Module 4. Week 01

Project Barrier Gate

The students should use the Arduino with an ultrasonic sensor and a servo to build a barrier that opens when it detects movement on one side. I will first build the project in tinkercad and, if there is still time, also in real life.

Pictures tinkercad

Code

#include <Servo.h>

// pin connections
const int servoPin = 7;
const int trigPin = 9;
const int echoPin = 10;

float duration; // variable to store pulse duration
float distanceCM; // variable to store distance in CM

Servo myServo; // create servo object to control the servo

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(echoPin, INPUT);
  myServo.attach(servoPin); // attaches servo on servoPin to servo object
}

void loop() {
  // start with a clean signal
  digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
  delayMicroseconds(2);
  // send trigger signal
  digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);
  delayMicroseconds(10);
  digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
  // return pulse duration in microseconds
  // if set to HIGH, pulseIn() waits for the pin to go from LOW to HIGH
  // stops timing when pin goes back LOW
  duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);
   // 343 m/s = .034 cm/microseconds
  distanceCM = (duration * 0.034) / 2;


  // if object is detected at 200 cm or more
  if (distanceCM >= 200) {
    // rotate servo to 90 degrees
    myServo.write(90);
    Serial.println("Car!");
  }

  // or else, if object is further than 6 inches away
  else {
    // rotate / keep servo at 0 degrees
    myServo.write(0);
    Serial.println("No car!");
  }
}

I edited a code by tinkercad for the project. The Servo is supposed to react to any object within two metres of the range of the ultrasonic sensor.

Video

Reflection questions

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

We already have a pretty good makerspace in our school with four 3d printers, one cnc cutter, one lasercutter and a few vinyl plotters. What bothers me the most is that the Makerspace is difficult to access for non-technology teachers because it is attached to the upper school technology room. I would like to change that in the future. The equipment should be accessible to all students and teachers at the school. However, some projects are already being implemented on the equipment, so I’m very satisfied so far.

After the definiton of computational thinking? Are you somehow using computational thinking in your teaching? How? Do you think you can take advantage of computational thinking? How?

It is one of the most important skills of the present, so I try to implement it into my technology lessons very often. We use a lot of different microcontrollers and programming language to give pupils a broad set of skills for computational thinking.