Design Coastal Clean-Up Robots

Every year, approximately 8 million tonnes of plastic waste makes it way to our oceans. Many marine animals get caught in these plastics or fall ill as a result of ingesting them.

This printable robot design worksheet is meant for for our little ones to learn more about how we can help to keep our oceans free from plastics.

Printable & Activity Objectives

In this activity, your child will learn about inventing (robot) solutions to help clean and collect plastic waste from our coastal environments.

It will help your child or student:

• Develop their problem solving skills by thinking about potential solutions for a real world problem.
• Foster greater creativity and imagination through developing the solution further with the "robot" or automated element of the design challenge.

Let's start the clean-up!

How to Get Started

Simple steps to start:

• Research and try to understand the magnitude of the marine plastics pollution problem.

Here's an informative video about plastic pollution levels in the ocean.

Here's an interesting video about the lifecycle of three plastic bottles. It's a good introduction to understanding where plastic bottles end up after they are thrown away.

Watch this video of Boyan Slat, a dutch inventor and environmentalist, who invented a floating cleanup system for the ocean at the age 18. Another great example of creative solutions from young minds.

• Check out existing automated or robot inventions made to clear the ocean and other coastal environments. Here are some interesting ones:

• Start working on your coastal and ocean clean-up robot design.

Share this Teaching Resource

What's in the Printable Worksheet Pack

This printable pack consists of 3 printable worksheets with different coastal environments (including different terrains) where clean-up robots will operate in.

Click on the download link below to get started. Please note that this printable pack is only for subscribers and paid members.