MATERIALS LIST: DIY Robot Hand
Thick paper or thin cardboard
(cereal, cracker or tissue boxes work
well) PROCEDURE:
Yarn or thick string Have science fun as a family! Complete activities with parental supervision.
5 large beads (ex: plastic pony beads)
2 straws 1. Trace a hand onto cardboard and cut it
Scissors out.
Tape 2. Cut straws into 1-inch pieces (or 1/2 inch
Pencil
if you have a small hand!).
3. Using the tape, attach the straw pieces to
the hand (see top image, to right).
4. Crease the cardboard in between the straws
- these will simulate your joints (see red
lines on top image, to right).
5. Cut five 12-inch pieces of yarn and tie a
bead to the end of each.
6. Thread each piece of yarn through the
straw pieces, starting with the fingertips
and ending at the palm of your hand. Each
finger should be controlled by one string.
(see center image, to right).
7. Use the strings together or independently
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? to control the movement of each of the
What makes us move? How do we skip, fingers. Congrats on your new robot hand!
swim, shrug, scoot, or stretch? There are a
8. Be sure to take a picture to share in the
lot of different actions at work inside of
our bodies all the time. Facebook comments on the Buffalo
Museum of Science or Tifft Nature
Did you know that not all of those Preserve pages!
movements are driven only by muscles?
Our fingers are extraordinary in that they
TRY IT
don’t have any muscles in them! They rely
on a series of fine, tough fibers called Can you see the tendons in your hands? Try
tendons that link the bones of our fingers making your hand look like the photo to the
to the muscles in our arms. right. Are those bones or tendons you can
see? How do you know?
The pull of the strings on your Robot
Hand acts like the tendons in our hand that Grab your right forearm with your left hand.
pull our bones as a result of the arm Make a fist, stretch your hand flat, wiggle your
muscles being flexed. When we let go of fingers- what do you feel? Why?
the string the fingers go flat again, as if the Where else might you have tendons? Do all
tendon was releasing as our arm muscle tendons do the same thing?
relaxes.
