Quickstart Guide

ArdusatExplorer - That is a good idea to keep a sheet of the commands. This is all new to me too!

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How does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
I was playing with this in front of my students and they were fasinated by everything I was doing. I would use this to show my students how to follow directions within an experiment. By following the steps in order the students would model following the steps of an experiment. I would have me stusents create their own light show writing down the steps as they go. then they would have to share their steps with other groups to see if the could make the same display. I find that my students have trouble writing out their own procedure for labs. By doing this they would be able to learn how to write clear and consice steps for any experimet.

what part of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
My students are scared of the coding. As we played with the Arduino and I downloaded the code they loved it but one of my students already commented that they “would NEVER want to code for themselves its just too hard.”

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?
Scaffolding! I would walk around the room helping the class and answering any questions that I could. As I move around the room I would also ask the students leading questions so they could figure things out on their own. I would let the students work in groups and ask the other groups for help. I find that it is sometime easier to have the students explain concepts to each other.

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’s role would be active participation. I would want the students to enjoy what they were doing and to ask questions. I would have the students work in groups and help each other to understand how to complete the activities. Success for me would be trying. If I see that the students are doing their best I would be happy with the outcome. As I was going through the lesson I was having trouble at some points but I continued on. That is what I would like my students to do also. I find that many of them are scared by coding and using technology. a success would be a student who learns that they can do STEM and not to be afraid of the subject matter want ing to do more in the future.

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I like the idea of keeping the sheet of commands. I would have each of the students write out what they were doing as they went so if there was a problem in the code it would be easier to find.

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This was an awesome lesson on reading critically and following directions to identify the lines of code needing to be changed and attention to detail to ensure all characters were used correctly. This skill could be used in any classroom/curriculum to demonstrate reading instructions. I would use this activity as an intro to my cyber patriot teams as a exercise to determine their coding ability for creating teams. This will also help them troubleshoot during the competitions.

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I really appreciated the Quickstart Guide. I feel so much more comfortable playing around with this now. (and way less intimidated).

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It started working again. Thanks.

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
I teach K-5 library. This lesson would probably only be appropriate for my 4th/5th graders. We began coding two years ago so I can see their coding skills improving each year. We use Cubetto, Blue Bot, and Dash and Dot to code. We have also usied Little Bits and this lesson would expand thier skills.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
I believe my students would need help just making sure everything is running correctly and having the confidence to feel like they are going to be successful. I think they would catch on quickly and would just need some guidance.
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?

If I were to teach this lesson I would be more of a facilitator. I would be present, walk around observing and just be there to help out. If they had questions I would question them back to help them become problem solvers.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
If I were to teach this lessons my students would be working collaboratively. To me student success would mean they were trying with positive attitudes.

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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)?
I teach Liberal Arts Math 1 which is for students that passed Algebra 1 but may not have done well enough in it to go on to Geometry. We spend a little over half of the year reviewing Algebra then we start do some introductory Geometry, without getting into proofs. One of the biggest problem I find my students have is actually reading directions and following them. I am always stressing how important it is that they always read instructions. This lesson would be a great way to get them to actually read the instructions. It is something I think they would enjoy and be interested in learning so they would be more apt to actually take the time to try to read what they need to do. And what a great way to maybe get them interested in Math!! When I tell them how important it is to understand math in order to be able to learn computer programming I may be able to hook some students that before had no interest.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
They may have trouble getting getting anything to happen when they download the program so they may need to redownload it. Or they may have trouble getting the different types of sensors to come up on the screen. It will be interesting to see if any of the students can determine the sensors that are in the sensor board from the code.
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? The goal is for my students to be able to take charge of the experiment and be able to do it on their own, As a teacher I would mostly hope that I would be there for support and assistance as needed. I want my students to be challenged by this and then to work together to find a solution to the challenge, but to also enjoy themselves while doing so. I do not want to “do the experiment for them” and then tell them the answers. I want them to tell me. And then if they make a mistake to know that it is ok and that we learn from our mistakes.
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 students would be working together to set up and conduct the experiment. They would work together to find the answers to the questions and discuss any difference of opinions they may have in order to reach a consensus. Their success would be when they are able to do all of this without depending on the teacher to “hold their hand” while doing this.

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I agree so much with you about not hovering over the students! The best way for students to learn anything is to let them make mistakes on their own and find solutions to their mistakes. Of course, you want to be nearby because you never want them to reach the point of frustration. But it is more as a guide than as a, “here, let me show you.” If you do it for them they will never have that satisfaction of having successfully completed it on their own. Sometimes it is hard to let them go, but it really is the best thing to do.

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  1. 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)?

I can use the temperature sensor to run an experiment for the physics chapter on thermal dynamics. I can get a latex balloon that is not fully inflated, use the temperature sensor to measure the room temperature. Then use a blow dryer to heat up the balloon. I can have the temperature data graph displayed on board using my the graph that shows up on my computer. Then students would be able to watch the graph and see that as the temperature increases, the wrinkles in the balloon also decrease.

  1. Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to successful?

