Zoobots: Wild Robots Inspired by Real Animals

Good book

this was for a weekend enrichment program and the kids loved it, Then went beyond it.

It is a little shorter than i thought but still great book

As usual I received this book free in exchange for a review. This time it was from NetGalley. Despite that kindness I give my candid thoughts below and attempt to write a balanced and well-rounded review. Let me know how I do!In a nutshell this book centers around 12 animal-inspired robots. Each entry is formatted like a dossier giving the robot's name, team (land, air, water), realm (animal family to which it belongs), a few of its vital statistics, its potential uses and a bit about the animal that inspired it.To the positive, I can see how this book might bridge that gap between animal-lover and future engineer. Lots of kids love animals and if you can somehow use that inspired interest to get them into more math and science classes then that's a real win. So conceptually this one has a great head start. Also, the text is detailed, engaging and seems at about the right level for a 10-12-year-old child. It uses words that they might find challenging but they're often defined in-line and there's a glossary if all else fails. Finally, even as an adult I find these machines potently fascinating so the topic has a broad range of undeniable appeal. It is also a great touch that for each 'Zoobot' they include a 'status' indicating just how far along production is.On the negative side, I wish that they had included more actual photographs of their subjects. All the animals are real enough and many of the Zoobots are "working prototypes" but all the graphics are illustrations rather than photos. While they are great illustrations it gives the book a unnecessarily cartoonish feel. Also, each Zoobot has a header that's some seemingly appropriate verb. For example the pill bug Zoobot's header is "Spray!" with others of "Stick!", "Ripple!", "Whip!", and most off-putting of all "SNOOORRRFF!" I found these especially childish and rather a waste of space.In summary, this book is solid but image is everything when it comes to kids. It's filled with interesting content but the presentation seems a bit childish in places and I'm concerned that it won't hit the target age group quite the right way. Or maybe I just have really picky kids.

We used this in our kids' science class about robots. It tied in perfectly to our key concepts of: "scientists take ideas from nature to create robots to do things humans can’t or don’t want to do." It was too long to read aloud to our class of 4 - 7 year olds. We actually just showed the pictures and did brief verbal summaries of each page. (On my blog I share my short text version of the book. I also created a video on biomimicry, featuring lots of real robots, which you can find linked form there.) here’s a sample of my short text, which could give you a sense of the ideas in this book: “Scientists wanted to develop a robot that could fight forest fires. It needed armor to protect itself from heat, and it needed to have lots of flexible legs so it could move across rough ground. They used a roley-poley bug as the inspiration for the exoskeleton armor and its legs, and it carries a tank of water or fire extinguishing chemicals to spray at a fire.”

Robot Snakes. That’s the first thing that jumped out at me when I saw the cover of this book, and I knew that not only would my 10 year-old love this book, but so would every 10 year-old in the several library sites I oversee. That is the kind of book Zoobots is – it’s a win-win situation. You have robot animals, complete with facts about the functions and statistics on the robotic creatures, plus profiles on the animals influencing them; you also have the nonfiction aspect, which makes it compatible with Common Core focus on nonfiction texts, with the extra STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) appeal that will hopefully inspire a reader or 3 to become a scientist and actually work with these robots.Helaine Becker’s text is chunked into a dossier-type format, complete with futuristic fonts. We get the name of the robot – some include the Shrewbot, the Octobot, the Ghostbot, and the Nanobot – and what class of animal its influence belongs to (i.e., mammalia, reptilia). There are skills, specifications, and applications: the growing number of robotics dedicated to the medical industry alone is amazing, as is the idea of using pill bug-inspired robots to help prevent raging forest fires. Special Ops describes special talents these robots can use while in the field; my favorite is the Uncle Sam snake robot, who can actually assemble itself!There is no science fiction here – all of the 12 robot animals profiled are in some sort of prototype stage, whether being developed or in existence. A section on the future wonders what further robots future minds will create, which I hope spurs some readers to start sketching and joining robotics teams. There is a glossary of terms and a full index.I loved this book, and think it belongs in libraries and science classes throughout elementary and middle schools. The illustrations, by concept artist and illustrator Alex Ries, give life to the robotics, spotlighting their flexibility and their features. The book is only 36 pages, but the number of lesson plans and ideas that can come out of this? Boundless.