FRANKENSTEIN INSPIRED ROBOTS

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Twenty-two Eighth Graders in Ms. Chandler-Ward & Ms. Bradley’s English classes read Frankenstein and learned about the fears of modern science advancing too quickly in the Victorian era, the theme of family and isolation, and the pitfalls of people acting like gods. The story addresses some deep seated fears of the society of that time. Students were asked to reflect on their own personal deep seated fears and come up with a robot that personifies that fear. The robot would become a character in their own story.

Over the course of 5 class periods, students learned how to:

install the software necessary to program an Arduino (a physical programmable circuit board)
write a software program to control the Hummingbird Duo (a robotics kit build around an Arduino)
Connect and control the electronics: various lights, motors, wheels, buttons, and distance sensors

They were then given three class periods to use materials from home or in the eurekaLab to build a mechanized representation of their fear. Their goal was to have one input, one output, and motion incorporated in their own personal “monster”. Some students also used a speaker to provide sound effects. They completed a daily reflection on their learning, progress, goals, and growth mindsets. The final class period was used to share their projects.

Uploaded by Susan Fisher on 2018-04-01.