeff...

Perhaps you havea future house-keeper on your hands.

much money on a gimmicky children's toy that will break in three months
anyways?

Jeff...

Legos has some cool robot stuff. Expensive, around two fifty.

If you search robots on web-search (or another search engine), you will find
some stores that have lots of kits, like this one:

There are others, I think.

Jeff

toto...

Get this book for him
Robot Builder's Bonanza (Tab Electronics) by Gordon McComb

or this one if he's too young for the above
Robot Building for Beginners by David Cook

You may want to dl and play around with Logo

Here's a free dl

Chris...

My 11 year old received the new Lego Mindstorms robot set and program
for Christmas. It has been a big hit with him. I like it because it
requires very little parental involvement. The basic designs are very
well documented and seem to provide the building blocks for branching
out and programming your own sequences. The robot has several sensors
(touch, sound, light) that you can set to react in different ways. It
was expensive, a couple hundred bucks, but seems like a good buy so
far.

Ericka Kammerer...

Does his school or one of he local schools have
a robotics club? That's probably the best opportunity.
There seem to be a bunch around here.

Best wishes,
Ericka