Lion+Lights

Lion Lights Area of Interaction: Human Ingenuity Unit Question: How can a teenager change the world? Significant Concept: Belief in a simple idea with action behind it can impact a nation. There was a problem in Africa and Richard Turere, an eleven-year-old boy, found the solution. Your assignment is to watch the videos and read the articles listed below. After each, answer the questions using complete sentences and great detail.

== Article - Lions No Match For Young Boy and His Invention == Read this article. What was the problem? The lions were killing his father's cows.

How did Richard solve the problem? He made a series of flashing lights to solve the problem.

Does he think the Lion Lights will work forever? If not, what will he do? No, but if it starts to not work he will find out another way to solve it because that's the kind of work ethic he has.

== Article & Video - A Kenyan Teen's Discovery: Let There Be Lights To Save Lions == On this website, watch the video & read the article about Richard.

What would be the consequences if all the lions were killed? Lions bring a lot of tourism to Kenya and the tourism is one of Kenya's biggest source of revenue. Were there other people trying to solve the lion problem? If so, what ideas had they come up with? Yes, some examples of ideas were land leases and lion-proof fences. What did Richard use to build these lion lights? Richard used broken flashlight parts and an indicator box from a motorcycle. Richard flew on an airplane for the first time. He met scholars, scientists, and so many other people. What impressed him most during his visit? What impressed Richard the most was when he was at the Aquarium of the Pacific and he saw a shark for the first time.

== Video - Richard Turere - My Invention That Made Peace With Lions == Watch this video. What did Richard spend his time doing before Lion Lights? Richard would spend his time pulling apart and putting together electronic parts to learn about electronics. How did his hobby help him create his invention?\ His knowledge about electronics lead him to create the flashing lights that require a lot of knowledge dealing with electronics.

== Design Cycle == Based on all the videos and articles that you have read about Richard, complete the following. Evaluate: He evaluated his invention and realized it would work, but he was still trying to find other solutions like the electric fences.
 * Explain how Richard used the Design Cycle.
 * Richard uses the design cycle by analyzing the problem which was the lions killing his father's cows, designing multiple ideas that he thinks will solve the problem like the scarecrow and the fire, realizing that the flashing lights idea was the best one, and evaluating how he can improve his idea even more to make sure the lions don't come back anymore.
 * Show examples for each step of the Design Cycle (Research/Analysis, Design, Realizing the Solution, Evaluate). --Hint: He goes through the steps multiple times during the process. Discuss all examples--
 * Research/Analysis: He analyzed the problem when he noticed his cows were dying from these lions (he even saw a dead cow overnight from a lion attack.)
 * Design: He designed several ideas; first it was the fire, then the scarecrow, and then lights or moving lights.
 * Realizing the Solution: He realized that the moving lights scared off the lions and whenever the moving lights were out the lions would not go into the farm.

== Evaluate == What were some of the unintended outcomes of his solution? (Good or Bad - name at least 2) 1. Richard prevented all the lions from killing the cattle. 2. Lion Lights is now used all over Kenya. Do you have to be rich and educated to invent something that changes the world? Why or Why not? You do not have to be rich or educated to invent something fantastic and Richard definitely proves that. Richard wasn't rich and he didn't have many opportunities to become educated, and yet he took the knowledge he got from just playing with his mom's radio and he made an invention that is used all over Kenya. You don't have to be rich or educated, you just have to have a successful idea and work hard until it works; no is not an answer.

How can a teenager change the world? Teenagers can change the world just by doing something creative like making an invention or designing clothes or even try to start a business. Teenagers have a lot of ideas and questions, they just have to put the time and work into making it successful just the way they wanted it. How can you make a change in the world? I can make a change in the world just by trying to do my best everyday. I can be a good example for my community and friends and I can also have a great attitude and work ethic. I, too have a lot of ideas for either inventions or business ideas, it's just how badly I want the idea to be successful. What are two things that you found the most interesting about Richard's story? 1. Richard received knowledge about electronics from playing with his mom's radio. 2. Richard always had a positive attitude and even when his idea wouldn't work, he would try to see the next thing he could do that would be successful.

If you could talk to Richard and ask him a question, what would you ask him? Why? If I could ask Richard a question, I would ask him if he ever had doubts of him not being able to prevent the lions from killing off the cattle. I would ask him this because he seemed so positive throughout the whole process and that's a great attitude to have with anything in life; especially something like saving your cattle.