That is a great idea to have them create a sign that would incorporate the flash of lights. I would love to see what the students are capable of creating. My wheels are turning to see what project I can give my students like this sign design project. 
1 Like
I am not sure if we are tasked with replying for each activity, or if each week of activities is considered a lesson, so my reply addresses the entire week. I am curious if our answers in each activity are saved anywhere where we can go back and see them. I went back to the link after closing the window and they were not there.
I really enjoyed the arduino programming (changing output, programming knock knock jokes). I wonder how to get some other sensor (other than light) to be a trigger for the change in text output (like temp or magnetic field). I also thought the lesson on breadboarding was well done, though I needed a magnifying glass to make sure I got them plugged into the correct line (getting old I guess). I was successful at getting more than one LED to work, but need more programming knowledge to be able to get them blinking all at once (I will look at the 10 blink lesson next). What does void mean in programming code?
I do think students at our facility would enjoy working with the breadboard and the blink activity. Given the prevalence of bioluminescence in the deep sea, we could link breadboarding to science content and devise an activity where students have to be deep sea organisms and do something like find prey. I really liked the suggestion about changing blinking delay and determining detection limits as well as the idea of using this to compare parallel and series circuits.
1 Like
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
This lesson would fit in our curriculum when we work on circuits. This would be an excellent extension of that.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
For this lesson, I think the placing of the components. Some were afraid they would push in too far and break it, while others kept jamming it in thinking there was more room to push the pins in.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
During this lesson, i would be a facilitator. I like to walk around the class as students work and just assist where needed. I think it would be necessary for me to ensure students align the LED in the breadboard with the resistor and jumper wire because I found myself skipping a row as well.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentâs role during the class. What does âstudent successâ look like?
Students would be working together. Success would be shown through that excitement they get when it works and they see the light lit up.
1 Like
Thatâs a great idea! Students love seeing their work around the school.
1 Like
I believe you should be replying to each lesson. The email we received for week 2 states the following:
"
Make sure to share your feedback so you can earn credit by going to the bottom of each lesson and click on âJoin the Discussionâ. Adding your answers to the lesson and submitting them is not turned on for the lessons.
"
1 Like
-
We havenât used breadboards in any of our classes yet. This activity would serve as an extension to the study of circuits (4th grade), and for advanced coding for 5th grade.
-
At first, we would explain to students how breadboards work and have them practice attaching the components. Small motor skills and correct attachments are good skills to be worked on with this lesson.
-
I would demonstrate to students a simple example and then participate with them in a challenge (more complex code, and add more LED lights).
-
Students success would be demonstrated by explaining how the circuit works and explaining what each line of code means.
1 Like
Same here. I faced some challenges my self (making two LED lights work), and it made me see things from a studentâs perspective.
1 Like
-
This lesson would fit in my curriculum in a few places. The biggest fit would be circuits and electricity. However, this could be used to collect data or graph. Students could change the rate at which the light is blinking and then count the bumber of blinks in 10 seconds and then graph them. Or you could have students look at the blinking and try to guess the rate at which it is blinking.
-
Students would struggle with the circuit as well as getting the second light to blink. Like a few of you on here there was some difficulty with that.
-
The role of the teacher would be to provide assistance and let the students go to work.
-
Student success would be demonstated by them being able to successfully build the circuit
1 Like
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
This lesson will fit in with our coding unit. It will also be beneficial to my students to complete this activity before we begin our unit on robotics. This basic blinking activity will help my students understand how various lights work, especially the lights on our robots and other lights that they see in their everyday lives.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
My students will need support with putting the boards together. Because of the tiny, fragile parts and the attention to detail that is require to make the light come on and blink, I will have to walk my students through this process and spend a lot of time helping them get the boards put together correctly.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
My role during this activity will be to help my students put the boards together without breaking them. Middle schoolers are not the most gentle with delicate parts and pieces.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentâs role during the class. What does âstudent successâ look like?
I love the challenge questions for this activity. They encourage students to think and problem-solve abstractly. These are the higher-order thinking questions that challenge students to take their learning a little bit deeper. I will know my students understand this activity when they can successfully answer all of the bonus challenge questions.
