Project Description
We started this project off by learning about electricity and circuits through a very long packet full of activities relating to circuits. The packet started of with simple tasks such as making a bulb light up using two wires, a bulb, and a battery. But as we kept going the problems started to get more difficult. After the packet, we moved on to a worksheet involving breadboards. After this we had to take test in which we had to make a complicated circuit following a circuit diagram on a breadboard. After this, we started working on arduino and programming. Making the circuits were easy but reading the code is when we had to use our brains. Now we moved on to the actual project which was to make anything using the arduino kit that was provided. My group first programmed the song Happy Birthday and had lights shine while it was playing. After we finished this, we had a few more days left so we programmed the song Blank Space by Taylor Swift.
Happy Birthday:
We started this project off by learning about electricity and circuits through a very long packet full of activities relating to circuits. The packet started of with simple tasks such as making a bulb light up using two wires, a bulb, and a battery. But as we kept going the problems started to get more difficult. After the packet, we moved on to a worksheet involving breadboards. After this we had to take test in which we had to make a complicated circuit following a circuit diagram on a breadboard. After this, we started working on arduino and programming. Making the circuits were easy but reading the code is when we had to use our brains. Now we moved on to the actual project which was to make anything using the arduino kit that was provided. My group first programmed the song Happy Birthday and had lights shine while it was playing. After we finished this, we had a few more days left so we programmed the song Blank Space by Taylor Swift.
Happy Birthday:
Blank Space:
Our Circuit Blueprint:
Concepts
Circuit: a complete and closed path around which a circulating electric current can flow
Series Circuit: a closed circuit in which the current follows one path, as opposed to a parallel circuit where the circuit is divided into two or more paths
Parallel Circuit: a closed circuit in which the current divides into two or more paths before recombining to complete the circuit
Current: a flow of electric charge
Voltage: an electromotive force or potential difference expressed in volts
Resistance: an electrical quantity that measures how the device or material reduces the electric current flow through it
Power: rate of doing work or amount of energy used per unit time
Reflection
This project was by far the most foreign to me. I had a very hard time doing the packets because I had never done them. Watching other people ahead of you also stresses you out. At first my whole group had a hard time but after we started understanding it we were better. One peak of the project was that we were able to work great as a team. Our group had three people while others had two. It was a little harder to work better as a group for us because there was only enough work for two people the whole time. But my group was able to do something productive the entire time. One pit was that our whole group didn't have any prior knowledge so everything was harder for us. The only thing we knew was how to turn on a light bulb, so when we were on problems involving breadboards, we were confused out of our minds. The second peak was time management. If you have read my reflections on all the other projects, one of my pits was always time management. I was extremely happy because we finished our project a week before it was due, so we made another song which was even better than the first. So we ended up having two projects instead of one. The second pit was that I got off task when we were working on the breadboard packet. This was because I had no idea how to do it so I gave up sometimes and just started talking to other people. Next time I'm not gonna give up for the sake of my teammates. I enjoyed this project because I learned something different and foreign to me.