The Arduino Design Project I'm Doing With Students Who Don't Have Materials at Home

Like a lot of other schools, mine closed without much more than a few hours notice. We went home on a Friday afternoon and Sunday evening we were told that we were not going back. My 9th grade computer science principles students were really starting to hit their stride with the various Arduino projects they were working on. Of course, I hadn't sent any materials home with my students.

For a couple of weeks I gave my students some lessons via EDpuzzle to keep the basic concepts fresh in their minds. When it became clear that we weren't going to be returning to our school I started to think of other ways to keep my students interested and challenge them a little bit. (Note, this is an elective course and most of my students would be working on these types of things even if we didn't offer a course about it).

What I'm doing this week and next week to try to keep my students interested and challenged is to give them a list of parts available then find or design a project that utilizes those components. They then have to write the code and directions for assembly. After they submit their project ideas and code I'm assembling the project in a Google Meet in front of them (I have a ton of materials in my home office). Below this paragraph you'll see the directions and parts list that I gave to my students this week.

Directions:
1. Find or design an Arduino project that uses some or all of the parts listed below. The project can only use the parts that are listed below. Your project must be more complex than the basic blinking programs that we did in class before school was closed. Yes, you can consult the Arduino Project Hub as well as YouTube or any other website you find that has Arduino project ideas.

2. In a Google Document write out the steps for assembling the project. At the end of the document include the code that needs to be used in order for the project to run correctly.

Parts Available:

• 2 Arduino Unos
• 2 Breadboards
• 1 Potentiometer
• 1 5V Relay
• 1 IR Receiver
• 1 Remote
• 5 Buttons
• 2 Buzzers
• 1 Ultrasonic Sensor
• 1 Stepper Driver Motor
• 1 Power Supply Module
• 1 Servo Motor
• 1 Temperature and Humidity Sensor Module
• 1 Tilt Switch
• 2 NPN Transistors
• As many jumper wires as needed (up to 100)
• As many resistors as needed (up to 50)
• 1 LCD Display Module
• 1 Diode Rectifier
• As many single color LEDs as needed (up to 100)
• 2 RGB LEDs
• 2 USB cables to connect Arduino to computer.

A Great Series for Introducing or Reviewing Arduino Programming Concepts

Arduino programming was one of the things that we were really starting to get rolling on just before school closed. Now that my school is closed and we're doing remote teaching and learning, I'm using EDpuzzle to create review activities for my students.

This week I used EDpuzzle to create lessons based on a great series of Arduino programming basics. The videos were produced by Bob at I Like to Make Stuff. In the three part series he covers the big, basic concepts of programming in general before moving into the specifics of Arduino programming. The final video in the series puts everything together for viewers. And if you're wondering what an Arduino is, Bob has that covered too. The first video in the series is embedded below and the rest can be found on I Like to Make Stuff.



If you're wondering what EDpuzzle is and how it works, I have that covered here.


And you're interested in learning more about Arduino, there's a section of the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp dedicated to it.