The Wonder Dog
Title | The Wonder Dog |
Author | Pamela Freeman |
Published by | Koala Books |
Date of Publication | 2002 |
Teaching Resources
- The sequel to The Wonder Dog is a short story called Which was against the Rules which was published in The NSW School Magazine in XXX 2007. If you don't subscribe to the School Magazine you can find a copy of the story here. Read it in class and ask students to illustrate it. If you do subscribe to the Magazine you might want to compare students' illustrations with the professional illustrations.
- Luke and Celia live in the near future. Robot dogs are already available here, although they are not as lifelike as Ruff. Brainstorm with students about other technology which is just beginning and where it could lead. The ideas which emerge could lead to narratives, artwork, science projects or all three.
- Robots come in lots of different shapes and sizes and are built for many different purposes. It is possible to build your own versions of some famous robots, like the rovers which explore Mars for NASA (see http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/muses2.shtml). See also http://robotics.arc.nasa.gov/ for lots of stuff about robots.
- How do you program behaviour such as Ruff's? First you must know what the animal you are copying actually does. Run a science project where students observe an animal (dog, cat, lizard, turtle, fish, for example) for a specified time and note down all behaviours, including how long the behaviour lasts for. Students studying similar animals could combine their information for a final report.
- The project above could be extended for interested students by having them research the evolutionary rationales for the behaviours (eg spraying to mark territory, grooming to remove parasites, etc.).
- Robots should replace humans in all boring jobs. Debate.