Poetry in Motion

Sue Mellon, Gifted Support Coordinator in the Allegheny Valley School District integrated Arts & Bots into her 8th grade Language Arts class. The project served as a culminating activity for a poetry unit, giving students an exciting anchor for the unit, and allowing them to practice their poetry analysis skills. Students worked in teams to analyze a poem and then create a scene for their poem. 

The Human Seasons by John Keats

"I learned the value of teamwork...we had to depend on each other to get it done."

The Pasture by Robert Frost

"I learned that there is a lot of troubleshooting that you have to do. Sometimes when things don't work out you have to take an alternate route"

Theme in Yellow by Carl Sandburg

"This all requires a lot of patience"

El Dorado by Edgar Allan Poe

"I learned that if you keep an open mind with the group you are assigned to work with then you can do anything."

Bright Star by John Keats

"I learned to always have an open mind about what you can do if it doesn't work."

A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree by Emily Dickinson

"I learned that it is very hard to work with robots and sometimes robots don't like to do what you tell them and they have a mind of their own"

The Sun Has Long Been Set by William Wordsworth

"I have never done this before so I learned how to do a lot of things"

Language Arts Mini Projects

Poetry

Grades: Middle School
Subject: Poetry
Students use Arts & Bots to bring poems to life. 

Animal Farm Characters
Grades: Middle school
Subject: English
In this Robot Diary, students would create a character from George Orwell's novel Animal Farm. The character would need to communicate using both spoken and written word as well as have at least two emotional states. This project would be completed in tandem with the work already in the curriculum for the student's English class, providing greater depth to a student's understanding and empathy for one or more of the characters. One potential robot could be a horse that is completing some heavy task and then is also sad, talking about how after his ability to work was used up he was sold to be made into glue.

Poe-bots
Grades: Middles school
Subject: Poetry, English
The students will create a robotic reenactment of an Edgar Allen Poe work. The teacher can limit the works that can be chosen. This could be done solo or in groups of two. This idea could also be applied to the works of Shakespeare and others.

Mythological creatures 
Grades: Middle School
Subjects: Mythology, Language Arts
Our after school “Classics Club” participates in an Ancient Coin Museum Project where the participating students learn about the history, art, culture, language, and history of the ancient Romans & Greeks.  Students will be assigned a mythological creature that is represented on an ancient coin in our museum collection. Students will design a robot that tells the related myth with movements and lights that highlight the creatures’ features.  For example, the chimera would have the body and head of a lion, a goat’s head extending from the middle of the body, and a snake for a tail. Coordinating animal sounds and movements can be incorporated into the audio. Lights can represent areas as they are introduced or they can reflect mood.

Create your own Super Hero
Grades: Middle School
Subject: English, Language Arts
Our English teacher assigns a yearly creative writing project where students design and create their own Super Hero. Students draw their Super Hero and write a description of their powers for a poster. We have collaborated in the past on this project.  This year we could add the option of having students choose to represent their Super Hero in robot form using the Robot Diaries kits.  The servos, lights, and sounds will be used to show the emotions, expressions, and powers of the Super Hero.  For example, Super Margot has the ability to fly so a motor can be used to show the flying motion. She can read minds and her eyes will light up when she is reading your mind. 

Full Curriculum

Grades: Middle School
Students analyze a poem for literary devices, as well as symbolzing the meaning of the poem. They then use the symbols to create a robot that illustrates the poem. 

Grades: Middle School
Integrating sensors into 2D artwork to depict changes occurring in nature (day to night, caterpillar to butterfly, food chain etc.)
One extension to this curriculum is a robotic haunted house scene including of robots that react to light and proximity.

Grades: Middle School
Time: 14.4 hours
Students create painting to visualy portray Beatles lyrics or themes and build robots inspired by the choosen theme. This curriculum was written for use in an Art class by one teacher.

Science, Technology, Math, Social Studies, Language Arts, Art -  Museum Bots

Grades: High School
This curriculum integrates Science, Technology, Mathematics, Social Studies, Language Arts and Art. It was written for collaborative implementation by an inter-disciplinary team of teachers. 

Grades: Pre-K
Students will design and build their own robot.

Grades: High School
Students study an organ system and then recreate one of its functions using Arts & Bots

  

Language Arts - Literary Bots

Grades: Middle School
Student write stories in their own voice, as well as stories in the literary voice of Dr Seuss' and build robots to support the narration. This curriculum was written for implementation by one teacher.

Grades: High School
Students create a model of the arm to show muscle movement.

Robotic Poetry

Sue Mellon, Gifted Support Coordinator in the Allegheny Valley School District integrated Arts & Bots into 7th and 8th grade Language Arts classes. The project served as a culminating activity for a poetry unit, giving students an exciting anchor for the unit, and allowing them to practice their poetry analysis skills. Students worked in teams to analyze a poem and then create a scene or a billboard display for their poem. 

 

Grass by Carl Sanburg

"I learned that even though programming looks difficult it is actually easier than it seems."


A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree by Emily Dickinson

 

A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree by Emily Dickinson from CREATE Lab on Vimeo.


"I thought programming was really easy then I realized it takes a lot of timing and work to put everything together."

 

The Human Seasons by John Keats

"It doesn't take a genius to do robotics." 

"I'm happy that art can be intergrated into robotics."

 

El Dorado by Edgar Allan Poe

"Communication is key when working as a team."

"Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses."

 

The Pasture by Robert Frost


"Poetry can sometimes be hard to understand but using robotics and giving you a visual can help you understand it."

 

The Sun Has Long Been Set by William Wordsworth

"I learned how the robotics can relate to poetry."

 

Design by Robert Frost

"It takes dedication not necessarily a level of smartness to understand the robots."
"Programming is very challenging but once you get use to it, its easy."

 

Bright Star by John Keats

"I learned that poems can be brought to life off the paper."