In the Classroom: Robot Fashion Show

I’m a robotics teacher from International School Manila, Philippines. We are a K-12 school that has students from many different countries. We used Makedo in my Maker Robotics class. My high school students paired up to design an illuminated cardboard robot costume that would be worn by a Grade 1 teacher in a robot fashion show.

I wanted the students to get experience with design, circuit construction, and programming. I was looking for a method of exploring wearable technology with a material that could be easily worked with and worn. Cardboard proved easier than textiles due to rigidity.

The high school students interviewed the Grade 1 students to get ideas about how they thought their teacher's robot costumes would look. The basic structure of the costume was my own design, which allowed the students to focus on the wiring, programming, and aesthetics of the costume. My students got ideas from Grade 1 students, brainstormed more ideas, and drew sketches of their plan. After getting feedback from myself and peers, they painted and wired the robot costumes. Then they tested them out and accessorised. 

The project went for about 3 weeks. My students seemed to really enjoy this unit. They loved getting to see the excitement from the first graders during the fashion show, and they also liked working with the Grade 1 teachers.

Costume construction is super easy with Makedo. Now that I have done this for a couple of years, I have become much better at understanding how best to build with Makedo and how best to employ the electronics. I would love to do future competitions with cardboard robot building with a robotics club. I have a lot of freedom with our robots curriculum and am currently building my own curriculum for Maker class.

- Ringo Dingrando