As Halloween is approaching we thought a spider themed drawing robot would be fun to make. These are great fun to design and build and very satisfying to watch as they draw circles all over a page. The movement of can be unpredictable so an interesting extension challenge is to work out why the movement changes. Is it because the position of the pens changes the movement of the battery or motor?
How to make a drawing robot
You can find full instructions and links to the products you need in our how to make a scribble post post.
I used a small Pringles tub to make our spider with googly eyes and silver pipe cleaners for legs. A hot glue gun was very handy for sticking the legs and pens to the Pringles tub too.
If you don’t have a cork you could attach a peg to the motor or anything else solid that will spin around.
More Drawing Robot Investigation Ideas
Experiment with the pens higher and lower to work out how this changes the drawing.
Use a larger container.
Place extra weight onto the top of the container.
Attach a trailing pen behind or to the side of your scribble bot.
Add a switch or buzzer to your circuit.
If you don’t have the materials to make a circuit a Hexbug attached to the top of a paper cup with blu-tack also works brilliantly! We once had hundreds of these spinning around the kitchen floor.
If you enjoyed this activity I’ve got lots more easy Halloween science and even some Halloween STEM activities to try. Make fake blood, creepy slime, a spooky noise maker and lots more.
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Last Updated on September 12, 2020 by Emma Vanstone
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