Mentor Notes

This is a good fun activity. Apart from the robot sets, the only equipment needed is some masking tape on the floor, some string and some hooks (big bent paper clips are fine, the smaller paper clips may fail). The programming is uncomplicated, so this session can be used quite early in a course if all the class use one of the standard robots (first Challenge, Challenge 10 or Challenge 48). However I've placed this lesson later in the sessions when the students have gained more building skills, because the robot designs they come up with are often quite fascinating - often using ideas I would never have thought of, and winning... Kids are incredible!

A version of this tug-of-war lesson in Microsoft Word 2003 is available by clicking here.

If you want to do some background research before presenting this lesson, some resources are available below:-

Here is an excellent resource that functions both as a reference and as a tutorial for Tug-of-War, as well as several other LEGO and non-LEGO competitions. Both RoboLab and NXT-G are mentioned.

Here is a more recent set of sample rules for Tug-of-War (Microsoft Word 2003 format).

Here is a 10 minute tutorial YouTube video featuring some Grade 8 students and some HUGE LEGO robots. In my experience, Primary School (K-6) students do not generally build Robots anything like this big in our typical 2-hour lesson.

Robot Tug of War!

Mentor Notes