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Expression Recipe Flashcard Gallery

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About This MicroSim

This flashcard drill turns the chapter's thirteen named expressions into quick practice you can finish in a few minutes. One card at a time shows either a rendered robot face or a written parameter recipe, and you pick the name you think it produces. The goal is to predict a name from a recipe, and to infer a recipe from a face, until both directions feel automatic. Every card ends with one sentence naming the parameter that does the most work in that expression.

How to Use

  1. Read the card on the left. In Face to Name mode it shows a rendered face; in Recipe to Name mode it shows the parameter values instead.
  2. Click one of the thirteen expression-name buttons to lock in your guess. The correct name turns green, and a wrong guess turns red.
  3. Watch the card flip over. It then shows the answer plus the side you could not see before, and the panel on the right explains the key parameter.
  4. Click Reveal instead of guessing when you want to study a card. Revealed cards are not scored.
  5. Click Next Card for a new random expression, and Reset Score to start a fresh session.
  6. Use the mode menu to switch between Face to Name and Recipe to Name.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

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<iframe src="sims/expression-recipe-flashcard-gallery/main.html"
        height="522px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade Level

9-12 (High School)

Duration

10-15 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 9's parameterized face: eye_size, eye_spacing, eyebrow_angle, gaze_offset_x, and mouth_curvature
  • The face state dictionary, and the idea that one set of numbers describes one complete face
  • The thirteen named expressions from this chapter's walkthrough
  • Comfort reading a Python dictionary of key-value pairs

Activities

  1. Exploration (5 min): Stay in Face to Name mode and use Reveal on six or seven cards without guessing. For each one, write down the single parameter you think separates it from neutral.
  2. Guided Practice (5 min): Switch to Recipe to Name mode and guess ten cards. Each time you miss, say out loud which number misled you, then find the expression you confused it with in the chapter's recipe table.
  3. Assessment (5 min): Reset the score, then run ten cards in Face to Name mode. Record your score and list the two expressions you confused most.

Assessment

  • Scores at least 7 of 10 on a Face to Name run without using Reveal
  • Names the defining parameter for happy, sad, angry, and surprised without looking at the chapter's recipe table
  • Explains why afraid and surprised are easy to confuse, naming at least two parameters they share
  • Identifies the three expressions that deliberately break facial symmetry

References

  1. Paul Ekman - Wikipedia - Background on the cross-cultural emotion research behind this expression set.
  2. Facial Action Coding System - Wikipedia - The muscle-movement system that this book's few parameters simplify.
  3. p5.js Reference - The drawing functions used to render every face in this MicroSim.
  4. MicroPython framebuf module - The drawing library that puts these same faces on a real robot display.