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Inspired by this, I led a group of 5th graders and high school students through a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich robot" exercise. I had a blast and so did t
by csours 8y ago
Inspired by this, I led a group of 5th graders and high school students through a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich robot" exercise.
I had a blast and so did the kids.
We had them list some steps to make a pb&j sandwich, and then I, as the robot acted the steps out as literally as possible.
When they said "gather materials", I went around the room and picked up erasers, markers, water bottles; whatever I could find.
When they said "put the knife in the peanut butter" I stabbed the (plastic) knife through the cardboard seal.
When they said "put the peanut butter on the bread", I put the jar of peanut butter on a slice of bread.
After all of that we showed a video of an industrial robot applying sealant, just like we spread the peanut butter and jelly.
At the end we asked how we could have done it better, and one of the kids said "Get a smarter robot"
I'd highly recommend doing something like this for a STEM day, or just for fun.
- askvictor 8y agoSounds awesome, but they let you have peanut butter in schools? In Australia nuts are banned in primary schools due to nut allergies.
- dronescanfly 8y agoI guess there are people who have sunlight allergies. Wanna ban sunlight in australian schools?
- maemre 8y agoWell, peanut allergy is lethal and can be triggered by even inhalation of peanut dust in more severe cases. Sensitivity to sunlight is way more manageable (by applying sunscreen and covering the skin) and although kids share food and/or eat them in the same environment I don't think they're carrying UV lights to apply to other kids.
- oeuviz 8y agoNeither are they carrying peanut butter to apply to other kids.
- zaarn 8y agoThere is plenty of other potentially lethal allergies that can be just as severe, singling out peanuts is overkill as I mentioned in a sibling thread. (Soy, milk, wheat, gluten. Especially wheat allergy can cause reactions just as severe as the stereotypical peanut allergy) edit: Note that an allergy to sunlight exposure (which is a thing) is not simply treated with sun cream
- rypskar 8y ago>Soy, milk, wheat, gluten Can they trigger reaction by simply having it in the room? I can get an allergic reaction from having peanuts in the same room as I'm in, in the same way as a reaction from pollen or from animals. So wonder if other food based allergy can have the same effect on others
- zaarn 8y agoFor wheat, sure. Soy less sure, gluten and milk only on consumption.
- zaarn 8y agoSounds a bit overkill tbh. Atleast in my school the guys above simply decreed that if someone had an allergy, everyone should be mindful of it (of course, one bully tried but after he got charged for attempted murder on the aftermath nobody else dared). That counted for allergies other than peanuts too which can be just as severe.
- csours 8y agoI had a serious discussion with my colleague about this, which led to talking about engineering and regulatory constraints - Marketing Analyst: We need to offer a peanut butter and jelly sandwich product on the market. Compliance Analyst: We can't sell peanut butter in these markets, we need to use tahini instead. Automation Engineer: Ok, we were able to make the robot work with mayonnaise and honey, all the other ingredients aren't working. Can we sell a mayonnaise and honey sandwich?
- ygra 8y agoI've seen this video a while ago, where a father does this with his kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDA3_5982h8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDA3_5982h8 Lots of frustration about the stupid robot and I guess your school kids weren't much different.
- watersb 8y agoWe did something like this in 8th grade, 30 years ago: write instructions for tying a shoelace.