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
Activity Two:
Make your own Wall-E out of recycled materials

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.
Activity Three:
DIY Automaton 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)

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

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 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.
Activity Four:
DIY Painted Rocks!
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.

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!
MARIAN WEST AND WILLIAM BLANTON BLAKEMORE PLANETARIUM
Come see us when we reopen!
MUSEUM OF THE SOUTHWEST
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