July 31 Family sci-Friday
Wall-E Movie Lesson Guide
This Family SciFriday is brought to you by the special collaboration between the Museum of the Southwest and Susan May!
Join us in creating some fun robotics, crafts and art lessons as we enjoy the movie WALL-E and explore what some of our technological advances might look like for the environment in the future and how we should preserve our special home that is Earth!
Activity One:
Wall-E teaches an important message
WALL-E (Where to watch)
Amazon, Disney + and youtube all have a way to stream WALL-E for this Family SciFriday!
WALL-E'S URGENT MESSAGE
Click through to test your WALL-E movie knowledge by answering our Film Questions!
Film Questions
Film Questions Continued
Extension Questions
Extension Questions Continued
Activity Two:
Make your own Wall-E out of recycled materials
WALL-E Teaches: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Click through the images for some friendly & helpful ways you and your family can reduce-reuse-recycle at home!
Then follow along as we create our very own WALL-E out of recycled goods!
Then follow along as we create our very own WALL-E out of recycled goods!
DIY WALL-E
We will be building WALL-E out of ALL recycled materials - follow along!
WALL-E TEACHES REDUCE-REUSE-RECYCLE
Create your very own WALL-E made out of recycled materials found at home!
To view steps- click on image to open link.
To view steps- click on image to open link.
STEP 1 : Collect recycled materials
You can get as creative with your kids as you want! Choose from plastic cups, medicine bottles, creamer cups, nuts and bolts, and more!
STEP 2 : Create the eyes & back opening!
To make the eyes look as realstic as possible, we used old pill bottles, glued coffee creamer cups to the top of the bottles and covered them with some cardboard to give it that perfect eye shape!
The blue plastic was cut open to use for the back where WALL-E has a sliding garbage door. We just left the back open (Seen in last picture).
The blue plastic was cut open to use for the back where WALL-E has a sliding garbage door. We just left the back open (Seen in last picture).
STEP 3 : Make the eyeballs and tires!
Using washers and nuts we made eyeballs and hotglued them together. Then added a wire to the back of the pill bottle to give us WALL-E's complete eyes.
Next, using corrugated cardboard, we shaped the cardboard to look like wheels, with medicine bottle caps painted silver with a metallic pen and more nuts and bolts for the wheels!
Next, using corrugated cardboard, we shaped the cardboard to look like wheels, with medicine bottle caps painted silver with a metallic pen and more nuts and bolts for the wheels!
STEP 4 : Make WALL-E's Body
We cut a tissue box in half and glued a toilet paper roll to make it more sturdy inside the base. You can skip this step for time sake. Once this is taped or glued together, we took the plastic from the step 2 and glued it in the back, leaving the back open like WALL-E from the movie.
STEP 5 : Make the arms!
We chose to make the arms out of pipe cleaners, corrugated cardboard and straws! Using two straws, cut them to desired arm length, then get a piece of cardboard and fold to place the straw inside. Hot glue the cardboard to stay in shape and slide the straw inside. Once the straw is inserted, you will need to hole punch some cardboard pieces or cut them out of paper for the hands! Then slide the fingers/hands onto the pipe cleaner till they are shaped like a hand and slide the pipe cleaner into the straw! Repeat.
FINAL STEPS
Next hot glue all the parts together making sure to not burn yourself - have an adult help you glue the arms and the wheels and the back!
FINISHED WALL-E
Hope you enjoyed!
BACK VIEW
Here you can see the open back just like the real movie WALL-E has!
Activity Three:
DIY Automaton Eve
The First Automaton Robot - Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci's world first Human Robot. To find out more information about how that inspired technology and robotics for places like NASA click the link to view more!
Next make your own very own Automaton Robot Eve!
Next make your own very own Automaton Robot Eve!
What is an Automaton?
Automaton, plural automatons or automata, any of various mechanical objects that are relatively self-operating after they have been set in motion.
Automatons are the ancient ancestors of today’s robotic inventions; self-operating machines capable of performing a range of functions determined by their particular mechanism. Reports of these machines have existed for centuries, with one of the earliest proclaiming the existence of a life-size, humanoid figure complete with artificial organs and capable of singing and dancing built in China in the 10th century BC. While it is difficult to verify the existence of some of these early automatons, others have received more substantial historical backing.
