What job could a robot do? What recycled items could you use? Invent a high-tech robot with classmates!

• 1.

  Find out how items in your community are recycled. What items can be recycled? How is waste handled? Where do the recycled products go? How are recycled materials processed into new goods? List some of the most common items made with recycled products.

• 2.

  Discover how robots and computers have changed the way people explore the ocean and space. For example, a robot named Jason helped locate the wreck of the Titanic on September 1, 1985. Interview friends and neighbors to find examples of robots in homes, transportation, and local industries. How do robots affect your everyday life?

• 3.

  With a small group of your classmates, recycle items such as plastic containers, boxes, and other beautiful junk. Use Crayola® Model Magic to press these objects together to create a robot that has a specific use which you imagine. Think of creative uses!  Let the robot air-dry for at least 24 hours.

• 4.

  Use Crayola School Glue to attach other recycled materials to make a space ship, home, vehicle, or another accessory for your robot.  Air-dry.

• 5.

  Cover your art area with newspaper.  Paint your robot and any accessories with Crayola Washable Paint and Paint Brushes.  Air-dry all pieces.

• 6.

  Glue on decorative craft items such as fake fur, yarn, or feathers.  Air-dry your art.

• 7.

  Name your robot. Present it to the class, explain how it was made, tell why it is environmentally friendly, and describe the work it performs.

Standards

• LA: Read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
• LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
• SCI: Design a device that replaces an external structure and analyze data on its physical properties to compare alternative solutions to the problem.
• SS: Identify and describe factors that contribute to cooperation and cause disputes within and among groups and nations.
• SS: Examine the relationships and tensions between personal wants and needs and various global concerns, such as use of imported oil, land use, and environmental protection.
• VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.
• VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Adaptations

• Possible classroom resources include: Why Should I Recycle? by Jen Green; The Three R's: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle by Nuria Roca; The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling by Alison Inches
• Invite a local community leader to visit with class to discuss their community's efforts in recycling. Prior to the meeting, students compose questions for the leader. After the meeting, students post learning to a class blog.
• Students organize a community clean-up or recycling project. Collaborate with community groups to increase continuing participation in recycling problems.
• Students videotape their original robots working at an assigned task. Students describe how the design allow the tasks to be accomplished.