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Author Topic: Help with ideas for lesson plan  (Read 3359 times)

tsoibelman

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Help with ideas for lesson plan
« on: February 08, 2016, 12:24:03 PM »

Hi,
I have two Pleos : Mission & Science that I take to public schools for a program with elementary school students where they learn about science and math with hands on activities. Any idea of lessons that I can teach the students using the Pleos? Help please!!! :dino-chase:
Thanks!
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aibo7m3

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Re: Help with ideas for lesson plan
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2016, 01:13:58 PM »

Hi! Glad to see another person getting involved in giving back to the community with their Pleos! I've done a program at a natural science museum on the Camarasaurus and used Pleos as a demonstration for the children. If you're interested in something more science/math oriented and have a laptop/projector, you could make a PowerPoint showing some images of how Pleos are built and explaining some basic robotics info/info about how the parts work while letting the kids play with the actual Pleos hands on. If you're continuing this program for a while, it might be interesting to buy a broken parts Pleo, skin it, and teach kids how to take it apart/put it back together while explaining the functions of different parts and then letting them play with the working Pleos. If the school has a computer lab, you could give a lesson on programming basics and teach the kids how to use MySkit to make dances for Pleos since this is a super simple and fun program! If you just have a projector available, you could share your screen on the projector and make a song/dance for the Pleo, then run it in one of the Pleos.
Good luck! This sounds like a really thoughtful program!
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grumpy

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Re: Help with ideas for lesson plan
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2016, 04:11:07 PM »

One of the primary features that makes a pleo fun to own is the autonomous AI.  However, this same feature makes it very difficult to guarantee the pleo will respond appropriately and consistently (especially RBs) to match your activities.  The best way around this problem is with skits . . .  I would advise your getting very familiar with MySkit because besides song and dances, MySkit is very useful for planning out "routines".  You can almost think of your pleo as a pre-programmed puppet.  You can plan out what you want say and what you want the pleo to do and using MySkit you can set specific touch sensors to trigger specific sequences of actions.  That way you can talk for a bit, tap your pleo on the head, the pleo "responds to what you said", you talk some more, tap your pleo on the shoulder, the pleo responds, etc.  Doing this you can easily set up a skit that make it appear as if the pleo is actually interacting to what you're saying.

For example, part of the Pleosaurus Rex personality has a dramatic "death sequence".   After only a couple of times practicing, I could turn on the pleo, as soon as it woke up, I would grab the head with both hands, looking sternly at the face and say "Now listen up Bob, show 'em how you can play dead."  I would then let go, step back, point my finger at him and go "BANG!"  Bob would immediately roar, stumble a bit, fall over on his side, moan, and twitch his tail, then go limp.  People were absolutely convinced Bob was hearing and responding to what I said.  In reality, the whole death sequence was just a pre-programmed skit triggered by touching the two sensors on the top of the head and the one under the chin for three seconds.  and I knew I had about five seconds after that before the skit ran.  I also knew I had to do it as soon as I turned the pleo on, otherwise the pleo would start doing other parts of the personality and "break the illusion".

In the same manner, with MySkit, you can program the pleo to stand still and say "Four" when you touch the head, "Six" when you touch the shoulder, etc.    They you get all the kids around, turn on the pleo, ask "Mission, what's two plus two?" and then gently pat him on the head.  After the pleo says "Four" to the amazement of the kids, you say "O.K., what the square root of thirty-six?" and casually stroke his back.   Before long, the class will be amazed at how well pleos can do math! :)
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Echo538

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Re: Help with ideas for lesson plan
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2016, 11:37:44 PM »

Yes, and you did mention mathematics as part of the lesson plan or program you were planning to do. It sounds like science is a first with the Pleos, but besides the counting skit that Grumpy mentioned, maybe you could come up with some other creative math ideas. Like if the kids are older, you could do the death sequence skit if you know how, then illustrate by counting the seconds, how many to turn it on, how long to hold his head, and then how long to wait for the skit, and ask the students to remember the sequence, and then in such a way you could teach them some basic programming skills, too. Just a thought. Good luck!
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tsoibelman

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Re: Help with ideas for lesson plan
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2016, 11:24:07 AM »

Thank you some much for the wonderful ideas. i think I need to learn the skit for my Pleos. I don't have a idea how to start. any tutorial?
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