1. Week 01 - Student-Centered Learning Approaches

Design a simple electronic circuit using a simulator

A simple circuit to turn on a LED made with TinkerCad:

Use a Makey Makey board to interact with a computer game/program :

I used a Makey Makey board to play piano with conductive tools that were around in the lab.

Turning the simple LED circuit to make a shadow theater :

Imagine an educational activity using simple electronics components (preferably without microcontrollers) that is suitable for the age group that you are teaching. Describe it (provide goals of activity and methodologies). Consider also the role of the kids: would you classify it as Digital Fabrication for kids or with kids? Why? It is preferable that you integrate any of the circuits you have created in step 1 or 2.

As I am mainly teaching digital fabrication to master’s students in computer science, I don’t feel I have enough expertise to teach them about electronics (I feel they might be the ones who could teach me).

As a freelance I provide workshops, in afterschools program. With a simple LED circuit and my love for cinema, I tend to find the shadow theater really interesting. Participants could learn the basics of electricity and conductivity, in order to build a story, that can either be a live performance or captionned.

Several lights colors, movements, shapes, even mechanisms, could be part of such an activity.

I would classify this activity as digital fabrication with kids - the main circuit is easy to grasp and reproduce, the content of shapes in the shadow theater would be theirs - with certainly some help to build a simple scenario.

What are the challenges of using electronics in your space? How can this support your students in learning classroom content?

In the fablab UPSaclay, as I stated before, I feel like I would need more expertise in order to teach electronics. So far, I was taught where and to to find adequate ressources. The challenge is quite interesting as my learning curve would be gigantic.

What has been your experience using Project Based Learning / Problem based learning in the past? What were the main challenges?

The main course I am teaching is a Project Based Learning one. Students have to choose a project integrating at least one Sustainability Development Goal, while learning how to 3D model and 3D printing for a 7 weeks class. The main challenge is to guide them without putting too much pressure or constraints, and to challenge them to go deeper in their project, while learning myself about the subject they chose.