great question about the rgb values. I wondered about that, too.
Well done! I thought that the clear board we get in the kit looks really cool but is more challenging to wire then the solid white one you get in most other kits. I struggled a bit with this as well. I guess it just makes it all the more rewarding when it actually works! The students seem to not be bothered quite as much by this.
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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
This lesson somewhat dovetails with the 8th grade wave unit. The visible light spectrum is part of the unit, and the R,G, B, components are relevant. The potentiometer mixing the colors to white is a great way to engage them in our light wave lessons
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support to be successful?
Manipulating the pins and wires is tricky. As with the âgetting startedââ portion, having the arduino be compatible with my laptop is still challenging.
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 show the connection steps on the smart board. Then i would have each student come up to see me model each step. After that, I would allow them to work in partners to achieve the objective. I would additionally have them manipulate variables to change color values and rate
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentâs role during the class. What does âstudent successâ look like?
The student role would be to form their own questions about the task, and formulate their own answers as well, then test to see if they were correct. Anytime a student shows an interest in pursuing a lessons material outside of class time is a success in my book.
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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 was an awesome lesson. This could actually fit nicely with what we do in our waves unit. We focus briefly on the Electromagnetic Spectrum so the learning materials as well as the experiment itself are great. I think this is a good step up from what they have already done and a neat way to look at code as you get instant feedback on the effect of your code and changes you made.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
As long as they have done a few intro lessons the instructions and descriptions should be accessible for students. I can see them really enjoying this lesson.
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?
Provide students with access to the materials and lesson guide. There may be some modeling necessary as the wiring is a bit more challenging. Monitoring student progress and asking questions to allow students to explain what they are doing.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentâs role during the class. What does âstudent successâ look like?
I think students would be highly engaged in a lesson like this. This lesson allows for some open ended thinking and some creativity on the part of the students to explore and discover the different combinations that would lead to cool colors.
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This was fun! I could definitely see this with our waves unit in 7th grade. The idea of color mixing is really hard for students - they struggle with the difference between the colors of light and the colors of pigment.
Students would not need support to follow the lesson - an 8th grader tried it out and he did just fine! I would most likely be helping the students on the lower end but I do not think I would have to model it at all. The 8th grader had a blast - making purple and lime green, etc. as he played around with the combinations. He even explained it to the principal who had stopped in the classroom.
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I could see being able to use this in my classroom, even if itâs just for exposure to coding. The issue that I have is that I may not have the answers to all the questions they may have as I am also new to coding. I love the fact that we can change ânumbersâ try to figure out why this works one way and not another way. I teach 4th grade, and my son is also in 4th grade this year, so he makes the perfect test subject. We did this activity together and he really liked it, before we got down to the explanation of the project he was already asking reasons about why the light turned white. I like giving my students the opportunity to experience things before having the explanation told to them as well. So as a teacher I appreciate the explanation so I donât have to research it.
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Yes, I agree modeling is a must. I had to double check the wiring to make sure that I was doing it correctly. I could actually see my students doing better at figuring out the code than wiring it.
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I think for a lot of teachers, working for microcontrollers and coding is a new experience so itâs ok to not know all the answers. Some of the best learning experiences that Iâve had with teachers and students is when we didnât know the answer, but worked together to figure it out. We would troubleshoot different things that we thought could be wrong with our experiment, look things up online, etc.
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This lesson was really awesome and it definitely would fit in the 4th grade curriculum. I could see teaching this during a lesson on light.
The lesson got a little more difficult adding additional wiring, but as long as there are instructions and pics for the students to look at while completing the steps, they shouldnât have any problems.
Anytime I am teaching code in my classroom I walk around and provide help and support as needed, but allow the students the freedom to make mistakes and correct them. They can problem solve on their own most of the time and figure out what is wrong with their programs. I think students would be highly engaged in a lesson like this. It also leaves plenty of room for individuality and creativity.
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I also think this would be a great activity for a unit on waves.
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Sometimes with the smaller components it can be difficult and Iâve had to double-check student set-up frequently when they say things donât work. For my regular classes I generally have them follow the setup instructions to the letter / number as it definitely helps cut down on error, but I have not yet found a foolproof way to avoid wiring errors. Another thing that helps is enlarging the setup on a projector and then actually walking through the physical wiring with them too ⌠it takes more time but saves on frustration on both sides.
