Summary
Part of Design Squad's NASA-inspired “Mission: Solar System” challenges: build a robotic arm to grab objects in this NASA challenge. Kids use the engineering design process and see how a robotic arm is engineered to grab and move things.
Viewer safety
All ages
Our rating is a quick teacher-to-teacher guide — preview before showing.
Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk it over after the build:
- What problem or goal was this build trying to solve?
- What materials and shapes made it work — how a robotic arm is engineered to grab and move things?
- If you built it again, what one change would make it work even better, and why?
Quick work-a-long
Words to know: design process, prototype, constraint, test.
Try it:
- Sketch your own version of this build before you start.
- Build it, test it once, then change one thing to improve it — and test again.