 Once she finds out, she thinks of a way to trick the kids.The "homework machine" is in the style of the large mainframe computers of the 1950s, and one that uses paper punched cards.The concept of students using computers for research is common today; however, this computer was not merely a machine via which the drudgery of solving many three or four digit long division problems could be offloaded; it was also somehow able to accept "programming" of students' text books that enabled it to write reports on topics that were covered by the text books.