I think that this lab is relatively straight forward. I will need to explain to the class how the sensor and graph is working before we start. This lab could be used as an exploratory experiment before I start the lesson to get them to make the connection between temperature and pressure. Or the class could be given a basic lesson on thermal dynamics and its associated equations and then use this experiment to allow the class to give a detail account using thermal dynamic equations to justify what they just saw with the relationship to temperature and pressure. I would need to verify that the heat produced from the blow dryer would not damage the sensor board.

  1. 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 the initial set-up. I would need to make sure the sensor board is hooked up and the graph is showing on the board so that the students could read it. I would also be in-charge of holding the sensor in the heat stream of the blow dryer in order to make sure that no one gets burned. I would have a student volunteer holding the blow dyer. After the experiment, I would be a felicitator leading the discussion but having the students look at the data to make their own conclusions.

  1. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?

No, this will be a lesson that I teach next year. What I will have the students do is record the temperature data that they see and make their own graph. They will also record the changes in the ballon size with respect to different temperatures and time. Lastly, I will have the class write about what they were able to conclude about temperature change and pressure and what they think thermodynamics is about.

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That is a good idea. To use this a being of the year experiment to teach scientific method and how to follow lab instructions. A fun to introduce good lab practices!

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Although I teach math, I am trying to sneak programming in to my classes wherever I can. With the sensors, my students can take data and learn to plot what they get and interpret what the data means. I did have trouble with the chrome extension being forbidden at school, but I was given a workaround for that. I haven’t tried it yet- last days of school chaos. I am looking forward to using this in my summer school program!

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I would love to add coding to the STEM part of my day. I think it the sensors could definitely be integrated into lessons with our science standards and curriculum topics. I have already mentioned weather and climate, now I am thinking maybe energy too?

My students need a few lessons in coding as well as some time to play around with it.

My role during this lesson would be to circulate around the room and make sure everyone has their items set up correctly and is following instructions.

Student success in this case looks like all of my students discovering how everything works and how to gather data from the sensors.

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I like this thinking too! Kids can learn so much by trial and error, or just interacting with different tools.

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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)?
I am going to teach the Because Learning lessons and experiments as the curriculum for a semester long “Astro Class.” This will be the first lesson in the series. I have also made arrangements to work with the science teacher across the hall throughout the year to reinforce the lessons both of us are teaching as many of them use similar terminology.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
I found out quickly that the cyber security measure my IT department takes locked me out of installing the required chrome plug-in on our Mac Books. That is certainly an area that I will have to take care of before turning the students lose. I think I will also spend a few minutes with a mini lesson on circuits and then demonstrate how all the pieces go together and work in conjunction with the laptop. I love that, as a first lesson, this one gives the students wide ability to just tinker.
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 normal teaching mantra is, “I do, we do, you do.” I will demonstrate how to set up the sensors and what the incoming data looks like, then have the groups of students imitate what I did, then provide a structured “turn taking schedule” (probably a timer) so each student will have a chance to work with the Seeeduino on their own and do their own exploring with it.
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 will have the students working in groups to support each other and figure out how all the sensors are working. The students will then participate in a group discussion about what they learned. Success is achieved when all the students are able to attach the Seeduino to the sensor board and the OLED screen and then identify the displayed information.

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My IT department was able to unblock the one single extension that I needed. Once they unblock it on the school’s google account, it is then unblocked for any computer on the network to use. If your IT department doesn’t grasp this concept, it may just mean that they need to do a little more research on the admin side of google. :slight_smile:

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I love the “I do, we do, you do.” !!!

It is tough when you know more than the people in charge, and they are driven by fear. I am already on the naughty list for having a personal external hard drive with my school backups on it. I thought that was the best way to store the files I want to use year after year. They thought I was doing something untoward with the files, and I am not allowed to use it or take it home until my ludite principal reviews the entire terabyte drive for security breaches. If I push the plugin issue, I may not keep my job. It is dangerous to be a tech pioneer in WV.

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So sorry to hear about your tech adverse administration difficulties. :frowning: I greatly appreciate that I work at a school that is tech savvy and tech focused. I still get in trouble once in a while as my IT lady does not like it when a teacher tells her to do something she doesn’t already know how to do. LOL I use google drive and the free google ed apps to both create most of my files and to back them up. I can also access them from home without transporting anything physical to and from school. With a free education account, you get unlimited storage, but you can also use a personal account and pay something like $10/month for a TB of storage. I don’t know if this idea would help you…if you can say that you are no longer going to be taking a drive back and forth…but it is worth the suggestion. Good luck trying to get your coworkers to step into the 21st century. :man_farmer: Stay strong. :muscle: LOL

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
Since much of our curriculum is codihng, this is a great start. I could have students begin with the knock knock jokes, after installation and they would LOVE being able to input their own corny jokes!

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
My students would need a little help with learning how to read code, but that is what my class is all about, so they should be ok quickly.

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 teach as a facilitator for the most part. I give the students the tools to succeed, but also give them time to have trial and errlrs.

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 in my class is usually the “I did it!” moment. The students are used to trying out and discovering ways for success. They know that there are many ways to get the right results, and all are right.

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