Science Education Partnership Award: Robotics
This unit introduces a number of basic principles and methods that are necessary to understand behavior and brain-behavior relations. The main purpose of this component is to encourage children to think about the nervous system as a physical system that operates according to known (or knowable) physical laws and contributes to the control of all other systems of the body. This set of lessons attempts to illustrate the brain in action by comparing and contrasting how robots and humans generate, transmit, receive and act upon messages. Robots are an excellent metaphor for the "brain in action" because electrically powered robotic impulses are analogous to electrical and chemical brain signals. These signals normally result in observable behavior, but can malfunction in both robots and humans. In robots, a malfunction will be demonstrated by interrupting the circuits that govern its behavior. This demonstration is intended to help children understand how the human brain too can malfunction. Children will be challenged to have robots mimic human behavior by manipulating hard-wired circuits. Children also will engage in "robotic" behavior as part of their hands-on classroom activities. We expect children will come to understand that while elaborate robotic circuits permit sophisticated actions, they cannot compare in complexity to the workings of the human brain. Elements of this curriculum were piloted in our 5th grade classes.
Photos
| Title of Lesson |
Brief Description |
| Robots and Humans |
Students compare and contrast features of robots and humans using Venn diagrams. |
| What's the Connection? Robot and Human Movement |
Students determine what factors control robot movements. |
| Elementary Movements |
Students are introduced to basic properties of electrical circuits. |
| Brain Control of Movement |
Students relate movement to robotic electrical circuits and nervous system pathways. |
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Atypical Connections
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- interruption of circuits interrupts behavior
- changes in sensory circuits changes behavior
- miswiring of circuits leads to atypical behavior
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Brain Building Vocabulary (definitions and pronunciations) for:
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SEPA:
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