Week 7 Laser Cutting

We just got home from the Generator in Burlington. With no luck of laser cutting our designs at our local high school, we turned to Lucie for help. She graciously met us at the Generator in Burlington to help us cut our designs and show us the ropes. I was in awe of the sense of community at this public makerspace. Many of the makers or artists were willing to drop their projects and help us. Brain Merrill taught us how he creates his Native American Flutes and how he continually is looking for new ideas for improvement- clearly a natural design-thinker. As we walked around we saw many detailed and thought-provoking products of some of the most creative minds. Seeing this space made me immediately miss the spirit of the Burlington area. I lived in the city for 9 years before moving out west and then ultimately to Jeffersonville, VT. The Generator is a perfect exemplar of the city´s innovative, youthful and the creative vibe.  I wish I lived closer to utilize this space. I do, however, want to go on a field trip with our Tech Ambassadors to visit the Generator in hopes that they will catch this spirit.

Jeremy in his Arduino Heaven!

Lucie showing us her amazing space!

Brook described herself as an engineer enthusiast with a strong background in circuitry and drones and now laser cutting. It was an honor to be in her presence and receive her guidance.  She helped Ellen and I change our designs to make them more print friendly. We quickly learned about the importance of victor and rastor cutting. From my understanding, victor is how the outline is cut and the rastor is the etching and sketching of the design.  For elementary students, it was recommended that students think in black and white, positive and negative space, for their designs. This made complete sense to me. I was happy that Gravit.io worked for the initial design because it is web-based and easy for students to do on their chromebooks. Although, Brook had to uploaded our SVG files to Adobe Illustrator. We needed this software to help us make the designs black/white and to make sure the vector and rastor settings were acceptable for printing. Lucie showed us how to set up the printer with the wood/cardboard and how to control the settings. We saw flames and wonderful products! It was interesting to hear that you must get trained to use the cutter and that you can never leave it when it is printing for safety precautions. Fires start often but there are fool proof ways to stop it like picking up the lid. We learned about the types of materials safe for the machine and asked many questions about the other Roland vinyl cutter.

Brook fixing our designs

Brook helped us brainstorm ideas for designing 3D shapes  and puzzles with cut paper. 

Of all the tools we explored thus far I think I would use a laser cutter both in and out of the classroom the most. Knowing that an industrial laser cutter like the one at the Generator is out of our budget this year, the cricut looks like a great option to buy this year as a pilot year.  I wonder if Gravit.io would work with this tool? If there is enough traction and use perhaps we can justify buying a smaller Roland Laser Vinyl Cutter in the future. I have a feeling that this tool will be a big hit among students and teachers.

I enjoyed the website that Eric shared with us during his presentation. It got me thinking about curricular connections for K-6 students. I envision all grades creating DYI stickers and perhaps LED stickies. I like Joanne´s idea of teaching angles when designing snowflakes and building 3D shapes (and other 3D objects) from paper puzzle kits. I know our Art teacher, will use the machine for making paper stencils and prototypes for art projects. I can see the Tech Ambassadors making tee-shirts that showcase their new titles. I know the 4th grade teachers would like if their students designed stickers with a VT map since their entire year revolves around state pride. I could also see the teachers using the cutter for class projects like bookmarks, bathroom tickets and much more. The possibilities seem endless!

Week 6 Motor Project: TINY DANCER

TINY DANCER Motor Project!

I would love to make the Tiny Dancers, homopolar motors, that Ellen postedon the padlet. I could see my 6th grade tech students going to the 4th grade classrooms to teach them about electromagnetism and electrical currents.  I like that the experiment doesn´t require many materials and the materials can be easily brought home to show families. I look forward to reading more about electromagnetism and Lorentz Force. I need to wrap my head around the concept before teaching this to 6th grade and especially before the 6th graders present and teach the 4th grade students. I am researching ways to make this concept accessible to younger students.

It was very helpful to read the Warnings and Tips sections on the Steam Project blog post. It seems like pliers and wire cutters are a must and 16 gauge wire works best. I wonder if students could tape something onto the wire like a character or a letter/image that transforms with spinning. I will test this out when I get my materials.

I love that this activity caters to the girls in the crowd. What better way to get girls interested in electricity and electromagnetism than tutus? Hopefully this activity could be the invitation some of my gals in 6th grade need to be hooked onto other STEAM projects.

The reason I am choosing to do this with 4th graders is because it fits with their NGSS standards and energy unit. I would also be concerned to do it with any grade younger than 3rd grade due to the warnings about swallowing the batteries. While Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders probably would not swallow the battery they may not understanding the gravity of the situation. It may also be difficult for their little hands to manipulate and bend the heaviness of a 16 gauge wire. There is also battery overheating and explosion warnings to consider.

