STEAM Fair 2020 Activity
Thanks to Chesapeake Family Life
Use engineering techniques to make fingers move.
What you need:
- Tape
- Scissors
- Cardstock paper
- Standard drinking straws
- Pearl drink straws or bigger diameter straws
- Yarn or twine
Video:
How to make a robotic hand
- Trace Hand
Trace your hand on the cardstock paper.
- Cut out hand tracing
Cut the traced hand out (cutting it a little bigger than the actual tracing).
- Mark Joints
Mark your finger joints on the cutout.
- Draw lines on joints
Draw straight or curved line across joints.
- Fold the fingers
Fold the fingers inward at the lines.
- Make finger bones with straws pieces
Cut smaller straws to the size of the finger bones in your hand (4 pieces for each digit – leave a little gap between the lines to facilitate in threading the yarn).
- Attach straw pieces to hand
Tape straw pieces to the hand.
- Thread yarn through straw pieces
Thread yarn through the straw pieces. Each finger will have a length of yarn of its own. Thread all five pieces of yarn through the bigger straw.
- Make the fingers move
Pull on each string to make individual fingers work.
How does it work?
The tension from the string will pull the fingers up.
Observe:
Can you move multiple fingers at the same time?
