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Week 5

Assignments

  • [ ] Task 1: Create a circuit in a simulator.
  • [ ] Task 2: Make a simple circuit.
  • [ ] Task 3: Use Makey Makeys.

Process

  • Using Tinkercad, I created a simple circuit recreation with a button

  • Then, with my students, I used a precreated template for a parallel circuit

  • Finally, I worked with my students making Makey Makeys to use their piano app.

Reflection

  • 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. I’ve been working in utilizing Makey Makeys with the students to create sound machines. We’ve been learning how sound can be useful in our daily lives, so the students have as a task coming up with a machine that uses sensors (which would be the Makey Makey’s inputs) and sound to do its objective, such as a doorbell or alarm. Eventually, I plan to elevate it to use MicroBits. This would fall into our Digital Fabrication with Kids, since we would be faciliting things as the 3D printing of their designs and any other fabrication need except for the circuit itself.

  • What are the challenges of using electronics in your space? How can this support your students in learning classroom content? The two main problems is how small some pieces are, causing them to get lost or break, and how these electrical pieces can sometimes be unreliable. When the students are properly doing their circuits, but a not perfectly flat copper tape or finicky battery don’t give them the results the expect it can distract from learning the basics. Still, we use them frequently as additions to our regular projects to add a layer of complexity to them.

  • What has been your experience using Project Based Learning / Problem based learning in the past? What were the main challenges? We use both approaches regularly. Project based is our go-to for teaching the basics of concept, as they can clearly see what needs to be done to get a result and discover how tools and concepts work in the process. After the basics are learned, we jump into problem based, in which we use the design thinking process for them to come to solutions usign what they already learned. Creativity and motivation are our biggest challenges in this regard, since we’ve found a lot of students lack them and feel more comfortable doing things by following others step by step. This is the behaviour we try to get our students out of in my Makerspace.

Tools

  • Copper tape
  • Batteries
  • LED Lights
  • Tinkercad
  • Makey Makeys