Sometimes you just need a buddy to keep your whole life in balance, and this one's a quickie! And for the aspiring tight-rope walker, this bot is your new role model. Balancing on fingers, noses, ledges, this bot knows no balancing bounds.

What: Balance Bot
Time: ~ 5 minutes to make, 5 minutes to modify
Cost: 25 cents
Concepts: Balance, Center of Mass, Rotation
Materials:
- 2 wood skewers
- 1 toothpick
- 1 cork
- 2 balls plasticine (any clay will do)
- 2 googly eyes
- A wee bit o' hot glue
Tools:
- Hot glue gun

This is a wonderful balance toy to make, and than change around, iterate, and learn from! You can do tons of center of mass experiments with this buddy, or just play! You might even be able to make it from the first picture alone.

Step 1: Insert Sticks and Add Clay!

First, insert the two wood skewers so that they are angled down. (You can play around with the position later to get all sorts of different balancing angles).

Next, insert the toothpick on the bottom of the cork facing down.

Then add balls of clay to either side. For the most part, balls about half the volume of a ping-pong ball work great! Experiment to find the best for you.

We need Balance Bot's center of mass to be below the end of th