Each student team will design and build an autonomous “Beaver Bot” robot to knock down 12 (popsicle sticks) trees and transport these sticks to either the river or pond areas of the 4’ by 8’ plywood play field.
A circuitous black line path (electrical tape) is provided on the play field to assist the Beaver Bot in finding the 12 trees, the river, and the pond. Each tree is held nearly upright by 3D-printed tree bases (or stumps). The robot must adhere to the rules of the model design competition which includes an exhibition session.
The objective of this competition is for students to experientially appreciate the challenges in every step of the engineering design process from start to finish. Designing and building something from an idea is probably why they chose engineering in the first place. Use this design competition as a platform to reinforce valuable classroom principles and have some engineering fun along the way!
For those interested in: Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology, New Members, and Pre-College