Text 2

Objectives:

- To Analyze texts - To search general and specific information in a text.- To identify vocabulary.

Pre-reading:

Activity 1

The students have to watch a video related to the text and answer some questions:(Question are presented in a glogster)

Activity 2

Students will have to make predictions about the text seeing the images and after reading they will have to read their predictions again.

Make predictions about the text seeing the next pictures: (pictures will be presented in a glogster) you have to take notes about your predictions.

Predictions: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

While-reading:

Read the text

Technology / RobotsThe Velociraptor-Like Robot That Could Save Your Life, by Valerie Ross

A balancing trick used by geckos, and possibly dinosaurs, is helping to

make more agile and helpful rescue robots. By Valerie Ross

From the September 2012 issue; published online August 28, 2012

Biologist Robert Full’s lab is brimming with critters in motion: scuttling

crabs, crawling centipedes, prowling geckos. These animals serve as

inspiration as he and his colleagues at the University of California,

Berkeley, build robots that are fast, steady, and agile. In January,

Full used his analysis of leaping lizards to design a rugged bot that

can navigate through the rubble following an earthquake or other

disaster.

Full’s breakthrough came from observing African agama lizards,

which have a remarkable ability to stick a perfect landing after vaulting through the air. The lizards keep their

On your mark, get set, go! Tailbot may not have the speed of an agama lizard (left) or an extinct velociraptor (right), but it is just as adept at maneuvering its tail in midair to set up a perfect landing. 

balance during flight, Full found, by moving their tails up and down to counteract the motion of their bodies and

keep themselves stable. He thought about how he could apply that technique to search-and-rescue robots, which

must remain upright as they clamber across precarious terrain.

Within a few months, Full and his team had built a four-wheeled, foot-long vehicle with a stiff tail section, which they

dubbed Tailbot. When it was driven off a ramp without any post launch adjustments, Tailbot nosedived into the

ground. But when the robot lifted its tail after it left the ramp—just enough to make up for the vehicle’s forward

pitch—it landed even more gracefully than the lizards. Full and his team are now working on a robot that can

stabilize itself if it starts to bank left or right in the air.

Full’s lizard analysis also led him into unfamiliar territory: paleontology. He found 40-year-old scientific papers

suggesting that the velociraptor—a swift predatory dinosaur—used a similar body-stabilizing trick. Full made a

mathematical model of how the creature moved, based on its bone structure, and discovered that the raptors were

probably as good as or better than present-day lizards at staying upright by using their tails. Although Full can never

confirm his theory, he is able to assess the motion of the computer-generated raptors in the film Jurassic Park. “If

you watch that scene where the velociraptor is jumping from the balcony,” he says, “it moves its tail perfectly.”

Activity 3

Students will have to read carefully each questions and alternative to choose the correct one.

Multiple choices:

Read the questions about the text and then choose the correct alternative

1) What characteristics have Robert Full observed from lizards?

a) Lizards have remarkable ability to stick a perfect landing, keep their balance during the flight and moving their tails up and down.

b) Lizards move their tails up and down to fly but they can’t land perfectly.c) Lizards have a remarkable ability to stick a perfect landing and they move their tails up and down to

fly.

2) Where did Robert get the idea to do the robot with these characteristics?

a) From a film.b) From lizards.c) From different animals.

3) Why Robert and his team did a robot?

a) To do a film.b) To navigate through the rubble.c) To be famous.

4) What did Full find to observe African lizards?

a) A movement from their tails up and down to counter the movement of their body and remain stable.

b) A movement from their tails to fend off enemies.c) A movement to keep flying.

5) Why the movements from lizards were useful to create a robot?

a) Because they helped him to stabilize themselves.b) Because they are useful to jump better.c) Because they helped him to be faster.

Post-reading:

Activity 4

Students will have to identify the animals that have appeared in the text and put their names.

See the images and identify what picture appear in the text and put the name under each one.

Centipedes African Agama lizard ____________

________________ Lizards Velociraptor

Tailbot __________________ Crabs

Activity 5

After students read the text, they will have to read their predictions again. Some of the students will have to read their predictions: for example: 3 students will their correct predictions and another 3 students will read their wrong predictions.

Read the text and check your predictions in the activity number 2: you have to check and validate your predictions.

Activity 6

Students will have to write a short summary considering the main ideas from the text.

Write a short summary about the text (5 lines)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Activity 7

Students will have to answer some general questions from the text.

Answer these questions about the text:

1) What is the main characteristic of the robot?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2) Which is the purpose of the author to create a robot like this?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________