PowerStationDotLife

It seems I missed the deadline for credit for the end of class reflection.  I thought we were still had until midnight on Sunday.  Oops.  But I'd still like to take the time to look back over the semester. I took this class to find out more about the makerspace movement and how it could help the charter school high I'm trying to open.  I've always known I wanted the charter school to based on hands-on learning whenever possible.  Even before I learned in the TEA meetings that our campus will be graded on the number of graduates leaving college/ career/ military ready, I wanted to have trades heavily represented with the hope of offering some entry level certifications.  This class helped me focus and refine those initial brainstorming ideas that were all over the map. I've gotten so much support from the professor and my colleagues, that I created my own Pinterest board to organize all the resources .  Three of the main subsections are: 1) Articles and research

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