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Build it Yourself
Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future with 25 Projects
This fun and educational introduction to the exciting field of robotics--the science of designing, building, and operating robots--gives kids the basic tools for creating their own robots using ordinary craft materials and parts salvaged from recycled toys and other household devices. Budding roboticists will learn how to create working models of robot hands and write "pencil and paper" computer programs, and build robots that move and react to light or touch. A great gateway to getting kids interested in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math), the activities in this book encourage kids to use their talents to come up with creative solutions to tricky problems and figure out how things work.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
57 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Kathy Ceceri
18 books15 followersKathy Ceceri is the author of STEAM books for kids and families including "Making Simple Robots," "Musical Inventions," and "Paper Inventions" from the publishers of Make magazine, and "BOTS" and "Video Games: Design and Code Your Own Adventure" from Nomad Press. Online, she was the Homeschooling Expert for Thoughtco, a founding editor of GeekMom.com, and a top writer for Wired's GeekDad blog. When she's not busy writing, Kathy presents hands-on workshops for students and educators.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 25, 2015
I paired Robotics with The Winter of the Robots by Kurtis Scaletta, ISBN 978-0307931863.
I chose these books as twin texts because my non-fiction book Robotics covers historical and technological aspects of robotics, and gives readers hands on projects to create themselves. I felt that The Winter of the Robots matched well because it highlights 2 boys that do build their own robots, in order to defend against self aware robots that are bent on taking over.
This fiction book allows readers to use their imaginations in picturing what they could achieve with the projects that they have seen in the non-fiction book. I think that this pairing does a good job of allowing the readers to put themselves in the place of the fiction characters, and gives them some technological knowledge from the nonfiction reading to really envision what the characters are doing and thinking.
I chose these books as twin texts because my non-fiction book Robotics covers historical and technological aspects of robotics, and gives readers hands on projects to create themselves. I felt that The Winter of the Robots matched well because it highlights 2 boys that do build their own robots, in order to defend against self aware robots that are bent on taking over.
This fiction book allows readers to use their imaginations in picturing what they could achieve with the projects that they have seen in the non-fiction book. I think that this pairing does a good job of allowing the readers to put themselves in the place of the fiction characters, and gives them some technological knowledge from the nonfiction reading to really envision what the characters are doing and thinking.
February 1, 2019
School project
It was perfect for the robotics school project I had it talks about how to build one and facts about all the new ones
It was perfect for the robotics school project I had it talks about how to build one and facts about all the new ones
April 19, 2020
This is a very informational book all about robotics. It includes everything from history if robotics to diy robot crafts! This would probably be most relevant to upper elementary, but would probably be good for any student with a particular interest in robots! I would use this in a classroom with students as an independent choice read, so students interested in this topic could pursue it further!
February 11, 2021
As far as having a book that guides you in some easy do it yourself experiments on a single topic, this is one of the best ones we've used so far and is was a nice level for my jr hi student.
Some of our experiments didn't go so well because we are not 'precise' in following the directions. ;) That in itself was a good lesson as well.
Overall, 4.5.
Looking forward to other books in this series.
Some of our experiments didn't go so well because we are not 'precise' in following the directions. ;) That in itself was a good lesson as well.
Overall, 4.5.
Looking forward to other books in this series.
January 3, 2021
This book was part of my middle schooler's homeschool curriculum. Engaging information, but some of the experiments were duds. Instructions are pretty sparse. If you are looking for an introduction to robotics and cherry pick some experiments, it's great.
August 18, 2021
My kids loved this book! First Science unit for 8th & 6th grade. The projects were a ton of fun and my kids were sad when we finished because they wanted to keep going! Great addition to homeschool science.
December 7, 2023
Curiously enough, I have a habit of getting to books like these when I'm too old for them-- I've had it for years, but it's too late now...
October 27, 2012
My firstborn son is your classic engineer dork, and he was born that way. He didn't make much eye contact with people when he was a toddler. He could be counted on to completely fail to notice when anyone except me was trying to get his attention. He never really talked to people or played pretend. As a small child he did not require human interaction. He spent hours alone building things. Sometimes if I was really lucky he pointed out to me interesting gears, and he often slammed books about mechanical things into my knees until I read them for the five hundredth time. Never, ever, ever, did he respond to a friendly "hello", notice when a new person entered a room, or otherwise appear to be a member of society.
