Search form

Back to Blog

Tech Fiction Becomes Reality

suitApparently a little engineering know-how and a lot of free time is all it takes to turn what was previously sci-fi fantasy into real-world reality. Japan's Sakakibara Kikai has created a mechanical suit, not unlike the one worn by Sigourney Weaver's character Ellen Ripley in the film Aliens.

While the feat of engineering is impressive, the fact that is specifically designed for children to use makes every single Christmas gift ever given pale in comparison.

As reported by CNet, the suit, dubbed the Kid's Walker Cyclops, is "an 800-pound, 7-foot-tall drivable mecha suit with a cockpit and moving arms. The front of the machine opens to become a ladder to the cockpit. As seen in the vid below, one hand has a hook to grapple foes and the other has a power drill to smite obstacles. The weapons are controlled by rotating the handles in the cockpit, which has room for one child. The battery-operated mecha has wheels under its feet but moves in a shuffling motion."

 

Education World®    
Copyright © 2013 Education World

More

The Global Search for Education: The...

“A growing number of other countries are turning out entire high school graduating classes that are much better educated than ours, with much more equity, and they are doing it at a lower cost per student.” — Marc Tucker

Fears of rising unemployment fueled by automation of millions...

Lawmakers Would Like A Statue of...

Using the News in the Classroom

This week, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) and co-sponsor Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) have introduced a bill to have a statue of Harriet Tubman placed in a "prominent location" in the U.S. Capitol. In 2012, a commission was set up to raise money to pay for a statue of Harriet Tubman. In order for such a statue to be in the Capitol, lawmakers must...

Providing Preservice Teachers with...

It's no secret in the education world that gifted education training is not a priority for new teachers. In teacher preparation programs, if preservice teachers receive any kind of training, it's generally short discussions or readings in their existing education courses (Chamberlin and Chamberlin, 2010). As Troxclair (2013) writes, "[h]istorically, preservice teachers have had little exposure in their teacher training programs regarding the nature and needs of gifted learners, theories of...

The Global Search for Education: Meet...

“Professional, highly-trained and highly respected teachers are a key factor in our success: teachers have pedagogical autonomy so they decide by themselves which teaching methods and materials they use.” —  Sanni Grahn-Laasonen

Sanni Grahn-Laasonen says her...

Building on Teachers' Strengths

When an aspiring fighter visits a boxing gym, the potential coach does not start teaching him or her all the techniques. The first thing a wise coach will do is say, "get in the ring and show me what you got." The coach will carefully examine what the fighter can already do, then design a training regimen to build upon those strengths.

I'm interested in taking a similar strength-based approach with the emerging teachers I work with each week. I want to know what natural...

Around the World in 30 Days: January...

C. M. Rubin’s Global Education Report

This month in The Global Search for Education, William Gaudelli, George Rupp and Dana Mortenson shared...

Black History Month Factoids

Black History Month

Dr. Carter G. Woodson organized a two-week period in February 1926 to highlight contributions of African Americans. In 1976, the month of February was established as Black History Month. The month of February was selected because it was the month in which both Frederick Douglass (abolitionist) and Abraham Lincoln (president who...

The Global Search for Education: The...

“These schools and this community became staked more than fifty years ago on the idea that education is the highest investment for the present and for the future, in light also of the huge historical changes that human kind is going through.” —  Carla Rinaldi...

Pages