Leonardo da Vinci used his interest in mechanical engineering to design, and in all probability build, a mechanical knight that was capable of moving its arms, legs and head, as well as “speaking” via an automatic drum-roll. Leonardo’s designs for the machine were discovered in the 1950s and faithful reconstruction has given credence to claims that the robot was presented to the Milanese court in 1495.
Perhaps even more impressive, The Writer automaton is capable of writing any text up to 40 characters long. Designed by Pierre Jaquet-Droz in the late 18th century and made up of more than 6,000 parts all squeezed into the replica model of a small boy, the programmable nature of the automaton has seen it lauded as the precursor to modern computers.
Automatons are the ancient ancestors of today’s robotic inventions; self-operating machines capable of performing a range of functions determined by their particular mechanism. Reports of these machines have existed for centuries, with one of the earliest proclaiming the existence of a life-size, humanoid figure complete with artificial organs and capable of singing and dancing built in China in the 10th century BC. While it is difficult to verify the existence of some of these early automatons, others have received more substantial historical backing.
Leonardo da Vinci used his interest in mechanical engineering to design, and in all probability build, a mechanical knight that was capable of moving its arms, legs and head, as well as “speaking” via an automatic drum-roll. Leonardo’s designs for the machine were discovered in the 1950s and faithful reconstruction has given credence to claims that the robot was presented to the Milanese court in 1495.
Perhaps even more impressive, The Writer automaton is capable of writing any text up to 40 characters long. Designed by Pierre Jaquet-Droz in the late 18th century and made up of more than 6,000 parts all squeezed into the replica model of a small boy, the programmable nature of the automaton has seen it lauded as the precursor to modern computers.
Make your own very own Automaton Robot!
Automaton robots are easy to make at home! Get a pencil, an eraser, a white sheet of paper and let's draw! Fold the paper into fourths (fold in half, then fold in half again). This is the square where you will draw EVE. You can cut her out after coloring and use in the EVE automaton!
First see how we created our Eve drawing then how we create an automaton after!
(TOP VIEW)
First see how we created our Eve drawing then how we create an automaton after!
(TOP VIEW)
Make your own very own Automaton Robot!
(BOTTOM VIEW)
Basic Parts of An Automaton
STEP 1 - Draw a cone shape
STEP 2 - Add a curved line at the top
STEP 3 - Create a dome for the head
STEP 4 - Add a curved line under the dome
STEP 5 - Draw the face plate, flattening the bottom of the shape a little
STEP 6 - Draw half moon or oval eyes
STEP 7 - Draw the arms
STEP 8 - Erase some lines, add details and color
Final Product To Cut Out
STEP 1 : Gather Materials
Supplies:
-1 Soda Straw
-2 bamboo skewers or thin dowel sticks (~12 inches in length)
-1 foam sheet (9x12) about 1/4” thick. Can’t go thinner. You can also
use cardboard for this part
-Tissue box or other rectangular box that is deep (cereal boxes are too
shallow)
-Ruler, scissors, hot glue gun/white glue, tape, sharpie
-1 Soda Straw
-2 bamboo skewers or thin dowel sticks (~12 inches in length)
-1 foam sheet (9x12) about 1/4” thick. Can’t go thinner. You can also
use cardboard for this part
-Tissue box or other rectangular box that is deep (cereal boxes are too
shallow)
-Ruler, scissors, hot glue gun/white glue, tape, sharpie
Materials cont.
Foam Sheet Close-Up
STEP 2
Remove the plastic from the tissue box if using one. If using another box, cut out a square from one side for the front of the automaton. Draw straight lines from corner to corner on each side of the box using the sharpie and a ruler to create an “X”.
STEP 3
Do the same on the top. If you have flaps on your box, be sure to tape them shut securely before doing this.
STEP 4
Using a skewer or sharpend pencil, make a hole at the center of the X’s. Only make the holes large enough in the body of the box for the skewer or dowel to go through. You will need to make the hole at the top large enough for a piece of straw to fit into. One skewer (the crank) will go through horizontally and one skewer (the cam follower) will go through vertically.
STEP 5
Cut a piece of straw 2 inches long. Widen the hole at the top just enough to fit the straw in (a sharpened pencil works dandy here). Position it so that 1 inch is above and 1 inch is below. Hot glue or tape the straw in place. It will be more secure if you hot glue it in, however, put a piece of tape at the base of the straw before hot glueing to prevent melting the straw with the hot glue.
STEP 6
Cut two circles(cams) from the foam around 2 inches in diameter (just be sure that the diameter of the foam circles is smaller than the depth of your box). They don’t have to be perfectly smooth, just make them as smooth as possible.