When he was five, his older cousin got a robot for Christmas and drove it into the living room with a remote control. For the first time ever, my nearly non-verbal son 1) noticed someone new was in the room, 2) made eye contact, 3) approached the person respectfully, not too close or too far. Then he said (still making eye contact!) "Hello, Mister Robot. I'm [Name]. How are you today?" and... you would never believe it if you knew him... waited for the robot to respond! My baby DID know how to make conversation! He WAS capable of interaction! I then burst into tears. And, of course, my son didn't notice my emotions.
My heart broke for him even as my boy made his bent so clear to me. I vowed to do everything I could to help my son make for himself that robot companion that was clearly his only hope for ever having a friend. Together he and I would create a world of androids to warm every Aspergian's heart.
In the five years after that episode, either my son or I have read every single book on robotics accessible to young people in the U.S. No, I don't think I am actually exaggerating. We are aggressive pursuers of books and fanatic followers of our interests. We have read ALL the robot books. They fall into three main categories: silly stories about robots doing things they can't do; technical manuals that you need to have higher maths or a neurological disorder to follow; dry non-fiction with flashy pictures that do a poor job compensating for a lack of depth in the content. Being unable to shell out the $750 for both a Lego robotics kit AND a Lego robotics class, we had pretty much given up on the idea of doing anything for robotics at home, besides studying electronics and math and programming and construction all separately. Both the boy and I were counting the days till I could dump him on the steps of CUNY's mechatronics lab. (One thousand, eight hundred and thirty five if they'll take him for early admission.)
Enter Kathy Ceceri's Robotics. Whoa... I am as blown away as I was that Christmas day my son had his first appropriate conversation with anyone. Somebody finally did it! She wrote a book that starts with very simple, basic ideas, explains them, THEN doesn't stop there but explains the next thing you need to understand, and then even doesn't stop there yet but goes on to make clear, using your slowly developed new knowledge, how the complicated, really serious robotics actually works. In detail.
This is the best book on robotics for kids ever. It is also a fabulous example of how to do a book on a very technical subject for children (or non-engineer-ish parents).
The projects are all genius! I have super high standards for science projects. I do not want to make a chemical reaction inside paper mache and call it earth science; that's chemistry, not a freakin' volcano. My son too, having already made many a silly pretend robot out of recyclables, no longer has any interest in busywork. He will only do projects that help him think about robotics. This book was full of them. Every last project was instructive or thought-provoking.
No where does she skim a fact or concept and cover that up by providing a dinky, funny craft or a big glossy photo. She covers them all in such a slow gradient, on a step-by-step, idea-by-idea basis, that I am unafraid to read this book to my younger, non-Aspergian children. My first grader will not be frustrated. He will get it.
Every school and every library should have this book. It's the only good one on the topic. But it's good enough for a shelf of books. Really, really, buy this book. You will use it. Your kid will love it. You will look at it on the shelf and swell with satisfaction from the simple knowledge that SOMEONE knows how to write engineering for kids.
When he was five, his older cousin got a robot for Christmas and drove it into the living room with a remote control. For the first time ever, my nearly non-verbal son 1) noticed someone new was in the room, 2) made eye contact, 3) approached the person respectfully, not too close or too far. Then he said (still making eye contact!) "Hello, Mister Robot. I'm [Name]. How are you today?" and... you would never believe it if you knew him... waited for the robot to respond! My baby DID know how to make conversation! He WAS capable of interaction! I then burst into tears. And, of course, my son didn't notice my emotions.
My heart broke for him even as my boy made his bent so clear to me. I vowed to do everything I could to help my son make for himself that robot companion that was clearly his only hope for ever having a friend. Together he and I would create a world of androids to warm every Aspergian's heart.
In the five years after that episode, either my son or I have read every single book on robotics accessible to young people in the U.S. No, I don't think I am actually exaggerating. We are aggressive pursuers of books and fanatic followers of our interests. We have read ALL the robot books. They fall into three main categories: silly stories about robots doing things they can't do; technical manuals that you need to have higher maths or a neurological disorder to follow; dry non-fiction with flashy pictures that do a poor job compensating for a lack of depth in the content. Being unable to shell out the $750 for both a Lego robotics kit AND a Lego robotics class, we had pretty much given up on the idea of doing anything for robotics at home, besides studying electronics and math and programming and construction all separately. Both the boy and I were counting the days till I could dump him on the steps of CUNY's mechatronics lab. (One thousand, eight hundred and thirty five if they'll take him for early admission.)
