On Saturday, October 4th was the Massachusetts Teacher STEM Fair at Gillette Stadium. Organizations came to tabletop for visiting teachers, parents, and students to le
arn more about possible classroom activities and connect with STEM Organizations. The Center for STEM Education took part in this event and showcased our Sumo Hexbugs activity, in which students modify standard hexbugs with a design made out of a single index card to sumo wrestle the other hexbugs out of an arena. Attendees were encouraged to think of this as not only an engineering / robots lesson, but also a potential biology lesson, and finding
Flower-inspired hexbug design
Bio-mimicry: horns as defense mechanism
inspiration from nature for possible designs: imagining hexbugs as beetles and mimicking nature for potential defense mechanisms such as armor plates, horns, etc. Handouts were shared with teachers as well as a link to download the lesson plan and PowerPoint for the activity.
