3_ Diverse classrooms: digital fabrication for all

How to integrate electronics, programming and digital fabrication to create more engaging learning experiences.

For this week's asignment we were asked to design an eeducational activity using simple electornics components. For this purpose I created a circuit based on the idea of an LED dimmer. This is basically a potentiometer connected to an LED as a way to control the amount of current delivered to it. By varying the current, the potentiometer lets us control the brightness of the LED.

To replicate this circuit all you need is an LED, a 100 Ohm resistor, a 10 kOhm potentiometer, a breadboard, some wires and a 2 AA battery holder. A picture showing how everything is connected is shown in the picture slider below.

By repeating this simple pattern and changing the color of the LEDs to be red, green and blue, we have a circuit that shows how it is possible to combine those three colors to create any other color imaginable - even white!


Below you can see the result you get when using this circuit to combine the lights of the different LEDs.


This kind of activity is not totally strange for my workplace. Even though we usually work with micro contorller boards and modules made for rapid prototyping, as opposed to single components, our students have access to this kind of elements in case they need them. And most of the time the projects they develop are rpoposed byt them, and this gives them both the motivation to overcome the difficulties that will appear and the opportunity to use technology as a way express their own views and opinions about the world, society and how to face the world they live in.

This week we had to design and implement a simple quiz or videogame.

The game I created is a very simple one in which you control a space ship on its way across an asteroid field. Your main goal is to survive as long as you can, avoiding asteroids and trying not to crash into the ground. There are only 2 controls for the ship: the keys "w" and "s". "w" pushes the ship towards the ground and "s" pulls it to the sky. But be careful! Ths ship is not an easy drive!

For implementing the game I used Scratch, an online platform and block programming language made for people to get their hands on programming as easily as possible. I considered using other languages such as Python or even C++, but I have very little experience with making games on those, so in the end Scratch seemed like the right choice for this task. All of the assets used in the game are either made by me or are part of Scrath's asset library, be it graphics or sounds effects and music.


My original idea was to make a clone of a very old game called "Lunar Rover Patrol" which I used to play in the 80's on my old TRS-80 Color Computer II. I loved how it created the illusion of depth by using different layers of graphics scrolling at different rates. I wanted to recreate that illusion but also add some sense of speed. While making the game I playd with some ideas and ended up replacing the rover with a space ship, and then one thing led to another...

So, without further ado, here is the game: Spaceship versus asteroids!

Use the "w" and "s" keys to drive the ship. Avoid asteroids and don't crash into the ground!

Clic on the green flag to start the game


If you want to visit the project's page and have a look at the code used for the game, please clic on this link.

One of the main challenges on this game (and any game I'd say) is to tune its difficulty level to make it easy enough to enjoy playing it but difficult enough for it to be a challenge. In this case I've looked for a balance between the speed of the asteroids and the speed and size of the ship. I think there is still a lot to be done and I have lots of ideas on how to improve gameplay, but for now I wanted to keep it simple and fun, and I think I've achieved that goal.

Reflection - Taking diversity into account

I've had the opportunity to talk with my students about how people are all different and just as they have different opinions or preferences, they also have different needs. We also talk about the importance of getting our needs known and recognized in order to be taken into account when designing "the world", be it a building, a house, a transportation system, an entertainment device or some class material. In this regard, I once had some students that I didn't know where color blind. Until that day, and without knowing about their consition, I had been using different color schemes to highlight certain information on my class slides. Of course what I thought would be an aid for my students ended up being a problem for them. From then on I've always tried to learn about the needs that my stundets have. That way I can try to make my class material as universal as possible. This applies to programming classes but also to DF sessiones: knowing what the student need to feel comfortable, to be able to get the information they need for the activities or the support they need to be able to reach the goals makes the process more enjoyable and fullfilling for everyone.

For the Field Activity of this module we were asked to design an electronics or programming-based lesson plan, along with the assessment tools. Our plan was to be tested to receive feedback. And the activity should include electronics components and/or basic programming elements.

All work is to be done on our Scopes site and shared here, but form some reason I can't access my account, so my (still WIP) lesson plan can be found here

As a summary, my lesson is based on building a small electronic device that will act as a "matching game". Students will gather information about a certain topic and the build the game using that information. They will build all the electronics, wire everything to works as expected (depending on the topic selected) and then test and (if needed) debug the circuit. Since the elements used for the "matching" part of the circuit can vary this lesson plan can be applied to a broad variety of subject areas, no only those related to technology.

The example I prepared is aimed at exploring human senses and identifying what elements of the physical world our biological sensors can detect. This will be used on the next module as a basis for exploring digital sensors and its limitations but also advantages over our own sensory systems.

Here I share a small video showing the finishd build and a quick test to better understand what it is supposed to do. All details regarding the construction of this device can be found on the Scopes document posted above.