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I like this lesson as a tie in to digital design and use a little bit of design history to accentuate the importance of color-coding. In the âoldenâ days of print, designers had to be very specific about what colors printers had to use when physically printing documents to ensure marketing pieces retained the original look. Monitors display colors differently depending on their capability and individual setup so it was paramount for designers to specify the color codes when transmitting their design to the actual printer otherwise an important marketing piece couldâve ended up looking very different from the company specifications.
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Yes, but the hole spacing is pretty much the same. The components are what they are. I try to always keep one setup permanently so that I can have it ready for students to review as they work through projects.
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Yes, I definitely think because we have access to so much information that we can actually develop more skills like coding even if we donât have background knowledge in it.
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Thatâs a great idea!
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This lesson is a great exploration of color. I feel I could fit this into any of my physical or earth science classes when we explore color, visible light, and/or wavelengths and the EM spectrum. This would have been particularly useful in middle school science when I taught color and light. I struggled with finding fun ways to help students differentiate between colors of light and colors of pigment- this would have rocked!
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The part of the lesson that students may need extra support in order to be successful is understanding the code, I agree that students may be thrown off that 0 means more of that color and 255 means none. However, I could liken this to the confusing aspect of star magnitudes! As others have mentioned too, any visually impaired students would struggle with reading the extremely fine print on the seeeduino and bread board so a magnifying glass or hand lens would be helpful.
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While teaching this lesson to a class, the role of a successful teacher is one of a coach and mentor- assisting students as needed when huge roadblocks or difficulties arise but letting the struggle and self-discovery take a front row seat so students continue to find confidence and success in their skills. Also, allowing time for collaboration and sharing out of skills/concepts learned.
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The students role in this lesson is to be actively engaged in exploring at working through each step of the process. Recording information as they learn it is beneficial in helping students process the concepts/skills they are learning. Student success looks like students sharing with each other the things they are learning and the skills they are developing. Students are not afraid to make mistakes and seek to help each other be successful!
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I really like experiments or lessons such as this because it opens a studentâs eyes to things substantially present in their life and they had no idea. Between home and school, how long does a 12-13 year old look at something utilizing this technology? Helping them understand how that works is a pretty cool thing. So, thanks for the tools!
It is pretty easy to place any type of energy transfer into our curriculum because of the 6-8 grade block in NGSS. Although, I wouldnât say properties of light is a topic we cover in great detail, but I could fit this in through supplemental coding and physical computing practice/experimentation. Also, several areas of Language Arts could be applied to research origins or present new ideas for use. I did follow the next lesson at the bottom of that RGB lesson, which used Ratios, Percents, and Decimals (a huge part of math in 6th grade)!
Physically, I donât think many of them would struggle with the precision of this lesson. We do several activities with Raspberry Pi, which give them a good background in breadboard and reading diagrams.
I would function as an invisible overseer. Students would be in a setting where I did not exist and had to solve their problems without the help of a teacher. I enjoy scenarios where I take this role, at this age it changes their idea of where to find assistance and what form that assistance may come in. Perseverance, confidence, and many other characteristics blossom or begin to expose themselves when forced into this scenario or similar parameters.
Student success would be understanding how to apply variables, constants, and how to conduct an experiment while keeping it organized and recorded. I would be more critical in this lesson of the precision to coding and physical computing aspects (whether or not their light functioned correctly). I would be interested to see everyoneâs thoughts on how success could look in their setting.
I am still seeing spots! Haha.
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More so than the values of color, I played with the interval speed. I tried to find a range of where I could see the interval and when I couldnât. An hour later, I still see spots!
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Getting the sensors in is very difficult but the lesson at least in the initial form is cool. I could not get the color to change and seeing the little child play with it makes me a bit self conscious. I could see that students could get frustrated without some guidance/facilitation. It is engaging but difficult. This does not currently fit with my curriculum.
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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 does not fit into my curriculum this year, but next year I am teaching a STEM Course full time and it will then! I am going to try to get a class set of these kits.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to successful?
Patience with the pins probably. Junior high students tend to be impatient and often try to force things.
Students always need support in matching things up. I would use my smart board and walk them through the first time step by step.
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 be responsible for facilitating and questioning as students work through the challenge.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentâs role during the class. What does âstudent successâ look like?
Student success is engaged students directing themselves and learning from exploration.
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