Based on learning by doing (with different levels: from imitation to creation). Students, in groups, will generate two outputs: a prototype and a learning portfolio.

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Part 0 - (Timing - 2 periods )

Real world motivation

Not long ago Alexa and Siri did not exist. A little further back, they were just the crazy futuristic idea of some sci-fi writer. Artificial Intelligence is evolving fast, but are we using properly the technology able to solve real needs? Or are we making up the needs when we have the technology? Do we all need to know exactly how many steps we take daily? 

Inspiring books and films to encourage this reflection that can be read/viewed and discussed with the students in language lessons are:

• Books: The Vestigial Heart (MIT Press): A Novel of the Robot Age (The MIT Press) by Carme Torras. Isaac Asimov stories.

• Films: Robot and Frank, Her, I am mother (+14 age-appropriate?), Eva 2011 -Spanish only-, Bicentennial man

• TV Series: Humans (age-appropriate?)

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Part 1 -  (Timing - 1 period)

Portfolio 

Students start their digital or paper portfolio with a one-page reflection on the topic. This activity should be performed in their first or second language lessons.

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Part 2a -  (Timing - 2 periods)

Learning our history

Students research the demographic evolution of their own family history. They should collect data about their ancestor’s birth places, living places, number of siblings, number of children, married age, etc. The teacher should focus and explain the differences between rural and urban families.

Answers can be graphed as a tree or with a simple infographic.

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Part 2b -(Timing - 2 periods)

Population pyramids

Students are introduced to the basics of what population pyramids are and how they can be interpreted. With all of this information, attached to the previous activity, they can make a deeper analysis comparing the rural and the urban context using the pyramids as a tool to justify their analysis. 

Math: use the same software to graph population pyramids.

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Part 3 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Portfolio

Students perform an analysis on the population pyramid in their country from the above disciplines’ perspectives. They have to make a list showing the differences founded in the context and the evolution (comparing their grandparents, their parents and them). As an entry point, teacher can ask how come that people live longer now compared with 100 years ago.

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Part 4 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Understanding the human body

Depending on the national curriculum, two entry points can be of use to the topic of aging:

1. Life cycle of cells and types of cells 

2. Immune and locomotor systems

The connections of these topics with healthy habits and illness prevention should be pointed out. Seeking a higher engagement, we ask students to focus on their own body’s cells and/or immune systems.

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Part 5 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Understanding the elderly (I)

The students are asked to research the needs of the elderly and their daily difficulties. In particular, the use and the users of walking frames should be analyzed looking particularly for flaws or improvement opportunities. The main goal of this activity is to connect walking-frames users and their needs that artificial intelligence or other devices might help them to handle. Students are encouraged to accompany some users in their daily routine for first-hand experience on issues such as steps, holes, fast traffic, and the like.

The students should take care about the differences between the needs of rural and urban context.

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Part 6a -   (Timing - 1 day school trip - optional)

Understanding the elderly (II)

If possible, they should prepare a field trip to an elderly home and prepare questionnaires to discuss with helpers and residents their use of walking frames and their general needs. Otherwise, students are encouraged to interview their elders (grandparents, other relatives) to gather the questionnaires data.

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Part 6b -  (Timing - 1 day school trip - optional)

Painting the elder’s thoughts

In the first part, students have to question the elderly artistic likings, focusing on musical discipline and taking information about elder’s favourite composers.

For the second part, the students have to prepare an instrumental composition. Through this composition, elderly and students do the CSI routine (Harvard mental routine), to achieve the abstractical sequence: Musical manifestation - auditory perception - abstract interpretation - musical thought materialization through painting. In the end they have to compare the routines.

Students are requested to understand the music as a way to induce in the listener a pleasant feeling of wellness.

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Part 7 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Data analysis

Gathered data on the flaws of walking frames should be analysed and graphed adequately with some spreadsheet software. Depending on their approach to the problem, graphs may reflect the prospective number of users, the questionnaire quantitative analysis or other. (The main idea is to express quantitative information using IT tools).

Data obtained from the interviews with the elders will be represented by folksosnomies/conceptual maps/summaries using IT tools.

Children should make a mixed analysis with quantitative and qualitative data.

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Part 8 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Portfolio

Students write down their analysis using both text and graphics to support their conclusions on the problem.

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Part 9 -   (Timing - 2 periods)

Narrowing down 

Students in groups choose a particular problem that has been noticed during the analysis phase and research deeper into that topic. Each group presents the results to the rest of the class and all involved teachers to gather further insight. Groups are assigned to different teachers (who will be mentoring them) depending on the subject that appears to be the most relevant to their approach. Each teacher should be assigned to, at least, one group of students.

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Part 10 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Portfolio

Students will prepare musicograms elements (genial.ly or similar software may be used in their Arts class), they represent a musicogram of the song with which they work the CSI routine with the elderly person and include it in their learning portfolio either in their mother tongue or as part of their second language learning activities.

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Part 11 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Solution design

Students work on the design of their solutions. Mentors are asked to find the connections to each subject in the students’ curriculum and highlight them. A common board called “Learning Needs” should be used (for example, with post-it) to add the topics in the curriculum that students would need to research for their solution. All teachers are encouraged to review the board often and to try to accommodate those topics in their lessons for the whole class, explaining why that topic is relevant to which group. For example, if a group is trying to connect an Arduino to the walking frame, the Physics teacher might be asked to review solar panels and electricity generation.

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Part 12 -   (Timing - 6 periods)

Solution implementation

Students work on their prototypes. Each group has a daily or every other day 5 minutes update with their mentor explaining their progress, the techniques they are using, what they have learned and any issues that might be hindering their work.

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Part 13 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Portfolio

Students should reflect and document their learning about virtual prototyping, planning, scaling, handcraft work, etc.

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Part 14 -   (Timing - 1 period)

Solution preparation

Students prepare a 6 minutes pitch presentation of their work and learning process along the weeks the project has been implemented.

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Part 15 -   (Timing - 1 day school trip - optional)

Solution presentation

If possible, they visit the same elderly-home and present the residents with their process (beware not to focus on the final results but on the learning path). Otherwise, these presentations should happen in a school event with other students and/or parents.

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