robots or Quad Copter projects

There's a channel by Dennis Baldwin on youtube I've been following about his quest to 3d print and build a small quad copter. He's very informative and does lots of demonstrations of how he has to keep refining the design as he goes along (though does get hung up on the electronics and motors towards the end of this particular build). Good viewing though along with all his other nice videos.

Check his channel out here:  https://www.youtube.com/user/dennisbaldwin

I'd recommend if you go that route and make a few like his small quad project, go with the hobbyking KK2 board. It's cheap so you could have a few of them and have the kids work in groups and also has an LCD display to make it easy to set up and configure. Also, hobbyking will have plenty of cheap motors and ESC's to use, far cheaper than anything that is offered in stores. Same with recievers, props, power distribution boards, bullet connectors, extension and/or male-to-male servo wires (you'll need a few). Keep in mind the cheaper stuff and better selection comes from their "international warehouse" in China so it takes a while for shipping. Figure on at least 2-3 weeks but you may get lucky. Order batteries or heavy parts separate at the US warehouse since shipping is more on heavy items and lipo batteries limit the international shipping options.

I'd say select a good priced motor/ESC/prop combo you want to use first, then you can figure the size of the copter you want to build based off that and just follow Baldwin's idea of wood rods as the booms and then 3d print the other frame pieces. They can even 3d print a nice cover to go over the electronics. Also, it may be good for teaching them a bit about soldering. Sometimes the power distribution boards need a little soldering and/or at least a few bullet ends (3.5mm tends to be mostly used) for motors or ESC connections.

Tons of stuff to teach and learn about when it comes to this stuff, and ends up being "fun". There's also a new ongoing series from the Make channel on youtube where they are slowly going over the basics of RC planes (which would also be applicable to multirotors). Only a few episodes so far but good introduction: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwhkA66li5vCTL5lUm0zoCBBY4LNPTGeO

Another resource with folks always doing scratch builds of things and using laser cutting and 3d printing quite a bit (as well as a great learning resource) is Flite Test on youtube. very entertaining to watch and quite varied on what they show. https://www.youtube.com/user/flitetest

Edit: forgot to mention a guy on youtube that does exactly this stuff with kids, well at least scratch builds and the associated electronics... https://www.youtube.com/user/sshoover10

There's a channel by Dennis Baldwin on youtube I've been following about his quest to 3d print and build a small quad copter. He's very informative and does lots of demonstrations of how he has to keep refining the design as he goes along (though does get hung up on the electronics and motors towards the end of this particular build). Good viewing though along with all his other nice videos.

Check his channel out here:  https://www.youtube.com/user/dennisbaldwin

I'd recommend if you go that route and make a few like his small quad project, go with the hobbyking KK2 board. It's cheap so you could have a few of them and have the kids work in groups and also has an LCD display to make it easy to set up and configure. Also, hobbyking will have plenty of cheap motors and ESC's to use, far cheaper than anything that is offered in stores. Same with recievers, props, power distribution boards, bullet connectors, extension and/or male-to-male servo wires (you'll need a few). Keep in mind the cheaper stuff and better selection comes from their "international warehouse" in China so it takes a while for shipping. Figure on at least 2-3 weeks but you may get lucky. Order batteries or heavy parts separate at the US warehouse since shipping is more on heavy items and lipo batteries limit the international shipping options.

I'd say select a good priced motor/ESC/prop combo you want to use first, then you can figure the size of the copter you want to build based off that and just follow Baldwin's idea of wood rods as the booms and then 3d print the other frame pieces. They can even 3d print a nice cover to go over the electronics. Also, it may be good for teaching them a bit about soldering. Sometimes the power distribution boards need a little soldering and/or at least a few bullet ends (3.5mm tends to be mostly used) for motors or ESC connections.

Tons of stuff to teach and learn about when it comes to this stuff, and ends up being "fun". There's also a new ongoing series from the Make channel on youtube where they are slowly going over the basics of RC planes (which would also be applicable to multirotors). Only a few episodes so far but good introduction: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwhkA66li5vCTL5lUm0zoCBBY4LNPTGeO

Another resource with folks always doing scratch builds of things and using laser cutting and 3d printing quite a bit (as well as a great learning resource) is Flite Test on youtube. very entertaining to watch and quite varied on what they show. https://www.youtube.com/user/flitetest

Edit: forgot to mention a guy on youtube that does exactly this stuff with kids, well at least scratch builds and the associated electronics... https://www.youtube.com/user/sshoover10