The Power of Useless (TED-based lesson plan)

I believe we all need a bit of pure fun – especially now. And one of the first people that comes to my mind when I think of joy is Simone Giertz, a woman who makes robots that are useless – and while it may sound somewhat absurd, I think you will enjoy my simple yet highly educational lesson plan.

Even though the most educational part is the homework.

The whole point of the lesson is to show students that it’s OK to find joy in doing something seemingly useless, that you can actually make your living from something you enjoy, even if it’s making ridiculous robots. So, apart from the language connected with technology and presentation, they will learn something really important: you can really have fun, even as an adult!

Maybe it’s time to rediscover it?

Age: teens/adults

Level: B1+

Time: 45 min

Introduction – meet Simone Giertz: 10 min

Welcome your students and explain that today you will talk about unusual inventions. Ask them how they would define an unusual invention, and organize a short brainstorming session. Once your students come up with their ideas, explain that you are going to talk about Simone Gierz (click here!) and her ingenious robots. Don’t tell them, however, that the whole point about her inventions is that they are adorably silly. Instead, use some of the films on her YouTube channel – probably some of your students will recognize Simone from social media: https://www.youtube.com/c/simonegiertz.

You can start with my favourite – a soup robot:

Ask your students to browse the net looking for her inventions and talk about them – do you find them funny, creative, or maybe silly?

Why you should make useless things: 15 min

Now, the main question: why does Simone create those robots? Ask your students, write down their ideas, and then ask them to watch her short TED talk:

Once you finish talking (and explaining vocabulary if needed), check whether anyone gave the correct answer. Talk about useless yet enjoyable things in our lives – do you do such activities? What are they?

Let’s Make Something Useless: 10 min

Divide your class into groups and ask your students to come up with a useless, silly invention. What would that be – a robot that literally hammers words into one’s head? A machine meowing when somebody is calling you so that you can say “gotta go, my cat needs me” and stop talking?

Presentation: 10 min

Once your students are done with their ideas, it’s time to present them and have some fun – whose idea was the most creative and funny? You can use some simple classroom objects to visualise the idea, but it’s fine when you just describe it and make some simple stick figure drawings on the board.

Homework: 1 min

To sum up your classes, ask your students whether they’ve learnt something new about the impact of useless yet enjoyable activities. Ask them to try something like new, unexpected and seemingly silly, and make sure to prepare a short speech about this challenge for the next lesson.

And to be honest, this activity will be the proper lesson your students will learn.

Enjoy!