Coding can be a challenge…many of my students want to be “game designers”, but soon realize there is more to the actual process. It takes time and persistence to work a problem. Glad you kept working to solve the problem…
At the beginning of the lesson the teacher needs to go over all the information and parts of the Audrino to make sure that everyone has the background and vocabulary needed to go through each unit. The set up on the computer and to run the Arduino was very difficult. While doing it with my colleagues some of their’s connected quickly while my connection did not go through. I had to change several settings until finally it was connected. If this occurs while in class I can see some students can lose interest or get frustrated. Once the connection went through students will be able to play with it and find it quite entertaining. Once the connection is done the role for the teacher is just to facilitate and let the students try it on their own. This would be a great lesson on how to interpret data on graphs in a mathematics class.
I wish I could same the same thing as you but my system did not run smoothly at the beginning. I became a little frustrated as my system would not run while most of my colleagues where able to connect easily. Once I was able to run it and fix a couple of things it ran smoothly. I do think my student would need a little more facilitating with all the parts and what they do.
- 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)?
One of the classes I teach is Middle Makers (6th-Grade). I can easily fit this lesson into my curriculum. The curriculum for “Middle Makers” offers Middle School students the opportunity to engage in a series of “mini-challenges” incorporating the use of the various tools and materials in the Ciongoli Center for Innovation. The CCI Bootcamp is designed to allow students to work collaboratively on various tech challenges as an introduction to the tools, materials, applications, and hardware in the CCI.
-
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
They need to learn the basics of Arduino first. -
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 will be a facilitator. I will have the students who are advanced help the beginners. Students learn better from their peers than the teacher. I will also encourage them if they get stuck or are frustrated. Coding can be intimidating for younger students. -
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 in general learn by doing. A student who is curious and looking forward to the challenges will do well during the class.
- 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 would fit greatly into our physical science curriculum. In our chapter on electrcitity and circuits this would be a great lesson to teach the basics of circuitry.
- Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
Students would need help understanding the Arduino as well as some of the coding aspects.
- 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 first guide students through the basics of how to work the Arduino and coding. Once students have a been introduced to the basics, I would give the students more and more complex challenges similar to the layout of these lessons. In this part of the lessons the students would work in groups independently to work on the challenges, I would circulate from group to group helping the students where needed.
- 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 work in groups, independent of teacher instruction, to complete various circuitry challenges. This would be very a engaging and active lesson. Student success with this would come in all forms. Some students would pick this up very quickly and be able to build circuits, while starting to do more advanced things with the arduino. Other students would struggle with the more advanced aspects of the lessons, but would still be able to build the more basic circuits. Both of these are “student success” as the purpose of this would be to create a basic understanding of circuits. Also, I feel that this lesson would be inspriing to all students so that would also be seen as a success.
- Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
We start teaching from the younger years that machines and computers are made out of parts that work together (systems). From second grade onward, we expose students to simple circuit boards, while we also begin a in depth discussion about sensors as similar to animal adaptations. This lesson can fit well with the electricity unit in 4th grade and how circuitry works. It can also fit in with the 5th grade UROV project, allowing students to understand more complex designs.
- Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
Students would need some intro to the coding script and why specific words are used.
- 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 actually go through the lesson with the students, in a way that I would be exploring Arduino and the board myself. I would guide them to observe the basic parts and then do an example with them. Afterward, I would assign them challenges and I’d be around to help.
- 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 would be able to work independently and most importantly in groups. They would follow problem solving strategies, while also explaining what they are doing. Students should be able in the end to explain some basic functions and highlight difficulties.
I agree that students learn well from peers, especially when technology is involved. Also, giving students the opportunity to work hands-on with material will definitely allow them to see how much they have grasped and helped them learn.
-
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 allow my students to explore new technology by actually using it. It will provide them with the opportunity to have hands-on experience with coding that reaches beyond block coding for animation and robotics. -
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
I will have to help my students build prior knowledge on each of the sensors included on the sensor board. At this time, they have not used anything like the sensor board. I want to encourage them to think of ways they can use it in real life. -
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 probably work alongside my students during this lesson. I would complete the steps along with them at first. Once they got the hang of it, I would walk around and offer guidance when needed. My students learn best when they explore and make connections on their own. -
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
My students would be actively learning and doing. Student success would be when they offer to help each other with problems during process when they discuss how they could use the sensors and what data they could collect in the future.
@ebarr I love it when teachers are incorporating tech into ELA! Have you though about having students write instructions and having their classmates follow those instructions? I have used this type of activity in my STEM classes, and it helps my students start to understand what they are missing in their writing. Great opportunity for cross-curriculum connections.
Wow it took me a bit to figure out I’m supposed to post here and cannot submit answers. DOH!
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
This lesson is a good getting to know you with the kit. I ran into a few lessons learned - couldn’t run it at first as the code would not compile then got email about problems on the Because Learning side. Then got problems with no display. Knowing I need to re-run experiment 4650 to reset is HUGE.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
resetting the software after with experiment 4650. Also knowing that your windows box may have drivers on it that work. I did this on both a mac and windows. On my windows machine it would not accept the downloaded driver saying it had a better one already… and all worked fine.
