YES! It’s a lot of scrolling to add a new comment. Also, I was wondering about the wires in the diagram. I was following the colour coded order initially, but then read the three letter labels for the OLED and realized that I need to switch the yellow and white ones (or at least I thought I did and my project seems to work). This makes the white wire “SDA” match with the “SDA” port on the OLED and the yellow wire “SCL” match with the “SCL” port on the OLED. I have very limited knowledge in coding, so this was not intuitive for me.
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I am doing it with my 8th graders.
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I would facilitate this in my coding club as I have introduced them to coding and it would be a smaller group to start. When I bring in technology as an activity of the month for the whole school , I would have a station with instructions cards of various levels so students would have success at the level of their coding knowledge.
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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)?
It does not necessarily fit into my curriculum, but students are always interested by technology. They experience OLED displays daily. This lesson can be used for one of my “extra” lessons where I seek to help them understand how tech is related to their daily lives.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
The main area I see them needing assistance is assembly. Teachers needs to model the assembly of the parts, especially if they have an OLED like the one in my kit which requires connecting wires to pins. Students need specific instructions.
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 make sure to first model the activity. Then, I would make myself available to circulate the room and make sure that I can answer any questions that arise. I would check on each group to ensure they are following instructions.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
I think the main expectation for students is engagement. They need to follow the instructions to complete the activity and then seek ways to expand their understanding.
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Having their name is great…but we know there are other things their screens may end up saying too. 
Therefore, we need to ensure that the boards’ codes are cleared if being used by another class.
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@jmarconi we definitely hear your feedback about the format of the discourse thread! We’re working on improving it in the future, so please stay tuned. I’m also tagging @jtrotman10 to discuss the live server error message issue. Thanks!
I’m a bit late, but:
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 fits very well into any of my engineering classes, or my comp sci class. I know there are sensor-input related programs that will also work with biology and physical science.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
My kids will need a lot more explicit instruction for setting up this OLED, that’s for sure. But I have found in the past they are usually pretty good at following the visual instructions. The most challenging part is for those who have no coding experience, though Hello World is easy enough to talk them through.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher do during this lesson?
I would start with some context and bring in prior learning. I might prepare my teams (small groups/pairs) to make sure each team has at least one person comfortable with the code. Most of the class is exploratory; they can follow the directions on their own and then see what happens, make predictions, etc. Then I’d let them try variables on their own. At the end we’d have a class discussion to see what everyone discovered. So my role is fairly hands-off, looking to help and guide.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
The student’s role is to be an inquirer, a risk-taker, and a teammate. Every learner should make sure they are getting a turn at both the hardware and the code. Student success looks like “aha” and “cool,” and kids calling me over to show me how they are doing.
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I like your comment about student success including seek ways to expand their learning.
I don’t recall what subjects you teach, but the sensors on this device are excellent for inquiring about many things in our physical world.
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I love the idea of using this as part of a space project. Did you know these kits can be used to collect data just like cubesats? I believe this company used to be called ArduSat 
Challenging students (mine were 6th back when I had a space project) to find something they can measure from space to monitor the Earth and how it would help society/environment would be neat.
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Our students have worked with the micro:bit in our Gr 2 and 3 classrooms and have done a similar activity. I like that this challenges us a bit more in terms of placement. We have discussed a coordinate grid and done some “unplugged” coding activities to help build our understanding so I loved the challenges - “Can you find the place to have it display your name?”, “Can you change the size of the font?”, “Can you get your name to display in the middle of the screen?”. Looking forward to sharing this with our students!
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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum This year I teach a STEM class. We have used growing beyond earth and the sensor could help with finding values of the light, luminosity, temperature & UV.
**Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?**I know that I assumed the diagrams were correct and didn’t watch closely to make sure the wires were going into the correct port. I was frustrated at it not working right away. I’m sure my students would be as well. I would probably use a different diagram or use my USB microscope to show the letters.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher do during this lesson? My role would be cheerleader and facilitator. I would encourage them to use trial and error. Success comes after some failure (aka experimenting
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like? Easy…student success is engagement and excitement to do the work. I know they would be excited and engaged with this activity.
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I love the exploration being the first step! I know that my students want to get in there and try to figure things out on their own & that gives them that opportunity.
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I love the cheerleader role - and, the success of students being excitement - that’s how I feel - if they want to do more, this is success!
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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 doesn’t really fit with my curriculum but will be helpful for students to understand some sensors and coding for the projects they are interested in.
Learning technology is, really, part of all curriculum?
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
My students might need extra support to understand the moving of text - the readout and grid understanding.
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?
Teacher success, to me, is being able to learn with the students, reflect, and walk away feeling that you and the kids want to know more.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
Student success is not simply completing the task, but also seeking to understand what is happening.
Again, student success, to me, is working towards completion, facing challenges, and wanting to know more.
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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)?
Currently my focus is on Careers courses. This could be used in exploration of careers. (as a starting place)
I would likely use this as a supplemental activity offered for those interested outside of their courses (I teach online).
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
For the most part at this level - Grade 10-12s should be able to tackle this. Ensuring they look at the detail needed in coding would be important - ensuring proper characters are used.
Getting used to small parts might be challenge for those (like me) who are lacking in fine motor skills.
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?
- First demonstrate
- Hand out equipment, and review all parts
- Then wander and check in, mostly hands off, allowing exploration and allowing for failure (Failure is the best teacher - according to Yoda) (and me…)
- A successful teacher actively allows for both successes and failures and finds ways for success in each failure!
- Engaged and interested students = success!
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
Their role is to be actively engaged, and experimenting!
Student success is going to look differently for each student! For some just setting up will be a success, or even just attending the lesson, for other it will be more.
Leave a comment on another AstroSchool participant’s reflection.
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I agree with you about success in facing challenges! As well as learning from your students!
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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)?
Our second year students learn about digital electronics, used chips, LEDS, chips, etc., but do not get the chance to use Arduino. Wouldn’t really have to modify the content as it is an introduction.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
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?
Just trying to get the system working for me was/is painful. The components/hardware are not the issue, had no issues with getting it running, seeing the results, but but it is the online software/LMS. I keep getting kicked out of the website, have to log back in, constant live server failures, and it is difficult to keep working. It is also not saving the progress, so it would be hard to see if the students are doing the work. Could be an issue with my district filters/blocking. If this is the way it’s going to work, would be hard pressed use the site. Would move content offsite onto a more stable/approved platform like Canvas or Moodle.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
Students being able to correctly connect the equipment and duplicate the required outcomes. Again, at this time, the software/website, is the issue.
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At our school we teach digital electronics second year (10th grade). We use perf boards, discrete components, various IC chips, and NI MulitSim to teach content. Most are successful, but they are also gifted and taking AP classes.
What grade level would really depend on the students your are getting. Low level, uninterested, or non-tech savvy students will have issues regardless of grade level.
put in the class will have issues with the currtilm
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