Activity (Hands-On)Grades 3 - 5

Robot Wheels!

Materials List

Photo shows a toy wheel made from a flexible black treaded plastic tire and a hard grey plastic rim. An example LEGO robot wheel.Copyright Glenn Research Center, NASA http://dlnrover.grc.nasa.gov/building-instructions.html

Each group needs:

ruler, for measuring in metric units
LEGO MINDSTORMS robot wheel (of any size)
piece of masking tape, ~25 cm long
sheet of 8.5-in x 11-in (or A4) paper
scissors
2 pencils
Wheels Quiz (PDF), two per student

To share with the entire class:

LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robot, such as EV3 Core Set (5003400) at https://education.lego.com/en-us/products/lego-mindstorms-education-ev3-core-set/5003400#lego-mindstorms-education-ev3 (instructions to build and program a basic robot are included with the robot kit; the kit is highly reusable) (Note: Using this LEGO system makes it easy to remove wheels and investigate them independent of the vehicle, and then re-install them for making circumference measurements.)
chalk or whiteboard markers for the classroom board

Alternative: LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Set:

Note: This activity can also be conducted with the older (and no longer sold) LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT set instead of EV3; see below for those supplies:

LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot