Duration: 15-20 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Empathy
- Emotional awareness, regulation and communication
Brief Description:
After the introductory discussion, students form groups of four. Within each group, students choose or are assigned specific roles (e.g., robot designer, coder, writer, presenter) to ensure shared responsibility and active participation.
Then, each group selects or receives an Emotion Scenario Card describing a situation where someone needs empathy. Students read and discuss the scenario, identify the emotional state involved, and begin thinking about how their robot might respond to help.
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
- Students practice identifying and understanding other people’s emotions
- They collaborate to imagine supportive, compassionate responses
- They learn to recognize emotional cues and relational needs.
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
- Students develop their ability to take others’ perspectives
- They become more comfortable naming and recognizing emotions
- They discover there are different ways to support someone in need
- They build teamwork and respectful listening within small groups.
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Civic and emotional education
- Strengthening emotional vocabulary and empathy
- Supporting cooperative work and social-emotional learning.
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- Printed or handwritten Emotion Scenario Cards (1 per group)
- Blank paper or sketch sheets for notes or early ideas (optional)
- Poster paper or flipchart for collective sharing (optional).
Preparation notes
- Prepare age-appropriate scenario cards in advance
- Organize the space for group work (e.g., desk islands or floor space)
- Clarify group roles and expectations with short descriptions/examples.
Guided Questions
- How do you think the person in this situation feels?
- Has something like this ever happened to you or a friend?
- What could we do to help them feel better?
- How might a kind and empathetic robot respond in this case?
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- Which scenario made you think the most?
- What feelings did this discussion bring up for you?
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- If children have trouble choosing roles, suggest short role descriptions or let them rotate
- Offer sentence starters to help groups communicate (“I think that…”, “Maybe we could…”)
- For unclear situations, read them aloud or provide a quick example to support comprehension.