Trash Bot

4Getting Started

Always use your imagination and be creative when building this project or any others. It's your creation, so be inventive when looking for building supplies — you just may be surprised! When building your project, experiment with new and different ways of putting it together. The most important thing is to have fun!

1smFind these or similar supplies!

• Anything you want! You can use old boxes, cans, plastic containers, toilet-paper or paper-towel tubes, milk cartons, egg cartons, bottle caps, string, or packaging material. The most important thing you’ll need is your imagination!
• Tape or glue

 

1. What will you use?

My Trash Bot is one of those projects where you can really use your imagination when putting it together. You can use almost any discarded or recyclable material to make his body parts. He doesn’t even need to have two arms or legs...maybe your Trash Bot will have ten!

This is a great project for a classroom or your family to build together. Each person can find a single part for the Trash Bot, and customize it any way they would like before they attach everything together.

2. Gather your materials!

For my Trash Bot, I used a larger empty cereal box for his torso, and empty paper-towel tubes for his arms and legs.

I used some unusual packaging material for his chest and the top of his legs. I found some milk cartons for his shoulders and a cookie container for his head.

Next I found lots of small bottle caps and plastic doodads I found around the house for various robot widgets.

I laid all these out before I put my Trash Bot together.

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3. Do a dry run and lay him out on the ground!

Before I put my Trash Bot together, I covered his head, torso, and feet with aluminum foil. You can use tape, or you don’t have to cover them at all. I covered his other body parts with colored masking tape to make him look nice.

Then I put him together using a combination of tape and glue. You don’t have to use glue, but if you have some handy it’s useful for reinforcing his body parts.

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4. Glue him together!

VOILA! My finished Trash Bot! He’s never really finished, so I can always come back and add new parts if he needs them. As always, look around for different supplies...it’s your project, so make him however you want! Remember, the sky’s the limit, and always have fun!

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