Week 6 Arduino Experiments 8-11

Experiment #8:

Experiment #8 took some problem solving. Isn´t funny how sometimes it takes an experiment or two to get back into your circuit groove? The wiring was fairly simple but we didn´t understand the diagram at first. The wires on the motor did not allow for connection to the redboard. We tried connecting the motor and redboard using additional wires and all was good! The directions didn´t specify to add an attachment to the servo motor but we did and got to see the motor in action.

Experiment #9

Ellen remembered that Heather posted a question about this experiment in the HELP section so we read that before beginning the task. It was good to get that advice from John before we started. I see Heather´s hesitation with the multiple warnings of possibly ruining the board if wired incorrectly. Once we got started, we were stumped. The H bridge was nowhere to be found! We looked at every piece, searched the floor, crawled behind the table and computer with no luck. Just before we decided to quit and post on the HELP section, we reexamined the piece that looked so similar to the H Bridge. We pulled it apart and realized that it was just a piece of foam covering the legs/spikes. DUH! How could we have overlooked this? We had a good laugh and proceeded with success.

Experiment #10

Although there were many, many wires, this experiment worked fairly well. There were many warnings in the directions that scared us but we just went for it and the motor rotated in different directions. We weren´t sure if it really was rotating in different directions but after reexamining, it certainly did! Ellen and I were discussing how people with fleeing vision or big hands would have a difficult time managing these boards and were wondering if they made bigger boards for such a reason. Children would also appreciate bigger boards, I imagine.  

Experiment #11

The wire formation was not too strenuous for this one but we got stumped with the coding and position of the LED. It was a bit confusing when we got to the serial monitor part section. We tired spaces and commas in the number and no spaces with commas to no avail. Luckily, the troubleshooting sections helped us realize that it was not the serial number but the position of the LED light and then realized we were missing a wire. We got the wire in place and repositioned the LED and it turned green. We looked more carefully at the LED light and had to reposition it again for it to turn purple...those silly little pins!

Week 5 Arduino Success

COPY BUTTON DID NOT WORK!

Besides last week, this was my first very experience playing with an Arduino. When diving into experiment 3, I was so grateful that we did the first two experiments last week. This week seemed easier in a sense. Downloading the software was in place and we were able to really focus on the lessons/experiments. One frustrating thing that happened in each experiment was copying the code correctly. Why does the copy code button not work? For each experiment, we tried multiple copy attempts before it worked. We also wished that the diagram in the experiment directions had all of the numbers listed and did not just go by 5s. It would have been easier to connect all components.

• Experiment 3: Driving an RGB LED

This experiment was pretty straight forward although it did not work at first. After we pressed down on the resistors, we saw a blue light and felt success. Then we realized that we installed the LED incorrectly and needed to switch it around in order to see the other colors. Once switched around, we saw red, blue and green as well as variations of those colors. It was interesting to see this type of LED light. I didn´t know they existed. They would be fun to use in many circuit projects.

• Experiment 4: Driving Multiple LEDs

For this experiment, we started connecting the wires on our school´s older Arduino kit. The breadboard in this kit is red and so much harder to read. Our eyes were crossing and heads were spinning with this involved circuit board design. For some reason, when we connected the boards to the computer nothing worked. We are still unsure whether is was a code copying error or if the board did not work. We checked the LEDs as the trouble shooting tip suggested and all were correct. We then called in Merlin, a 5th grade student, who then he suggested we switch the redboards. While Ellen and he reconnected the wires to the newer red board, I re-copied the code and success was had!

• Experiment 5: Reading a Button Press

The most confusing part about this experiment was the push button. It just didn´t fit like the diagram suggested. After reading the troubleshooting tips and more about the push button itself, we assumed that the push button can go anywhere on the board within those rows. Perhaps this is why some of the spots were highlighted green on the diagram? We gave it a go and nothing worked. We then figured out that one of the pins on the push board were bent and the connection was lost. We straightened out the pin and started fresh with a new one and the LED blinked faster when pressing the push button. One confusing part was the amount of push buttons needed. The material list and diagram only show one button but the What You Will You See section mentions two push buttons….?

• Experiment 6: Reading a Photoresistor

The experiment was quick and easy to assembly. Our confidence at this point was building until… it did not work. We again looked at the Troubleshooting section and were reminded to check the position of the LED light. Of course, we had it in backwards! It was neat to see the LED go on and off with the change of light. This would be fun for an interactive Halloween light-up cardboard model. When the lights go out, the display lights start up!

