Figure It Out: Build Your Own Robot Hand

 

Brooklyn Library invites you to Make your own Robot Hand and receive a Figure it Out sticker for your Book Your Brooklyn summer gameboard with this fun activity. Try this at home or look in our BPL events calendar for a local branch hosting this fun activity! You can learn all about Summer@BPL on our website. 

CRAFT MATERIALS NEEDED: 

One piece of cardstock paper, a pencil, scissors, string or twine, tape and straws.

How to:

• Trace a hand and wrist onto the piece of cardstock. (The bigger the hand you trace the better, so ask a caregiver to lend you theirs!)
• Carefully cut out the hand outline with scissors.

• Ask your hand model to place their hand back onto the paper hand.  Mark in pencil the areas where their finger's bend. These are the joints.  (see video!)

• Then fold and unfold the paper along the marks you make.

• Next you'll cut five small straws, five medium straws, five long straws, and two very long straws.

• Now, grab some tape or glue and stick the straws so that they fit between the folds.

• The small straws should be stuck to the hand’s fingertip area, the medium straws should be stuck to the base of each finger, and the long straws should be stuck to the palm.

•  Finally, stick your two very long straws to the hand’s wrist. Make sure you leave a gap between the straws as you tape or glue them.

• Next cut 5 pieces of twine.

• Grab one and run it through the straw sections of one finger, through the palm, and down the wrist. Note that, at the wrist, you’ll need to thread 3 pieces of string through one straw and two through the other.

• Knot the end of the yarn at the fingertip, and repeat for all five fingers. Grab one and run it through the straw sections of one finger, through the palm, and down the wrist.

• Note that, at the wrist, you’ll have to thread three pieces of string through one straw and two through the other. Knot the end of the yarn at the fingertip, and repeat for all five fingers. Pull the strings to make your robotic hand move!

Explore Robotics at Stone Avenue Library and Cortelyou Library this summer!

Read these fun books about robots, too! You can place a hold on these items and have them sent to your closest branch!

Maya and the Robot is an illustrated middle grade novel about a forgotten homemade robot who comes to life just when aspiring fifth grade scientist Maya needs a friend -- and a science fair project.

Bots and Bods is an illustrated guide for kids looking to explore anatomy and technology and how they're related. How do we both move or sense the world?