Here’s what high school students said about their COVID social distancing robots. Analysis to come.
Boy 1
I think you talked a little bit about it in the research slide but could you say how you choose a particular design or maybe in a little more detail or say more about that?
The main reason I chose that design was because I thought it was kind of cool having a tracked vehicle. I also wanted to build a few different things like gearing it up on – which I knew I could do with tank tracks. Like I said it had to be able to move in different directions and rotating a place would be very helpful again tank tracks would have been great. That rotating turret component I don’t think it’s even necessary but I decided to challenge myself and it worked out great.
OK thank you and I did this make you think or feel about COVID any differently or get new insights into COVID?
I don’t think so.
OK and what was it like to do this project?
Unlike most of the school projects I found it pretty interesting and fun. For once, we actually got to use our creativity without too many like constraints to be able to do a school project. Yeah, I enjoyed it.
Boy 2
Could you talk a little bit about choosing to particular design you chose? Like what you were thinking?
I was just thinking in general like world what would be a nice robot or nice design that could help out and wouldn’t be too complex where I would get in the way but at the same time carry out its task. So, I just thought of the ideas of almost trying to make a tank at first. But I didn’t know I was going to carry it out so I just stuck with the widebody kit. It was very minimalized so it was low to the ground but still effective.
All right. Did this make you think about COVID any differently? How you think or feel about COVID?
It just really made me think of a social distancing and how important it is to social distance. Other than that, like this robot isn’t a solution or isn’t a cure for the actual virus and it can just ease the situation at hand.
What was it like to do this project?
It was very interesting because I didn’t have like a certain design that I had to create and it’s like I could virtually make anything like that’s where my creative side comes in and I can take whatever is inside the kit that was given to us and create a robot and is very cool because I am a hands on person. So, I like working on what is directly what’s in front of me instead of like working on a computer, let’s say.
Boy 3
How did you think of the idea for this robot that you made?
It’s pretty similar to the wearable one that I found in my research but when I was doing my research, I saw a lot of different ideas. I saw some that were wristbands that could detect other people wearing wrist bands near you. I saw there could be some that could be like on your chest but then I did see in my research one that clicked onto the bell and I thought that would be very easy because with the brick you can easily just clip it onto your belt and it’s pretty out-of-the-way while you’re trying to do work.
Did this make you think about COVID in a different way?
Yeah, I think it did I think it’s sort of taught me that engineering is pertinent in every aspect of life – especially COVID – because you need engineers to… Say you’re doing research: you’re trying to find a vaccine, you’re trying to figure out what will prevent it from spreading, and you need to use engineering to find solutions to those problems.
Yeah well, it’s really interesting. One last question – what was it like to work on this project?
I think was pretty fun specially because it’s a very unique project especially since ran such like a unique time right now and I like how the project was sort of catered to what’s happening in the real world right now.
Boy 4
Pick one of your designs – and I know you did three different ones, right? Or two or three different ones. Yeah, why did you pick the wearable one? What were you thinking when you tried that one?
I was thinking of kind of just like a belt at first but that wasn’t strong enough so I kind of thought the idea is more of a harness because I’ve seen people wearing go pros as kind of on a harness so I took some inspiration from that. And I decided to put the EV3 brick on the back and the sensor on the front so it’s almost like a little backpack thing.
Did this make you think about COVID or think or feel about COVID any differently doing this project?
No, it mainly helped me think more about how to help people not get it and stay safe.
What was it like to do this project?
It was it was definitely fun. It’s more fun than writing an essay or something. We got to physically do it and see the end product.