Enter Kathy Ceceri's Robotics. Whoa... I am as blown away as I was that Christmas day my son had his first appropriate conversation with anyone. Somebody finally did it! She wrote a book that starts with very simple, basic ideas, explains them, THEN doesn't stop there but explains the next thing you need to understand, and then even doesn't stop there yet but goes on to make clear, using your slowly developed new knowledge, how the complicated, really serious robotics actually works. In detail.
This is the best book on robotics for kids ever. It is also a fabulous example of how to do a book on a very technical subject for children (or non-engineer-ish parents).
The projects are all genius! I have super high standards for science projects. I do not want to make a chemical reaction inside paper mache and call it earth science; that's chemistry, not a freakin' volcano. My son too, having already made many a silly pretend robot out of recyclables, no longer has any interest in busywork. He will only do projects that help him think about robotics. This book was full of them. Every last project was instructive or thought-provoking.
No where does she skim a fact or concept and cover that up by providing a dinky, funny craft or a big glossy photo. She covers them all in such a slow gradient, on a step-by-step, idea-by-idea basis, that I am unafraid to read this book to my younger, non-Aspergian children. My first grader will not be frustrated. He will get it.
Every school and every library should have this book. It's the only good one on the topic. But it's good enough for a shelf of books. Really, really, buy this book. You will use it. Your kid will love it. You will look at it on the shelf and swell with satisfaction from the simple knowledge that SOMEONE knows how to write engineering for kids.
February 1, 2017
The book Robotics is perhaps the worst example of an experiment book I have ever read. Whereas these books normally have no text or interesting, applicable text between each experiment, the text in this book is only relevant to the topic. The text has many, many tangents where they go off on unrelated ramblings where they discuss small competitions, and they attempted to remedy this by adding bubbles. However, the bubbles are placed in an extremely unappealing manner, where it causes the book to become extremely clustered and hard to read. With that and the monochromatic color scheme, the book is a complete slog to read. The experiments, although doable, are paced in a way where you must read large amounts of background information to get to three experiments, instead of the normal smaller amounts for one. These experiments once again have no color and have formatting so atrocious that I must imagine they borrowed their toddler to aid them. If anything, the experiments somewhat help the book, but can be difficult to do when you need motors and solar panels, and 'steps' seem to have ridiculous amounts of steps placed inside of them. The book claims to be for 8-12 year olds, but I would recommend the book for (if at all) to young students ages 6-10, as the text and experiments are so dumbed down most middle schoolers would be groaning through this. If you have an elementary schooler who must know about robots they could read this book, but I simply wish it taught me how to make a robotic shredder.
review by Charles M., age 12, Richmond Youth Mensa
review by Charles M., age 12, Richmond Youth Mensa
September 19, 2015
I wish this book had been around when I was nine! (of course, this book couldn't have been written when I was nine…)
What a wonderful book for the elementary school child! What a wonderful way to learn about robots, both through reading and hands-on projects. The projects are really great. They are all low cost and mainly use materials you have around the house. Sugar, straws, balloons, tape, etc. Yet they manage to capture the essence and magic of robotics in a delightful fashion. The more advanced child will, by the end of the book, be downloading the free programming tools and writing some fun code. Tho', to be honest, programming with those tools is accessible to any child that finds this book as fascinating as I did.
Now if only I had some grandchildren...
What a wonderful book for the elementary school child! What a wonderful way to learn about robots, both through reading and hands-on projects. The projects are really great. They are all low cost and mainly use materials you have around the house. Sugar, straws, balloons, tape, etc. Yet they manage to capture the essence and magic of robotics in a delightful fashion. The more advanced child will, by the end of the book, be downloading the free programming tools and writing some fun code. Tho', to be honest, programming with those tools is accessible to any child that finds this book as fascinating as I did.
Now if only I had some grandchildren...
April 22, 2013
Our world is becoming more and more focused on technology and the advances we have been making in the field. This book would be wonderful for introducing the big parts of engineering, robotics. It includes projects for students to try and could be used for hands on lesson about how robotics can be used in our world.
August 4, 2014
This is a great book for a parent that wants to teach their child about technology/ basic robotic principles OR for the adult who always wanted to go to M.I.T , loves robots & technology but was horrible at math! A great little intro into robotics with fun projects to work on.
Read
May 3, 2017Bought as gift . It was a hit.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews