For Thymio’s Monster, students will have a blast building their very own scary monster with moving teeth! In this lesson, they’ll learn how to create a mouth that moves up and down using a rack and pinion system made from LEGO parts. Students will follow the tutorial video, cut out and color the monster’s paper parts, and then assemble the mouth mechanism, bringing their monster to life. Once built, they can control their monster’s mouth movements using the remote control in purple mode.

This lesson combines crafting, engineering, and programming, giving students the perfect opportunity to express their creativity while practicing problem-solving and mechanical design.

FUN FACT!

Did you know that rack and pinion systems are used in everyday machines like cars? The steering system in many cars uses rack and pinion gears to convert the driver’s rotational steering into linear movement, which turns the wheels. It’s also used in some roller coasters to move the cars up the tracks! Now, students will get hands-on experience with this cool system by making their own monster’s mouth move!

Let’s get creative and bring some scary monsters to life with Thymio!

Download the lesson PDF files below:

Thymio’s Monster Lesson Plan PDF

Thymio’s Monster Outline PDF