PowerStationDotLife

How can one motor cause so much trouble?!?!?!?  I learned from last week I need to walk before I run.  I need to do one thing at a time so I know what specifically isn't working. Monday was all about job interviews and charter school board meetings.  So no time for tinkering. Tuesday my homeschool science class wanted to play with the Arduino kit.  Their joy at controlling a blinking light was contagious. This breathed some life back into my maker spirit.  I tried motor again with the directions from the book.  redid circuits.  checked code with the project 10 in the book.  tried switching the diode, nothing. Working circuit for the temperature sensor and LED. I went back to the beginning a got the LED to light up.  Then I redid sensor with success! I even got the sensor to light up an LED!  I then  tested the motor by connecting directly with a 9v battery to see if it works. I searched my colleagues' blogs and tried the motor circuit and code again.  not

This week I wanted to try my own project.   I wanted it to be something I could turn into a finished product.  In our last science class, the boys were studying the water cycle, how to filter it, and how to get where you need it.  We built a model of a spinning sprinkler.  The spinning creates an eddy that forces the water up the straws and out the openings at the top.  It was quite fun to build and play with even though the water sprays well beyond the bowl and even the counter.  Luckily the family dog was happy to help with the cleanup.   My son wanted to use the Arduino to spin the dowl rod.  Since that's really just a matter of providing electricity to a motor, we thought we'd add something for the Arduino to actually process: a temperature sensor.  The idea is for the Arduino board to gather input from the sensor when the temperature is hot enough for the need of a little cooling off, the board tells the motor to turn on, which spins the dowel rod and sprays the bys

The breadboard stripped down and ready for the next adventure. I was pretty disappointed with myself that I didn't get my  Project A  debugged before I had to take the breadboard apart for this week's assignment.  Then I reread that first objective of the class is to "understand the driving forces behind the maker movement and the characteristics of a 'maker' with the goal of connecting making with your current practices."  As an educator, that means play around with being a maker so you know how to enhance your campus with this movement cropping up everywhere.  You also practice being the student complete with trials, errors, frustrations, fails, and triumphs.  We need to remember what that feels like so we can connect better with our own students. So, I stripped the breadboard down to the main red and black wire and started planning the new build.  The push button project from the book (project #5) is done with 2 push buttons.  I decided to s

What my personal maker space looks like when turned loose for independent play This week I decided to blog like a maker instead of an educator; embrace the characteristics of a maker.  I  was feeling accomplished when I had project 3 done by Tuesday .  As I was creating the blog post, I read through the class assignment for specifics.  Accomplishment turned to dread.  I realized I also needed to do project 4.... and create my own project.   The sheer amount of unfamiliar words overwhelmed me.  I joke that numbers were my first language.   I froze.    I walked away but kept mulling it over in the back of my mind.  As  the week got busy I started to get anxious to jump back in.  I was ready to see what I could get done.  I was going to start with what I knew: the projects in the book. So I made regular blog posts like I've been doing: Project 3   and  Project 4  I've been straying bit by bit from putting pieces in the EXACT holes on the breadboard as shown in the boo