Spare Parts
- Grades: 8 to 11
- Common Sense Media: parents say 10+, kids say 10+
- CS strength: 5 out of 5
- SEL strength: 3 out of 5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58% critics, 82% audience
What happens
Based on a true story. Four students at a high school in Phoenix, most of them undocumented, are talked into entering a college underwater robotics competition by a teacher. They have a tiny budget, no experience and a lot of people who expect them to fail. They are up against the best engineering schools in the country, including MIT.
Why we watch it
This is the story of the MATE ROV competition, the same kind of competition our robotics class enters. Students see what engineering with a small budget looks like, why a team needs people with different strengths, and why creativity can beat money. Note the PG-13 rating: it includes some themes about immigration and family struggles.
Teacher ideas (before the movie)
About 15 to 20 minutes, in the order below. Cut the last one or two if the block is tight. Nothing here gives away the ending. The film is about a team that is counted out, so the warm-ups ask about being counted out, working with almost nothing, and what a team is made of. This is also our own program in miniature: the competition in the film is the MATE ROV event we enter.
- Quick vote, hands up (2 minutes): Who has ever been told they probably could not do something? Who did it anyway? Take two or three volunteers for “what was it, and what happened?” Nobody has to share. Sets up the whole film.
- Budget game (4 minutes): Write two numbers on the board: $800 and $11,000. Tell them one is a team of four high school students and one is a team from a top engineering university, both building the same underwater robot. Ask: which is which, and who do you think wins? Then ask: with $800, what would you build yourself and what would you scavenge or fix? Take guesses on the board. Come back at question 1 of the back page (“Working with Constraints”).
- Build it from junk (4 minutes, pairs): “Your robot has to work underwater and you have almost no money. Name three everyday things you could use to build a part of it (a frame, something to keep water out, something to push it along).” Each pair shares one. Students will guess some of the film’s answers, and that is fine. They enjoy catching it on screen.
- Who is on a team? (3 minutes): Put four words on the board: builder, planner, encourager, problem solver. Ask students to silently pick the one that sounds most like them, then stand by that word (or raise fingers 1 to 4). Ask one person at each word: “What would the team miss if you were not on it?” Sets up “Skills and Roles” on the back page.
- Wheel of Names (3 minutes): paste in the class list and spin. “Name something you made, fixed, or built that you are proud of, even if it was ugly.” Spin for three or four students.
- Predict from what you know (2 minutes): The film is based on a true story and the team in it is from a public high school in Phoenix. Ask: what could go wrong for a team with no money, no experience, and a lot of people expecting them to fail? Write guesses on the board and check them at the end of the film.
A note on the content: the students in the film are undocumented, and the film is rated PG-13 for the themes that come with that. Do not ask anyone in the room about their own or their family’s status. Keep the questions about the film and about what the team does. If a student brings it up, listen and thank them; do not press for more.
Standards alignment
Answer key and teacher notes
- (to check) What subject does Dr. Cameron teach at Carl Hayden?
- B What city does the underwater robotics competition take place in?
- (to check) Which team member has the most technical experience at the beginning?
- B What everyday material do they use to make their robot waterproof?
- (to check) What advantage does their robot have over the expensive MIT robot?