Terrapin Resources

Blue-Bot Delivery Service

At Bennett Day School in Chicago, Blue-Bots are making deliveries around the small town constructed by students.

Frances Judd, Early Childhood Teacher in the school’s Tinkering and Engineering Sciences Lab (TESLab) shared her stories and pictures of this engaging tabletop robotics activity.

The students worked with blocks, upcycled boxes, and art materials to create a small town with buildings, numerical address plates, faux food, and more.

The students created imaginary orders, then programmed Blue-Bot to pick them up at the bakery or other building, and deliver them to the correct street address.

The cart pulled by Blue-Bot is a standard rolling LEGO Duplo chassis, attached with a pipe cleaner. Blue-Bot’s design includes a handy hole so it can tow something behind it.

This robotics activity was only one of many explorations available in this collaborative maker space. Although I thought student interests might last for a few weeks, this creative activity continued to evolve over a couple of months. As an open-ended experience, some students selected to participate often, while others joined in every week or so. It was highly motivating to our young students as they programmed Blue-Bot to deliver items around their colorful tabletop town.

What a fun way to use Blue-Bots in a real-life application! Pizza, anyone?


Contact Information

Name Frances Judd
Position Bennett Labs Fellow, Early Childhood TESLab/Art Teacher
School Bennett Day School
Location Chicago, IL
Email frances.judd@bennettday.org
Website https://bennettday.org/discoverbennettdayschool/
Tags Blue-Bot, Illinois
Age PreK, Jr-K, Sr-K