Last summer as part of our cornucopia of STEAM programs to celebrate the Year of STEAM at Pasadena Public Library, we put on a three-day robotics and engineering workshop for kids using Rokenbok building sets and the Rokenbok curriculum. Kids were given challenges like the challenge to create a machine that could pick up balls from one container or pen and transfer them to another one. We used a remote-controlled robot but built extensions to it, like arms and joints, using different simple machines to accomplish the task.

In the videos below, you’ll see the kids explain their creations and what their strategies were. I think the biggest challenge for some of the kids was working as a team, and managing their time. Those are always challenging things no matter what kind of work you’re doing! But they learned a lot. 🙂

Day One


Day Two


Day Three