Use art supplies, a circuit board, lights, motors and sensors to design, build and program robots that tell stories and express emotions.
Arts & Bots (formerly Robot Diaries) development began in the summer of 2006 in a series of participatory design workshops with middle school girls. We set out to find a way to keep middle school girls engaged with robotics and authoring technology - at an age when many girls get away from such activities - perceiving them as activities for boys.
The program has since developed to include both boys and girls - drawing upon students' interests in arts, crafts, communication, and storytelling while providing them with technical and design knowledge which enables them to build and utilize their own personal robots.
Robot Diaries is currently in various stages of implementation in middle and elementary schools, kindergartens and after school programs.