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?
Merely facilitate. I want the students to try and explore. If they have a question I will give hints via probing questions mirrored back to them. I want them to figure out how to use the hardware… and run the software too. So I’d silently walk around the room unless a group asks me a question. I’d walk around the room to be available as some groups would ask if I’m nearby but wouldn’t ask if I’m at the front of the room.
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 looks like they’ve figured out all the questions and have a comfort with both the hardware and software. Also they are proud of figuring it out to where they are excited to try something deeper especially with all the tempting boxed items we’ve not tried yet.
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
This is a great way for students used to using the system providing students with immediate feedback with little to no work. It would be at the beginning of a unit involving data collection and/or sensors.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
My students would need support in describing what is happening on the graphs and how it relates to the sensors
What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
Facilitating including suggesting ways to use the sensor and what it might all mean. Facilitating wonder and inquiry.
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 would have the students work in partners or trios. Students would be challenged to describe what is being measured and where the measurements are coming from. They would probably have something to fill out including diagramming the board. The main goal of the lesson would be to get students familiar with the tool and excited about its possibilities. Encouragement in connecting joy and wonder with the device should be prioritized over learning.
On a side note I am seriously crying tears of joy. I have been searching for a system like this that works seamlessly with chromebooks for 5 years. It has been years of trial, error and frustration. I have given up so many times.
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
I teach programming so I could easily asked them questions related to what’s happening based upon the code
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
The may need to some getting started or some may need more time than others. I took me while to get up and running.
What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
The teacher would be facilitating and asking questions.
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 success would be that the student is actually able to complete the experiment and then venture out on their own.
I would love to get started but my display does not show anything. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hi, I am trying to install the drivers, but I can’t find Seeduino or anything that says seeed_usb_serial.in. I restart the computer and nothing. I plugged in the Seeduino, OLED, and space board and the OLED is not on, so no drivers. Please advice. Thanks.
If you remove the USB cable that’s plugged into the Seeeduino from the computer, does the highlighted "USB Serial Device (COM8) device disappear? If so, that’s the Seeeduino.
On later versions of Windows 10, it can show up as USB Serial Device.
Also - does a green light (PWR) light up on the board when you plug it into the computer? If not, I’m wondering if the cable might be bad.
Jeff Trotman
DreamUp
Hi, I removed the wire and disappeared, Power is on (green LED). OLED did not turn on or show data until I ran the long code with the button Run with Arduino.
2 Likes
-
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 is PERFECT for my group of students who are working on a farming project. They are trying to grow plants under artificial light using different germination techniques. I can see my students using a board like this to monitor the conditions while seeds are growing (UV light, temperature, and luminosity). I can use this lesson in my Business class and encourage the use of MS Excel to create charts with the data collected with the sensors, and I can see coding for my Technology class. -
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
I would say they need to know the basics of coding because it is a huge code (advanced). They will also need to know the parts of the Seeduino. They need to know what is the meaning of declared, what the void set up does, what the void loop does, what is a library, and how to install one. -
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 will facilitate how to plug the wires because it can be tricky and how to get the wires unplugged carefully to avoid damage to the Seeduino. Also, how to move the Because Learning board to change the data sensor displayed on the OLED. I will facilitate the creation of charts to collect the data at certain times to compare for further analysis. -
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 probably have the students work as partners. Students would be encouraged to describe what is being measured. Also, where the measurements are coming from (which sensor). I will say they will be successful if they can:
• Plug the wires correctly
• Connect the Seeduino and Run the program correctly
• Record data (collect data at certain times)
• Download different images of the data (you have several options)
• For the huge code with all the sensors, I will say they will be successful if they can create a chart to collect/record the data that is not displayed on this activity.
1 Like
@patrick.petty I agree with you. I can see the basics of circuits with this activity in my Engineering class. I will probably combine this lesson with TinkerCAD circuits to encourage them to create a circuit on TinkerCAD (schematic model) and then run the real thing with the Seeduino.
My OLED is not showing any data, however the sensor board is sensing data and I could vary the input and see the graphical display change. My OLED display looks different than all of the pictures and I think one of the corners looked a little chipped (see Picture). Also, I have 3 push buttons and the video shows 4. I just opened the kit. Please advise.
Hi Jeff, I have Windows 10 Enterprise. When I initially plugged in the USB for the Seeeduino, I did not get an error message indicating the process has failed like mentioned in step 3. Instead, my computer said that the driver has been installed successfully. I also see the same port listing of “USB Serial Device (COM3)” under “Ports (COM & LPT)”. When I unplug the device, that goes away, so I’m assuming that is my Seeeduino. My question is, if my computer gave no error message as mentioned in step 3 of the instructions for set-up, am I okay to continue forward without completing the rest of the steps under “Step 2: Install the Seeeduino Driver”?