Walkers can be a great "carrot" to inspire students to build robots.  They can be tricky to design and build however, especially if you go about it how we did from basic principles and without having plans or prototypes to copy, so my invitation to the class included the following cautionary paragraph:      

“Building walkers is not easy. We will not be building a kit with instructions. Instead, we will be figuring out how to go about it, and the students will inevitably make a lot of mistakes along the way which will require repetition of steps or rebuilds. Of course, I will be supporting them to increase their odds of ultimate success, but the motivational burden will fall largely on them, and they will require a mindset to handle frustration and soldier on. If you think your child is up for such a challenge, then I would love to play the role of coach/teacher to help them succeed."

All of the dozen families I invited bit, and the effort made by all the students in the class was remarkable.

Most importantly, we had a blast tackling a hard challenge!

Photo credit:  Phil Demosthenes​

An overview of the LEGO walking machines class that started this project is posted at Tufts University's LEGO Engineering site.

​Below are a few inspiring STEM videos.  If you know other good ones, please share!

Learning STEM in the Classroom by Professor Chris Rogers of Tufts University's Department of Mechanical Engineering:

Sugata Mitra's TED talk, The Child-Driven Education:

And for inspiring films about independently-minded tinkerers, its hard to beat The World's Fastest Indian: