Liquid-handling Lego robots and experiments for STEM education and research

• Published in: PLoS biology Vol. 15; no. 3; p. e2001413
• Main Authors: Gerber, Lukas C., Calasanz-Kaiser, Agnes, Hyman, Luke, Voitiuk, Kateryna, Patil, Uday, Riedel-Kruse, Ingmar H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21.03.2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abbreviations; Accuracy; Adolescents; Alzheimer's disease; Automation; Automation, Laboratory; Bioengineering; Biology; Biology and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Buildings; Case studies; Children; Collection; Competition; Computer and Information Sciences; Computer programming; Computers; Construction standards; Creativity; Data acquisition; Data collection; Data processing; Design; Design analysis; Education; Educational aspects; Engineering; Engineering and Technology; Engineering education; Equipment and supplies; Ethics; Experiments; Funding; Homing; Human performance; Human subjects; Integration; Learning; Life sciences; Mathematics education; Mechanical engineering; Methods; Modules; Motor task performance; People and Places; Physical Sciences; Plastics; Reproduction; Robotics; Robotics - education; Robots; Schools; Science - education; Sciences education; Sensors; Social Sciences; Software; STEM education; Studies; Technology; Technology education; Writing; United States > US; California
• ISSN: 1545-7885; 1544-9173; 1545-7885
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2001413

Liquid-handling robots have many applications for biotechnology and the life sciences, with increasing impact on everyday life. While playful robotics such as Lego Mindstorms significantly support education initiatives in mechatronics and programming, equivalent connections to the life sciences do not currently exist. To close this gap, we developed Lego-based pipetting robots that reliably handle liquid volumes from 1 ml down to the sub-μl range and that operate on standard laboratory plasticware, such as cuvettes and multiwell plates. These robots can support a range of science and chemistry experiments for education and even research. Using standard, low-cost household consumables, programming pipetting routines, and modifying robot designs, we enabled a rich activity space. We successfully tested these activities in afterschool settings with elementary, middle, and high school students. The simplest robot can be directly built from the widely used Lego Education EV3 core set alone, and this publication includes building and experiment instructions to set the stage for dissemination and further development in education and research.