• Experiment 7: Reading a Temperature Sensor

We were on the homestretch and a feeling good. The wiring wasn't too tedious and it looked manageable. Once the temperature sensor was in, I started feeling around and got burned immediately when I touched the sensor. Man, was it hot! The computer said it was reaching temperatures of 400´F but I am not so sure that was accurate. After reading the experiment more carefully we disconnected the redboard from the computer and waited for it to cool. We when took it out with an alligator clip and put it in the opposite way. The computer started loading temperatures that made sense. The temperatures started off in the 100´F (probably becuase it was still hot) and quickly dropped to about room temperature.  Ellen and I discussed that this sensor would be fun to use for a automatic fan project where once the room hit 80´F a fan would power on.

My next 5th grade Tech Rotation is starting next week. I am thinking that doing some of these experiments might be really fun for students. Perhaps after trying a few, they could find a fun experiment online to recreate or perhaps come up with their own at the end of our rotation.

Week 4 Exploration with Circuits.

4-1 Explore Makey Makey, Energy Sticks and Squishy Circuits

Ellen luckily has 6 Makey Makey sets ready for teacher/student use. It was fun to start exploring circuits with these kid-friendly (adult-friendly too) devices. I learned from the videos and was reminded by Ellen that we need to ground one wire by holding onto it in order for the circuit connection to work. This step could easily be forgotten but you only make the mistake once! A mistake worth making and exploring for student. I thought it would be a great activity to do with my 6th grade Tech class. I look forward to seeing all of the designs they create. I virtually explored Energy Sticks and Squishy Circuits. I have Energy Sticks on my “To Buy” list. It also looks like a kid-friendly K-6 tinkering tool. I want to try squishy circuits with my 6th grade Tech Class starting tomorrow. I was thinking it would be fun to have them make the dough on their own and then design a claymation stop motion video for our next project. I was thinking of presenting squishy circuits for a teacher professional development as well because it’s so elementary friendly. I also can’t wait to try making the dough over the weekend with my 3 year old. Any tips of finding deionized water?

4-2 Circuit Simulators

I explored this option last after struggling with the Tinkering Kit and wish I did this first! I thought that the TinkerCad software was easy to use and the lessons were great. I do wish I learned how to

zoom-in earlier in the process though. It was also helpful to rotate the breadboard and redboard to match the position of the model in the lesson. Once I figured that out, it was easier to figure out where the pieces fit. It was thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding to connect the wires and sensor, much like a puzzle. I thought the circuit program and lessons were more intuitive than the 3D printing program. There was much less room for error.

4-3 Getting Started with Your Tinkering Kit

Oh, the Tinkering Kit! Upon opening the kit, I was quickly and swiftly able to follow the model for the first experiment. It was fun and easy to try to connect the wires and LED light in the correct places. I also enjoyed reading the tutorial in the lesson and learned more about circuitry and connections. Last year I made light-up card with my 4th graders. We used LED lights, lithium batteries and copper tape. I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t really understand the different parts of the LED light and I had no idea what LED stood for. I just sprung for the fun project and learned alongside the students. For the longest time we thought that some of the LED lights were broken until an engineering-minded student noticed that they had to be positioned in a certain way. So we learned to adjust the position of lights until they worked. I now know that it was because the long leg “anode” should be connected to the power source. The short leg “cathode” should be connected to the ground. I look forward to making the cards again with this new knowledge but I have to say I made that engineering-minded student’s (who struggled with traditional academics) day when he figured out the problem by tinkering.  By praising his thinking and tinkering, he was the star of the show. He helped everyone finish their circuits and was all smiles.

Shortly after connecting the wires, Ellen and I unfortunately spent countless hours trying to download the Arduino software. We tried her desktop, my chromebook and my laptop. Incorrect downloading, long running updates, faulty plug-ins, incorrect admin passwords, firewall blockages, and limited chrome app permissions were just a few problems we encountered. It was unfortunate that it took so long to get the Arduino software properly installed that we didn’t have too much time to tinker with the kit and look at other experiments. After two working sessions with our Technology Coordinator, we finally realized that the web versions were not working for us and finally download the windows software. When the computer was finally all set, both experiments worked well and we didn’t encounter any more hurdles. I did need to hold and adjust the blue wire for the 1st experiment to work. For the 2nd experiment, I forgot to turn the knob! Luckily Ellen, reminded me that turning the knob would change the intensity of the blinking light. All in all, it was fun to play with the kit, fruitful to problem-solve with with my buddy Ellen and it was a good lesson to make sure the computer software works properly before attempting with students.