DIY Robot Hand and Robotic E-Book Reads List

The world of robotics is fun, exciting, and complicated.  To see one part of designing a robot, we will create a robot hand using straws and yarn that moves and bends!

First, let's take a look at a couple of real robotic hands:

As you can see, the hand mirrors our hand!  There are joints with space between the joints to allow the fingers to bend.

The supplies for this project are:  Piece of cardstock paper or thin cardboard, straws, yarn (five different colors, if possible), scissors, tape (or glue gun), pencil, and large needle (if possible).

Here are the steps:

Trace your hand (or an adult's hand) onto cardstock paper.  Include part of your arm.  Cut out the hand, cutting a little bigger than the actual size.
Place your hand back on the paper hand and mark where your joints are.  Draw the joint across the finger.  Fold the paper inward at the marked joints.
Cut small pieces of straw for each joint.  Cut the straw smaller than the actual joint so it will be able to bend later.  Cut some straws to place in the palm of the hand.  Tape (or use a glue gun by an adult) the straws in place with some space above and below the joint line.  Add a large-sized straw (if possible) below the five palm straws.
Thread the large needle with one color of yarn that is 2 feet long.  Thread the yarn through the joints of one finger, the corresponding straw on the palm, and the large straw below the palm straws.  Tape, glue, or make a big knot at the finger tip so the yarn will stay in place.  Use a different color of yarn if possible for each finger and thread through the appropriate straws.  The straw below the palm straws will have all the yarn pieces threaded through it.
Test your creation!  Pull on one string at a time, or several.  Do the fingers grip like real fingers?  Excellent!  You made a robot hand!

To explore further about robots or to read an e-book with a robot in it, look at these books!

Robotic E-Book Reads @SCCLD Kids

List created by SCCLD LIBRARIANS FOR KIDS

Are you interested in robots? This is the list for you! Enjoy these factual robot e-books and e-book stories with robots! The non-fiction books are listed first.


























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