Robots and Other Mechanical Men (and Women) Educational Resources K12 Learning, History, History Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

R2-D2 and C-3PO were lovable versions. Others, like the Terminator and Megatron, were a little less friendly.

However, robots have not remained mere characters in films or figments of our imagination. They have leaped from the silver screen into real life. Their history goes way back, even into ancient times.

Reflect on the following questions before beginning this lesson.

Where did the idea of creating automata or mechanical men come from?
What roles do robots, androids, and other mechanical men play in our stories and films?
What is the significance of robots in our real world? Now? In the future?

When people think of the future and the progress of technology, they often think of amazing robot helpers taking care of most of our manual labor.

On the other hand, people may imagine nightmare scenarios in which monster robots have destroyed the earth and hunted human beings down as the enemy.

As you watch the video below to see an example of a robot, write down ideas and information to answer these questions.

Who is involved in the video?
What materials do you think were used to create this robot?
What are some of the things the robot talks about?
What evidence is there that this robot is intelligent?
What evidence is there that this robot is not intelligent at all?

Now, reflect on the following questions.

What might make this kind of technology creepy for some people?
How is this robot an advancement over technology you've known or used in the past?
How have robots developed over the past fifty years or so?
How have they developed in the past few years?

Jules the Robot is one example of recent developments in robotics. Jules could not have been developed, though, without a long line of attempts at inventing automata or mechanical creatures.

In the Got It? section, explore some of the most ambitious attempts in history at developing the ancestors of modern robots.