Fourth Grade Science Fair

[howarthe]

My daughter is in the fourth grade. They have just announced a science fair. She wants to build a robot. I was her first lego league coach this fall, so we have a very nice kit to build with, and we picked out some models from nxtprojects.com that we would like to try (puppy, ball roller coaster, peg sorter, segway), but for the science fair project we have to start with: (1) asking a question, (2) doing some research, (3) constructing a hypothesis, (4) testing the hypothesis by doing an experiment, (5) analyze the data & draw a conclusion, and (6) communicate our results. I think that by deciding to build a robot, we have started with Step 4, and I'm not sure how to go through the step backwards, so I'm just asking if any of you have ever done science fair projects with children, and if so, what did you do? Thanks!

[hassenplug]

Always fun to start with step 4 and work out.

I think some of the best questions would be based around gearing the wheels, or wheel size.
A) How does gearing affect speed/pushing power of a robot?
B) How does wheel size affect the speed/pushing?
C) How much weight can a ?? pound robot push? (does gearing affect that)
D) Surface: how does the surface affect item C?

Most of these will help her to better understand the robot, and will help with First LEGO League next year.

Hope that helps

Steve

[howarthe]

Thanks! Those are great ideas.