open-source hardware, tinkering, and physics education
DESCRIPTION
This was a talk given to the CU Boulder Physics Education Research Group around how to integrate more tinkering / play / creativity into traditional physics curricula & labs.TRANSCRIPT
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http://bit.ly/PER_Sparkfun14
Open-source Hardware, Tinkering, and Physics Education:
Integrating DIY Sensors and Data Acquisition with Arduino
Physics Education Research (PER) Group Meeting
October 9, 2014
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http://bit.ly/PER_Sparkfun14
Background / Introduction
● Spent 8 yrs working in industry○ ADC Telecommunications○ Ball Aerospace○ ...
● Attended CU-Boulder - MA+ program● Taught HS Physics / Engineering / Robotics
○ Centaurus HS (Lafayette)○ Overland HS (Aurora)
● Now?○ Work at Sparkfun Electronics as an Education
Engineer.
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http://bit.ly/PER_Sparkfun14
What I do now?
Education Engineer at Sparkfun Electronics.- Design and lead professional development workshops
for teachers / educators.- Develop curriculum, activities, projects for classroom
use.
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Sparkfun Electronics
Started in 2003 by Nathan Seidle (CU Alum) as a Junior in EE.
- Burned out a programming board- Found a supplier (Olimex) in Bulgaria
- good prices, bad website, poor payment options- Made a website- Sparkfun was born...
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What the EDU team does here...
Promote “tinkering” and messing around with hardware, microcontrollers, and circuits to empower people to build and make new things!
Support formal & informal education built around making things -- whether with code, electronics, or physical fabrication.
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What is Physics?
“...physics is about asking fundamental questions and trying to answer them by observing and experimenting.”
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Craft Tech InspiredCopper Tape & Basic Circuits
Using Copper Tape, resistive ink (Bare Conductive) to build paper circuits provides a 1:1 analogue between the circuit diagram and the actual circuit.
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With which you can now make...
https://learn.sparkfun.com/resources/68
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Ohms Law & Conductivity?
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Copper Tape Investigations
Parallel vs. Series Circuits
Ohm’s Law →
Is the adhesive conductive? - Design and implement an experiment w/
data to support your conclusion.
Paper PCB?
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Copper Tape + ATtiny85 (Arduino-compatible 8-pin DIP)
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For comparison:- Apple II : 1 MHz clock, 4K
RAM- IBM XT (8088) : 4.77 MHz,
128K RAM
In 2005 -- Enters Arduino → 8-bit, 16 MHz Microcontroller, 32K flash, 2K EEPROM
Arduino is a low-cost, open source, easily programmable device → operates on as low as 3V -- 2 AA batteries
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Arduino Board
“Strong Friend” Created in Ivrea, Italy
in 2005 by Massimo Banzi & David Cuartielles
Open Source Hardware
Processor
Coding is accessible & transferrable → (C++, Processing, java)
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Programming environment (C / C++)
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Let’s try something new…http://codebender.cc
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Protosnap Pro Mini
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Hello World!
Blinking an LED → 3 instructions (functions) to know:
pinMode([pinNum], [INPUT\OUTPUT]);
digitalWrite([pinNum], [HIGH\LOW]);
delay([time_ms])
https://codebender.cc/sketch:52993
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Let’s see what this all looks like?
https://codebender.cc/sketch:52993
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Open Challenges
● How fast can you blink an LED? How fast can you see it blink?
● Morse Code Challenge -- … --- …
● Heartbeat → Halloween is right around the corner!
● Make a light sculpture?
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Dos Pueblos Engineering AcademyLight Sculpture project
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We’re physicists, right? Let’s talk data...
8-bit Microcontroller → handles 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit data types:
byte / char: 0 to 255 / -128 to 127int / unsigned int: -32,768 to 32,767long / unsigned long: +/- 2^31float: decimal values
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My first project → ReactionTimer
https://codebender.cc/sketch:51229
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Why I like the Reaction Timer
- Data is personally meaningful.
- Emphasizes accuracy / error / uncertainty in measurement.
- As a tool -- it gives students to ask more questions…
- Physics is about measurement, observations, and patterns.
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What all can we do with this?
● Nature of Science: Real data is messy!
● Nature of Science: Variance / Error Analysis / Statistics?
● Kinematics: Reaction Time vs. stopping distance
● Kinematics: Reaction Time vs. falling distance
● Add Sound -- Using tone() command and a buzzer -- does it sound make a difference?
● Other ideas? How about experimental design?
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“New” vocabulary / concepts for physics teachers
- Microcontrollers- void setup() / void loop() ???
- Vcc and GND- Clock speeds
- Analog vs. Digital- A/D Converter & Sampling- Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
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Other fun demos / activities:
Simiple Fading → https://codebender.cc/sketch:53011
Button Fading → https://codebender.cc/sketch:7977
Button Tones →https://codebender.cc/sketch:53013
Color Mixing →https://codebender.cc/sketch:53012
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A different way of drawing circuits?
Vcc
ANALOG INPUT (A0)
GND
6 Analog Input “channels”10-bit A/D -> resolution of ~48.9 mV
Empirical testing:~115 uS per measure~7.3 kHz max sampling rate
https://codebender.cc/sketch:53064
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RC Time Constant Meas.https://codebender.cc/sketch:51144
Vmax = 5V
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All of the other stuff I didn’t talk about...
- Integration with Arduino & Vernier.- Robotics (mechatronics) → what better way
to teach kinematics, forces, rotational motion?
- ATtiny85 -- the “tiny” Arduino- Voltage vs. Current vs. Power vs. Energy- RF \ Wireless transmission \ RSSI & inverse
square losses.
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Physics Education & Reform
Interested in piloting / researching new methods in lab & physics education reform
- Develop new ideas and identify where these fit in “traditional” physics (& engineering) education.
- Increase engagement & participation for ALL students.
- Encourage, Inspire, and Motivate “tinkering,” play, and creativity!
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Questions?