PROGRAMMING/ ROBOTICS and ELECTRONICS
For these projects, we started by being given a packet. The packet created a learning enviroment that slowely started to educate us about how electricity worked. My group for this part of the project was Eli Teel, Grace Olson, and Shasta Parker. During this portion of the project, we learned how to make a simple closed circuit, and learned a little about different machines you can use to measure the current and voltage strength. We were more independent during this project than previous assignments, and as a group, we had to think more critically than we have in the past.
When we completed the packet, we split up into pairs. My partner was Sarah Teel. We were given a computer and a kit full of a breadboard and materials to make a simple breadboard. Then, we were shown how to use the program Arduino, that had programs already created. With these programs, we could build the board with different things that completed different tasks, from a buzzer to LED lights. Once our team finished the 16 programs, we were instructed to create our own program. Sarah and I decided that it would be the best to copy and paste parts of different previous programs from Arduino to create our program, because neither of us had ever used breadboards before. We started by attempting to create a program with a buzzer, 6 LEDs, and a word projector. The problem was, we couldn't make the buzzer work, and that was the main part we wanted.
We fixed this by ultimately taking out the word projector and starting a new program, using the knowledge we gained to make a better program. We took the program for the song already created by arduino and we changed it to play our song, by editing the notes, the note range, the note lengths, and adding more note freqencies. Then, we added the different sections of song from the program for lights to the new buzzer song. We ended up with a buzzer and an array of lights, playing the Harry Potter theme song. Here's what it was like:
When we completed the packet, we split up into pairs. My partner was Sarah Teel. We were given a computer and a kit full of a breadboard and materials to make a simple breadboard. Then, we were shown how to use the program Arduino, that had programs already created. With these programs, we could build the board with different things that completed different tasks, from a buzzer to LED lights. Once our team finished the 16 programs, we were instructed to create our own program. Sarah and I decided that it would be the best to copy and paste parts of different previous programs from Arduino to create our program, because neither of us had ever used breadboards before. We started by attempting to create a program with a buzzer, 6 LEDs, and a word projector. The problem was, we couldn't make the buzzer work, and that was the main part we wanted.
We fixed this by ultimately taking out the word projector and starting a new program, using the knowledge we gained to make a better program. We took the program for the song already created by arduino and we changed it to play our song, by editing the notes, the note range, the note lengths, and adding more note freqencies. Then, we added the different sections of song from the program for lights to the new buzzer song. We ended up with a buzzer and an array of lights, playing the Harry Potter theme song. Here's what it was like:
Concepts:
circuit- closed loop of conductively materialconnecting one end of the power source to the other end. We used this concept to understand how the simple circuits worked.
series circuit- the current has to go through multiple resistors in a row. We compared this to a parallel circuit many times, to understand how the current worked.
parallel circuit- current has many roots it can take
resistance- (uhms) obstacle to current that weakens, or reduces, the current. We learned that the more resistors you have, it changes the amount of current.
current- (amps) flow of electricity from positive to negative
voltage- (volts) push or pull on electricity or the "drop" of electricity across a resistor. We compared the amount of voltage to the amount of current.
power- (watts) brightness of a bulb
ohm's law- the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across two points
kirchhoff's current law- the sum of the currents going into a connection that must be equal to the sum of the currents leaving the connection
kirchhoff's voltage law- the sum of the voltages around a circuit equal to zero
breadboards- the breadboards that we used are all wired and connected throughout the board. When you connect the one negative and positive sides to another, you can plug anything into it and it works in the circuit. We put the lights into the positive side, and the buzzer in the negative side, like the program explained.
Reflection:
My partner, Sarah, and I, worked pretty perfectly together. Two things that I believe worked well were cooperation and completely understanding each part of the project. We cooperated so well together because we are so comfortable with each other. We understand the other's strengths and weaknesses, and could be honest with each other if we disagreed with something they did. We also asked as many questions as we needed to competely understand each topic. I feel, personally, that I understood more in this project than any other one.
Two things that I feel we could have improved were being more independent with our learning, and had better time management. We had so many questions that, when I think about it, we could have tried harder to figure them out on our own. Because we asked so many questions, we were waiting for Mr. Williams for almost half of our time. If we had figured it out ourselves, we would have had more time to work on the project.
circuit- closed loop of conductively materialconnecting one end of the power source to the other end. We used this concept to understand how the simple circuits worked.
series circuit- the current has to go through multiple resistors in a row. We compared this to a parallel circuit many times, to understand how the current worked.
parallel circuit- current has many roots it can take
resistance- (uhms) obstacle to current that weakens, or reduces, the current. We learned that the more resistors you have, it changes the amount of current.
current- (amps) flow of electricity from positive to negative
voltage- (volts) push or pull on electricity or the "drop" of electricity across a resistor. We compared the amount of voltage to the amount of current.
power- (watts) brightness of a bulb
ohm's law- the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across two points
kirchhoff's current law- the sum of the currents going into a connection that must be equal to the sum of the currents leaving the connection
kirchhoff's voltage law- the sum of the voltages around a circuit equal to zero
breadboards- the breadboards that we used are all wired and connected throughout the board. When you connect the one negative and positive sides to another, you can plug anything into it and it works in the circuit. We put the lights into the positive side, and the buzzer in the negative side, like the program explained.
Reflection:
My partner, Sarah, and I, worked pretty perfectly together. Two things that I believe worked well were cooperation and completely understanding each part of the project. We cooperated so well together because we are so comfortable with each other. We understand the other's strengths and weaknesses, and could be honest with each other if we disagreed with something they did. We also asked as many questions as we needed to competely understand each topic. I feel, personally, that I understood more in this project than any other one.
Two things that I feel we could have improved were being more independent with our learning, and had better time management. We had so many questions that, when I think about it, we could have tried harder to figure them out on our own. Because we asked so many questions, we were waiting for Mr. Williams for almost half of our time. If we had figured it out ourselves, we would have had more time to work on the project.