Skip to content

Week 2

This week I used an Adafruit microcontroller to monitor soil conditions by measuring time, light levels, temperature, and moisture. The sensor was continuously collecting data from the connected nail and automatically logged the readings into a spreadsheet for easy tracking and analysis.

Measurement

I measured soil moisture levels to see if plants needed watering by observing:

Light Intensity

Temperature

Time (relative to the power board)

Touch sensor conductivity from the nail probe

Devices and Platform

  • Microcontroller: Adafruit Circuit Playground Express
  • Communication Platform: USB connection to a laptop; data logged into a Google Sheets spreadsheet via MakeCode and a Python script

External Components:

  • Alligator clip wire
  • Nail (inserted into soil for moisture conduction)
  • USB cable (for data and power)

Process

  1. Gather the microcontroller (Adafruit Circuit Playground Express), alligator clips, a metal nail to act as the probe indicator, a USB cable, and a computer with MakeCode and a spreadsheet program of your choice.

  2. Program the Adafruit to use the analog read pin (I used A1) block to measure the moisture level in the soil as well as the ambient light and temperature.

  3. Create the logging code to send the recorded data for each measurement through the USB connection.

  4. Connect to Spreadsheet by selecting the “Show Console Device” option in MakeCode to log incoming serial data automatically into a spreadsheet.

  5. Attach one alligator clip to the corresponding read pin (A1) pad on the Adafruit board and clip the other end to a metal nail. Insert the nail into the soil you want to measure. Ensure the Adafruit is connected to the computer via USB.

  6. Run the system to collect measurements over time, creating a dataset that shows how soil moisture, light, and temperature vary.

sample photo sample photo sample photo sample photo sample photo

What are some opportunities in your context to work within your local community? Who you could collaborate with? How? What should happen to succeed in the collaboration

There are many opportunities in my context to work with the local community. I could collaborate with local farmers (which we are already hoping to do to ehelp with their automatic irrigation systems) that are educational projects and can incorporate digital fabrication and technology produced by students in the community. In this case, our cohort can build moisture sensors or simple weather stations using Adafruit boards.

To succeed, clear objectives and shared goals need to be communicated by all parties. It would be important to align schedules (particularly if we are working with students), define responsibilities early on, and ensure that all participants see value in this collaborative project.

What are the next steps in development further a makerspace in your school? How do you envision the maker space?

The next steps to further develop our makerspace would be to repair or replace the CNC machine and include more power tools to support advanced projects. While we already have strong equipment like 3D printers, laser cutters, and electronics kits, adding more functional heavy tools would open up bigger fabrication opportunities.

I envision the makerspace as a hands-on environment where students can confidently tackle any creative, technical, and interdisciplinary projects, building both skills and a sense of ownership over their learning. And because we are located in a community center, I also intend for other community members to participate as well! I also need a staff to help me figure out ways to show the rest of the community the opportunities in collaborating with the FabLab.

What is the potential of physical computing and IoT for your teaching? Do you have any ideas on how you are planning to integrate those techniques in your context?

Physical computing and IoT have huge potential to make my teaching more interactive, engaging, and have real world applications. They allow us to collect data, control systems, and see the results of their programming instantly to help our ideas come to life. I plan to integrate these techniques by adding projects where students build simple monitoring systems, like what we’ve done with this soil moisture project. This will not only teach coding and electronics but also critical thinking and how to troubleshoot also.