For this project, we were put into pairs instead of groups of 4-5. The goal of this project was to make a "robot art show." To first get an idea of how electricity works, each group worked with packets that taught us this through a series of experiments. After we finished learning the basics of electricity, we moved onto computer programming with a kit called "The Arduino Board." This taught us how to input codes to the computer that would make something happen on the circuit board we connected to the computer. After learning how to do this, each group would design an "art show" that would make something creative happen on our boards with the series of codes we made. My partner and I got through the packets and Arduino Board fairly easily. When we got to designing our own codes, we decided to have our board play a song. We chose a song, and started to input all of the notes into our code. After we got it to play a very basic song (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), we also decided that we wanted to use the LCD, a small screen that displays words and numbers, to introduce the project. We had a hard time getting it to type all of the words we wanted, but we asked other groups and Mr. Williams for help, and eventually got it to work. We wanted to add lights to flash on and off with the tune of the song, but we couldn't figure out how to make this happen with the time frame. To make our project more interesting, we changed the song and added a row of lights that flashed at the beginning and end. Our final project introduced the project with the LCD screen, flashed lights in a row, played Cheap Thrills by Sia, and then flashed the lights in a row again.
We also made circuit diagrams of our project:
Circuit -a loop of conductive material from positive to negative sides of a power source Current - "flow" of electricity through a circuit
Resistance - measure of how much current is slowed
Voltage - potential energy drop across a component of a circuit
Power - rate at which electrical energy is transferred by circuit
My partner and I are really close friends, so we worked well together on this project. We both contributed the same amount of work, and we wanted to do well on this project. We understood everything relatively well and got our project to do what we wanted it to. I think that we could have challenged ourselves to find the problem instead of asking for help so soon. We did try to fix the problems we had but most of the time we couldn't find the error, so we ended up asking Mr. Williams for help. For example, at one point we had accidentally leaned on the keyboard and typed in random letters. If we had taken the time to look, we could have found the error ourselves, but instead we chose to ask our teacher right away. I also could have come up with a more creative end result. I thought we had, but now looking back, I see that I could have done much better. I will continue to challenge myself with future projects, and not choose the easiest option. I will also work on solving problems by myself; I won't immediately ask for help, I will try to fix it myself. I learned that I do not want to work with electronic programming when I am older. It was too confusing for me. For example, at one point our breadboard had at least 27 wires on it; we had to put each one in the exact spot otherwise our whole board wouldn't work. Another thing that I learned from this project is that when I have an entire group, or partner, that wants to do as well on the project as I do, I have fun and work well with them. I am glad that we got a chance to try programming, but I did wish we could have had more time to work on them.