About

A robot explorer (or remotely operated vehicle) can be used to explore places on Earth that would be too complicated, expensive, dangerous, tedious, or even impossible for scientists to explore in person. For example, an underwater robot for the deep ocean is much simpler and cheaper than a manned submarine; a surface robot to explore the crater of an active volcano is surely safer than going in person; a submersible robot counting fish on a coral reef will save a marine biologist a lot of time; and a tiny tethered robot can be used to explore caves that are too small for humans to venture. A robot can feasibly explore a place for years on end, working tirelessly without pause to learn about our world.
 

Your task

Design a robot explorer (or remotely operated vehicle) to explore a natural geographic feature, an ecosystem, or a species of life on Earth. Decide what your robot explorer will explore, what you intend to find out, and what instruments and equipment that it will need to do its mission. Think about how your robot explorer will be deployed, and how it will operate. Build a full-size or small-scale model of your robot explorer to demonstrate it, along with a specifications sheet that describes your robot explorer and its instruments in detail. Work on this project in a team with a group of your classmates.
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The design thinking stages

Follow the five design thinking stages to ensure that you think of everything and do everything necessary in order to succeed in your design project. First, you must UNDERSTAND the design topic and the needs of the users. With that understanding, you can DECIDE what is important to your design solution and what is not so important. Then you CREATE to come up with ideas and improve them. Then you BUILD your chosen design idea in a physical form and improve it through trial-and-error. Finally, you TEST your built design idea to get the opinions of users. ​​​​​​​Use the methods from the Design Thinking for Schools website as you follow the design thinking stages.
 

Note for teachers

​​​​​​​Read the guide for teachers on Safety for the BUILD Stage for Level III to safely supervise this design project.