Learning from designing the RoboFesta—Blue Peter robots

Can children and adults learn anything from building robots? In 2001 we ran a robot design competition with the BBC TelevisionBlue Peter, program. Some 32 000 children, aged between 5 and 16 years, submitted paper designs. We built prototypes of the four winners' robots for a Robot Design MasterClass at the London Science Museum. It is widely believed that across the curriculum, robotics is a powerful force in motivating education. We ask what the children learned from the robot design process. Our answer is that they learned many things, both inside and outside the science and technology curriculum.