STEP 7
Decide if you want your EVE to just go round and round (crank skewer through center), or up and down and round and round (crank skewer offset).
STEP 8
Attach foam circles to skewers. The crank skewer goes through the cam foam circle all the way. The cam follower skewer has the foam circle on the end. You can glue the foam circles in place, but they will operate fine without glue until they become too loose. Don’t glue the crank cam in place until after you have assembled and worked the automaton a few times to determine its best position!
STEP 9
Insert the cam follower skewer into the straw guide tube from the bottom up. Then remove the foam cam, insert the crank skewer from one side of the box, pass through the cam and then continue to the hole on the other side. The cam follower should sit on top of the cam. If you turn the crank the cam following will spin or move up and down. May have to adjust the positions some to get it to work right. You may need to trim your skewers to shorter lengths using scissors or cutters. Then attach your EVE drawing with glue or tape, turn the crank and watch her go!
FINAL STEP
You may need to adjust the positions of the crank and cam follower to get it just right. Once you have a place that works consistently, you can put a small piece of foam on the sides of the crank skewer to keep the crank from moving from side to side. This would be a time to glue the foam circles in place if you want to.
Eve and WALL-E
Eve in action!
Activity Four:
DIY Painted Rocks!
DIY Painted Rocks
Here we will show you how to paint rock art to match our robot friends WALL-E and Eve!
STEP 1
Paint one rock yellow, and one rock white with your medium-sized brush. You may need to paint 3-4 coats to fully coat. Let dry between layers or use hairdyer on low setting or cool setting to speed up drying process.
STEP 2
Once the paint is dry, use your smaller brush to paint a black semi-circle for EVE’s face. Mix brown and orange to make a rust color and paint rust stains on rock and the word WALL-E.
STEP 3
Paint WALL-E’s eyes and wheels in grey. Let them dry.
STEP 4
Use your small paintbrush to paint EVE’s blue eyes, and a green circle on her chest.
FINAL PRODUCT
If you want to add even more detail, once your paint is completely dry, add a white shine mark to WALL-E’s eyes and dark grey highlights around them.
Activity Five:
STEM related activities & extensions to Wall-E
Perseverance Rover Robot
The Perseverance Rover that just launched yesterday into space on its way to Mars has some amazing new advancements in robotics, and technology.
The Perseverance rover's astrobiology mission is to seek out signs of past microscopic life on Mars, explore the diverse geology of its landing site, Jezero Crater, and demonstrate key technologies that will help us prepare for future robotic and human exploration. To learn more click on the image to view 7 Things to Know About the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission.
The Perseverance rover's astrobiology mission is to seek out signs of past microscopic life on Mars, explore the diverse geology of its landing site, Jezero Crater, and demonstrate key technologies that will help us prepare for future robotic and human exploration. To learn more click on the image to view 7 Things to Know About the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission.
View the Perserverance Launch here!
If you missed the last launch - click here to view!
Create your own coding programs using Ozobots
Robots are programmed with set codes - learn how to be your own programmer of robotics with Ozobots!
Be on the lookout soon for the Museum of the Southwest educator and homeschool check out kits that will include littleBits, art projects and more!
Be on the lookout soon for the Museum of the Southwest educator and homeschool check out kits that will include littleBits, art projects and more!
Introducing The Robot : AI
Basin PBS has some great shows to introduce you to all new forms of robotics and aritificial intelligence or AI. Click through as we explore a little deeper into what makes a robot work!
littleBits Moving Robot Project!
The next images will link to mulitple littleBits projects that you can do together!
If you have robotics at home and are looking for fun ideas, here is one to do using the littleBits!
Be on the lookout soon for the Museum of the Southwest educator and homeschool check out kits that will include littleBits, art projects and more!
If you have robotics at home and are looking for fun ideas, here is one to do using the littleBits!
Be on the lookout soon for the Museum of the Southwest educator and homeschool check out kits that will include littleBits, art projects and more!
Robotics with littleBits
Easy Robot using litteBits and things from home!
WALL-E Trash Tower Game
Enjoy your turn at this engaging STEM game! Plus click through for some extended lessons on Robots!
MARIAN WEST AND WILLIAM BLANTON BLAKEMORE PLANETARIUM
Come see us when we reopen!
MUSEUM OF THE SOUTHWEST
Heading 1
