Урок по теме Технический прогресс (Роботы) в старших классах.
план-конспект урока по английскому языку (9, 10, 11 класс) на тему

Тема урока:  Are robots our friends or enemies?

Цели: продолжить формирование навыков устной речи по теме «Наука»; развитие умения и навыков отстаивать свою позицию; толерантное отношение к мнению оппонента.

Средства и оборудование: мел, доска, тексты, карточки с заданиями к тексту, карточки с заданиями для работы в группах.

Ход урока:

1. Организационный момент.
2. What modern devices are there in our household now? Can you imagine your life without them?
3. It’s quite clear that scientific progress is bound to be carried on. So new useful inventions are likely to appear in our household in the nearest future. What household devices do you think people will have in future?
4. Today we will talk about such unique smart devices as robots. (учитель раздает тексты)

1. Read the text and find the words (ex.1).
2. Work in pairs and find the right answer to the questions out of four possible ones. Prove your idea with the text. (ex.2) At the same time one pair of students make up 5 more questions to the text.
3. Answer the students’ questions.
4. Find in the text the words which end with the letters given (ex.3).
5. Use these words and the words from ex.1 and tell everything you’ve learnt about robots from the text.
6. What’s the message of the text?

5. Group work. One group: you have a robot at home in your household. Prepare to tell us about its role in your life. Don’t forget to say that sometimes you worry about its influence on you. Group two: you are the scientists’ opponents, you reject robots and new super powerful technologies because you are sure that it’s dangerous for humans. Group three: you’re scientists who strongly believe in advantages of robots. Prepare a report on benefits which robot offer to us.
6. Discussion: 1) the family tell us about their robot and ask their question. 2) Scientists’ opponents tell about their ideas of robots (their opinion is rather negative). 3) The third group gives their opinion. 4) Group one two and group three discuss the problem. 5) The family say which of the two other groups has been more convincing and what they’re going to do with their robot now and why (maybe they will buy one more robot).  
7. What do you personally think about such high-tech gadgets as robots in people’s life?
8. Homework: “Are robots our friends or enemies?” (write an essay)

Приложение

Текст

Almost human?

Scientists are racing to build the world’s first thinking robot. This is not science fiction^ some say they will have made it by the year 2020. Carol Parker reports. Machines that walk, speak and feel are no longer science fiction. Kismet is the name of an android which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show human emotions. Its eyes, ears and lips move to show when it feels happy, sad or bored. Kismet is one of first of a new generation of androids – robots that look like human beings – which can imitate human feelings. Cog, another android invented by the MIT, imitates the action of a mother. However, scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental ability of a two-year-old.

The optimists say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public. What kind of jobs will they do? In the future, robots like Robonaut, a humanoid invented by NASA, will be doing dangerous jobs, like repairing space stations. They will also be doing more and more of the household work for us. In Japan, on the other hand, where humanoid robots are appearing faster than in America, the Japanese are designing androids that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.

Some people worry about what the future holds: will we have created another Frankenstein’s monster? What’s more worrying is whether people themselves are becoming increasingly like robots. Experts predict that more and more people will be wearing micro-computers, connected to the Internet, in the future. People will have micro-chips in various parts of their body, which will connect them to a wide variety of gadgets. Perhaps we should not exaggerate the importance of technology, but one wonders whether, in years to come, we will still be falling in love, and whether we will still fell pain. Who knows?

Exercise 1

1. A robot which looks human a______________
2. A machine which behaves like a human h______________
3. Someone who usually believes that good things will happen o___________________
4. A fictional scientist who created a famous monster F_______________
5. A very small piece of silicon containing electronic information m____-____
6. A small tool or machine that helps you to do something g________

Exercise 2

1. Kismet is different from other robots because

A     it thinks for itself

B     it is not like science fiction

C     it can walk and speak

D     it seems to have feelings

2. What makes Cog special?

A     it looks like a mother

B     it behaves like a child

C     it does things a mother does

D     it has a human brain

3. In 20 years’ time robots

A     will behave like animals

B     will be able to express ideas

C     will look exactly like humans

D     will think like humans

4. In the future robots will

A     entertain people

B     explore space

C     move much faster

D     do all the household

5. What is the writer’s attitude to robots in the future?

A     She welcomes the new inventions

B     She believes we may create a monster

C     She is worried that they may make us less human

D     She thinks people will need to use them more

Exercise 3

1. copy someone’s behavior __________tate
2. connected with the mind _________al
3. reluctantly say that something is true ____mit
4. made something new ________ated
5. connected to the home ______hold
6. make something seem better or worse than it is ___ate

(Rising Star// Macmillan, 2005)

Раздаточный материал для групп

Family: you have a robot at home in your household. Prepare to tell us about its role in your life. Don’t forget to say that sometimes you worry about its influence on you.

Scientists’ opponents: you are those who reject robots and new super powerful technologies because you are sure that it’s dangerous for people.

Scientists: you’re scientists who strongly believe in advantages of robots. Prepare a report on benefits which robots offer.

Feedback:

1) the family tell us about their robot and ask their question.

2) the scientists’ opponents (second group) give their opinion.

3) scientists  (group three) give their opinion. Ask the family and their opponents’ questions and try to change their mind.

4) group one, two and three argue (ask and answer one another’s questions, share their ideas).

5) the family say which of the two other groups has been more convincing and what they’re going to do with their robot now and why (maybe they will buy one more robot).