1. Week 01¶

This week I worked on using a microcontroller to respond to data collected in my clssroom.

Project Description¶

To match the lamp making class project we are working, I made a nightlight. The microbit reads the light level in the room. THe LED strip attached responds to the light level. When the room is dark, the LEDs turn bright blue. When there is medium light, the LEDs turn red, and in bright light, the LEDs turn off.

This would make an excellent extension to the Lamp Making project for students who would like to push themselves into coding. Because micro:bits are expensive, this would not be a part they could take home, unfortunately. A goal I have for next year, is to introduce coding to the 10th grade class, so that I can teach them this same project using an Arduino nano that they could leep and take home.

Code Example¶

block coding

//Here is the code in Javascript let strip = neopixel.create(DigitalPin.P0, 8, NeoPixelMode.RGB) strip.clear() basic.forever(function () { basic.showNumber(input.lightLevel()) if (input.lightLevel() <= 50) { strip.showColor(neopixel.colors(NeoPixelColors.Blue)) } else if (input.lightLevel() <= 130 && input.lightLevel() >= 51) { strip.showColor(neopixel.colors(NeoPixelColors.Red)) } else if (input.lightLevel() <= 255 && input.lightLevel() >= 131) { strip.showColor(neopixel.colors(NeoPixelColors.Black)) } basic.pause(500) })

Gallery¶

Dark room - I am holding my hand over the sensor in the micro:bit light sensor dark

Medium Light - this is the room without overhead lights on medium

Bright Light - this is the room with overhead lights on bright

Micro:bit in nightlight

blue

red

Reflection¶

Did you bring several disciplines together in your own teaching? Do you collaborate with teachers in other disciplines? What are the opportunities and challenges.¶

We do mulidisciplinary PBLs every quarter with all 9th and 10th graders. I have many teachers come to the Lab to do mini-PBLs that are specific to their discipline. At least 50% of my job is spent collaborating with other teachers and community leaders.

How do you envision a makerspace in your school? How does it look like? If you have one already, how would you modify it.¶

I work in a 15,000 square foot fab lab call the Global Center for Digital Innovation (GCDI) located on the Chttanooga State Community College campus. I am officially a teacher at a public high school called, STEM School Chattanooga, which is also located on the same college campus. Our fab lab is a collaboration between the college and our school district, so I am the lead teacher for all K-12 students and a college teacher must be in attendance when we serve college students (for insurance purposes). Therefore, I collaborate with teachers both at the K-12 and college level.

This website has many pictures of our physical space https://fablabgcdi.wordpress.com/

We are constantly moving things around to improve the workflow. A recent modification was building a “second shelf” over the 3D printers so we could have them in two rows and save space. The problem is that now most of my students have to use a step stool (including me) to reach the printers on the second row. I’d love to drop the shelf about 5 inches, however, I think that might interfere with the first row printers.

Are you using computational thinking in your teaching? How? Do you think you can take advantage of computational thinking? How?¶

I asked AI to define computational thinking and got this answer that I like…

“Computational thinking is a way of solving problems that involves breaking them down into smaller, more manageable parts. It’s like taking a big puzzle and dividing it into tiny pieces so you can solve each piece one at a time. This process includes: Decomposition: Breaking a problem into smaller parts. Pattern Recognition: Looking for similarities or patterns. Abstraction: Focusing on important details and ignoring the rest. Algorithm Design: Creating step-by-step instructions to solve the problem. Think of it as a step-by-step recipe for your brain to tackle complex problems efficiently!”

I feel like I use computational thinking with my students every day. It falls into the realm of critical thinking in my mind. During every design challenge or PBL, when we use the engineering design process and critical thinking skills these steps come up.