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Looking to build a drawing robot with my 9yo daughter for a science fair. How and where do I get started? (programming.dev)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Thinking of a robot which can draw basic shapes upon command. Ideally, a voice command, but if that's too complex, we can start off with a different type of command. I'm a python programmer, but have zero experience with adruino and the like. Please give me some advice to help me get started.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Is the science fair looking for DIY projects or experiments? If experiments, as I suspect most science fairs are, what is the experiment? What is the hypothesis?

Next, let me tell you a little story about my buddy taking his Significant Other on a camping trip. He was experienced and all about it, SO grew up in a city with no yard and thinks the outdoors is unnecessary. Cue a backcountry trip with rain, raccoons getting into the food, colder temps than expected, and SO will now never give Buddy's favorite hobby another shot. It is ruined for SO forever. If you are trying to get a young person interested in STEM stuff, don't be like Buddy. Introduce them via a light-duty, fun, heavily vetted project you know you can be successful at. Doubly so when there is a deadline for success imposed by the science fair.

There are companies online that sell Line Follower Robot kits. If building a LF robot meets the intent of the science fair, consider one of those kits instead of attempting to design it from scratch.

kiddo is introduced to age-appropriate skills and concepts
everybody knows an adult helped her, she's getting no boost from a complex self-invented thing that she obviously didn't do herself