al-Jazari: video worksheets, differentiated x3.

Engaging, funny, and informative, Dick and Dom present the life and works of Ismail al-Jazari. Using recreations of experiments, expert explanations, startling examples and whacky cut-aways, the presenters explain his early career, “The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices”. We investigate a 500-year-old copy of the book in the Bodleian Library. A copy of the water-raising machine; the importance of converting circular to linear motion; a crank-shaft and pistons in a modern tractor. The elephant-clock and automata. Modern automata. The presenters make an al-Jazari-inspired game. Modern electronic robots, including RoboThesp and Attacknid. Cams etc. in modern robots. The madcap presenters try (and fail) to win a round of Robot Wars.

Try the format FOR FREE: see Archimedes in this series here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13136795

Find the film on YouTube’s Tangwaap channel for “Absolute Genius S2 E6 Ismail al-Jazari”. The film is also available on other YouTube channels.

17 questions for the 28-min film. Differentiated THREE ways! All versions look similar, but “B” version has subtle clues, and “C” version requires pupils to cross out wrong answers, not write in correct ones, allowing pupils with literacy difficulties to access the work. Answer sheet. Very easy to mark. .doc and .pdf of all sheets, two different links to the film on all sheets.