Duration: 15 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Empathy
- Emotional awareness, regulation and communication
- Creativity
Brief Description:
Children are invited to reflect on what makes someone a good friend, then imagine if a robot could be a good friend too. They are shown pictures or videos of robots and introduced to the idea of a robot that understands emotions.
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
- Develops emotional awareness by linking emotions to real-life and imagined contexts
- Stimulates empathy by asking students to imagine emotional needs in others (including a robot!)
- Promotes creative thinking through the open-ended question
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
- Students begin to articulate qualities of empathy and support
- Students start imagining how emotions could be recognized and responded to
- Students gain curiosity about combining emotions and technology
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Civic education: understanding emotions, relationships
- Science/technology introduction: robots and automation
- Language: expressing feelings and describing behaviours
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- Images or short videos of robots (printed or projected)
- Whiteboard or chart for keywords
- Optional: emotion cards
Preparation notes
- Choose age-appropriate robot visuals (simple design, expressive features if possible). Prepare 1–2 sample definitions of “good friend” to support discussion
Guided Questions
- What makes someone a good friend?
- Could a robot become a good friend? Why or why not?
- How could a robot know how we feel?
- What would you want a robot to do if you were sad or scared?
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- Did anyone think a robot could show feelings? Why?
- What was the most surprising idea shared in our discussion?
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- If children struggle to imagine robots as friends, use cartoons or familiar characters (e.g., Baymax, Wall-E)
- Use sentence starters for shy children (“A good friend is someone who…”)
- Validate all contributions to encourage imagination