1 Like
My 7th grader was challenged in that he said it was not clear which way the LED bulbs were supposed to be attached to the circuit. This would be too challenging for my elementary school science students. The diagram on this one was a bit hard to follow.
Blink
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
As a former science teacher, I think this would be an excellent way to practice what was learned about circuits.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
This would be very difficult for my 7th graders who are not following the diagram carefully or who are not gentle with tiny parts.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
After explaining the importance of following the diagram, I would monitor students to assist where help was needed.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentâs role during the class. What does âstudent successâ look like?
I would hope that students could work individually but they will probably be in groups. I love when they can help each other by collaborating to solve problems.
1 Like
Thanks for this reminder! I wasnât sure if my answers to the lessons were recorded or not! I repeated several because they were accidentally deleted. Now I wonât worry!! 
1 Like
I think that group work with the students is such a great learning experience for them too!
This is great feedback. Thanks for sharing!
Love this idea as well!
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
This experiment introduces circuits and builds on prior coding experiments. With getting a second light to blink it really introduces critical thinking with the opportunity to play and build on all your answers in the prior questions.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
I think getting the second light to blink at a different rate. They may need some nudges via some probing questions back. How did you get the first light blinking? Are they any parts of that that you could repeat and how? If repeating just the one part (e.g. wiring in light only) didnât work what about repeating more of the steps⌠how could you do that on the board? If itâs still not working well then⌠lets look at the code you run on the arduino⌠how is the first circuit line setup. Youâre using line 13? Do you see 13 in the code and how does that factor in? Iâd as questions like that.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
This is one where Iâd walk around and facilitate. Iâd expect more teams to be asking questions. I think after this lesson having a lecture on circuits would be impactful⌠more so than before the experiment. Theyâd be ready to talk about parallel circuits and series circuits after having tried to get both lights working.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentâs role during the class. What does âstudent successâ look like?
I would like to see each student get the lights working and understand what they did to get the second light to turn on⌠plus why they had to make the code changes to support that. Student success on this one is both getting how to extend the hardware wiring and the software. Thereâs multiple changes on both.
1 Like
I like that approach to have the discussion around parallel and series circuits after doing the experiment so they can reflect afterwards. We have another lesson that they could even do afterwards to take it to the next level - https://ehub.ardusat.com/experiments/4672.
This is a fun activity! I have led a similar lesson using breadboards to have students light an LED, but without using processor for coding. I think adding the code component would add another level for the students to be engaged on the activity.
The students we had for the last time an activity like this was taught was in our summer camp and we had students who had used breadboards and components and students who had never seen or used any of the parts. Talking through each component and showing the students each part is important and I found in my activity that writing it out as steps was helpful for some, while other could assemble the board and components following a diagram.
My role during the activity would be the introduction - sharing what each component is and how it works. Then the students would get to explore and try to solve the challenge on their own. I would be walking around and answering questions, but as hands-off as possible.
Student success could be measured a variety of ways. Students are expected to know how to use each component, the flow of electricity (making sure the circuit is complete), and then how to read and modify the code.
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
My students do not use discrete components, activity is more electronics based, and not so much programming based âŚthis is significantly more complex. This lesson would have to be broken up and scaffolded. If you wanted to just focus on the programming, you could have the boards already setup and students just focus on the programming.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
The breadboard setup, understanding the components, DC circuits, and how they work. It would take a couple of class periods to do this activity.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
I would have to do some direct instruction with this activity. I would have to cover the theory, safety, and would have to do more scaffolding. I would also have to walk them through the first activity to ensure it was connected correctly. As for the photocell resistor, they might be able to that one themselvesâŚas long as they were successful with the LED.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentâs role during the class. What does âstudent successâ look like?
My courses are mostly project-based learning (PBL), so students are in charge of their own learning. Success would be a student being able to complete activity, understand, and be able to apply what was learned to future lessons. However, with the complexity, this would be more of a guided lesson and would definitely pair students. I would have to more carefully check the teamâs work before progressing.
The lessons do not seem to be saving the answersâŚasked the same question. I am just moving forward the the assignments, posts, and am way behind. I had the flu for a week, was out of school, and got a week behind.