Mortal Engines
With the adaptation of the book to movie I thought I would do a lesson on Mortal Engines. It also helps that the movie has a Kiwi connection as the director and producer are both Kiwi's. If you haven't seen the trailer for this movie check it out below.
This lesson will be based around the book Mortal Engines written by Philip Reeves. If you want spoilers or a detailed summary so you can skip reading the book then check out this link.
Once you have read the book here are some questions to show just how much you know about the book.
If you really want to go into detail of the book then Shmoop is the place to go.
If you want help collecting your ideas on the book and exploring them in more depth then Heinmann has a lovely resource here.
Mortal Engines is part of a genre called Speculative Fiction. It basically asks the question: What If... To fulfill the answers the author often comes up with new ideas and new inventions. This futurist thinking has inspired many inventors. You can see some here on this site.
Design a product that could be used in the future.
Start off by finding inspiration from other places and makes notes about what works and doesn't. You can look at other films or books and take one of the things from there and design it. How would it work? What elements can you break it down into? What is it going to be made out of? What difficulties will you face using these materials? How can you minimise this or get around it? What problem will it solve? How useful will it be?
The point of this is to be inspired and not to copy what someone else has made so make sure you develop the idea so it is unique to you.
Come up with a couple of ideas and analyse the pitfalls and advantages of each design.
Pick the best one.
Make detailed drawings of all the elements of this device. Label and make notes alongside the drawings.