In this unit, we first learned about electricity and circuits. We had to complete a packet that started us off with simple things, like getting a bulb to light or getting a buzzer to make a sound. As we went on with the packet, the problems slowly got harder and more complex. We soon had to complete an Arduino Kit. This was a program on the computer that let us create our own codes to connect to the breadboards. After experimenting with the Arduino Kit, we had to make our own "Robotic Art Show". My group decided to have a buzzer play Blank Space by Taylor Swift. At first, we got the buzzer to play Happy Birthday. Since we wanted to try and be different from other groups, we connected nine LEDs to the breadboard and wrote into the code a different note to each LED. This made it so whenever a certain note played, the connected LED would light up too. After we figured that out with Happy Birthday, we copied that same outline onto a different code and wrote Blank Space into it.
Below is the code for Blank Space by Taylor Swift with working lights.
Below is the diagram for our breadboard.
Concepts we used in our Robotics Art
Circuit - A series of conductive materials connected in a loop with the negative end of a power source on one side and the positive side of the power source on the other.
Series Circuit - A set of circuit components in a row where the current goes through all of them in succession. The current stays the same throughout all of the components of a series, but the voltage is split amongst them.
Parallel Circuit - A set of circuit components that branch out and are parallel to each other. The voltage stays the same throughout all of the components of this circuit, but the current is split amongst the different branches.
Current - The flow of electrons in a circuit.
Voltage - The electrical difference in a circuit.
Resistance - The opposition of the flow of electrical current in a circuit.
Pits and Peaks of our Robotics Art
In this project, students had the opportunity to be creative and try to be independent in their problem solving. Here are the pits and peaks of our project. My first pit is our prior knowledge to coding and electronics. Before this project, my group and I only knew that to make a lightbulb turn on, was to make it into a circuit. This made us take more time than groups that were experienced with electronics because we were learning as we went on with the packets. My first peak is our teamwork. The three of us were able to evenly divide up the work between the programming, breadboard, and diagrams. This also helped with our communication and finishing all of the tasks we had to do. Since our song was 1 minute and 23 seconds, the notes and rhythms got confusing, so writing the song took longer than expected. We were still able to make the song sound like the original and get the diagrams finished. My second pit is our phone usage. We were sometimes on our phones, so getting our code to work was longer than expected. During the circuit and breadboard work though, we learned a lot and were able to get a lot of the examples to work, even though we did not know anything about electronics before. My second peak is how we all learned a lot. Before this project, Ben, Ashok, and I didn't understand any of the breadboard circuit diagrams. Now, we know everything about resistors, lightbulbs, switches, and batteries. We also learned how to program, which none of us knew how to do either.