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[Phys-L] Arduino for hs



Hi.
I was asked to expand on my comments about arduino for hs. I replied individually, but maybe the group would find these things helpful, or sees other issues with my comments.
I am pasting my email here. It got really long. It isnt terribly well organized.

...
Regarding our use of arduino controllers: short answer first ; longer answer follows.

- how much programming experience: experienced over 5 yrs, but scattered btn grades 3-8 and only really some months of experience.

-programming language: was robotc, transitioning to labview

-hardware:
For me...was vex kits (like old erector sets) transitioning to a mix of vex erector sets and wood/foam/cardboard.
Recommendations: depends on goals. If i want more flexibility in design, i would go with pink insulation, cardboard and balsa. If i want more durability, reused materials, and design restrictions are ok then erector sets, legos, are ok.


Long Answers (that kept getting longer so i stopped):
-programming experience: kids learn scratch in 3rd-5th grade. They do this with a "specialist." Kids go to a specialist for gym. They go to a different specialist for STEM class. This is only 1 day a week, and they do other things in addition to scratch. Inwould guess they spend maybe 2 months on scratch, 1 day a week, each year.
Our middle school industrial tech / stem teacher had been programming in a graphical / flow chart language in grades 7 & 8. Kids are only in these classes for 1 semester, and do other things in addition to programming.
In high school we have a physics for everyone class in which we spend roughly a quarter (sometimes a semester) doing projects that involve programming. We usually start by editing a existing RobotC programs and grow into writing new programs. If the stars align, we use the controllers, hardware, and programming to learn other things as well.
We are transitioning to LabView at the middle and high school levels. This is our first year of the transition. We were supposed to get the labview software this summer to install and practice with. It was misplaced in shipping (it is in our school somewhere!#$&) and we didnt get a license code until the beginning of october. So we are much farther behind schedule in our first year than we planned or allowed for.


The instructors got together. We discussed that what we were doing wad worthwhile, but it was like teaching kids to say, "where is the bathroom" in 3 or 4 languages instead of really learning something in a single language. Oyr elementary specialist wasnt comfortable switching from scratch (which is probably easiest for younger kids). So she stayed with scratch for grades 3&4 and transitioned to Scratch for Arduino (s4a) for grades 4 & 5 (transitioning in 4th grade). They start using arduini controllers with scratch at the end of grade 4 and in grade 5.
Our middle school industrial tech, high school physics, and high school industrial tech classes

-hardware:this has been more complicated than i anticipated. I staryed with lego nxt kits about 8 urs ago. Switched to vex kits about 4 yrs ago.*
Our elementary school is using cardboard, tape and balsa. Our middle school is adding pink foam insulation and some other items.
I started with lego nxt systems. I was shocked to find that kids werent comfortable building with the technichs system or with traditional legos. Construction time and challenge for a car or carousel was equal or greater than the time learning to program it. We switched to the vex erector kits... i learned some from my past experiences. I try to spend a little time working through the differences of / btn bolts, screws, nails, rivets and so on. Then we build two things i got from project lead the way, a test bed for sensors and motors, and a car. Then kids are a bit more comfortable planning construction of different devices.
At one time i priced out purchasing disposables like balsa, clamps and other items, and an occasional grant for kits appeared to be a better option. I wonder about that choice every year. When i have fewer classes to prep, i might change.
I like the flexibility and design limits available through the use of cardboard, balsa etc... however, when we build things that will be used to collect data or demonstrate a physics principle, it is nice to not worry about the durability of the material. For example, we have made cranes and run tractor pulls as final projects when dealing with gear systems. I dont want to worry about the foam / balsa breaking. Obviously, that us better than the motor breaking. We have a quick hand on a kill switch when we do that one. When we build cars, we collect position and time data to graph and derermine equations for motion. Erector sets make it a bit easier to make cars that go relatively straight.


*A middle school administrator forced me to switch to vex kits about 4 yrs ago. That was the only time i had an admin make a change to something like this. It was because she applied for a middle school grant that required me to do something at the h.s. That admin left 1.5 yrs later.

I am open to conversations about these things. When i talk about this stuff, i am often forced to think about things i might not have thought about before. I learn a lot that i hope to use to make our program grow.


.:. Sent from a touchscreen .:.
Paul Lulai



-------- Original message --------

Date:01/01/2015 9:17 PM (GMT-06:00)
To: Paul Lulai
Subject: arduino for HS details

Hi --

On 01/01/2015 05:21 PM, you mentioned:
arduino controllers

Can you go into the next level of detail on that?

-- How much programming experience do they have before
they get to this point?
-- What programming language do you use?
-- Do you have some fancy programming environment, or
is it old-school edit-compile-load-go?
-- Is there a particular piece of hardware that you
prefer for beginners?

[respond off list, or on, as you wish]

Thanks




.:. Sent from a touchscreen .:.
Paul Lulai



-------- Original message --------
From: Marty Weiss
Date:01/01/2015 5:13 PM (GMT-06:00)
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] widget rate puzzle ... reasoning, scaling, et cetera

The state of modern youth.

Last week I was teaching right hand rules and we got to the topic of magnetic fields and motors. This is a small class in a small private school of 30 total enrollment in the school and the so-called physics class has four students (yes that's right... four teenage boys.) Three of the boys have never played with a motor and never even tore a battery apart to see what it made it "tick". I said when I was their age we got our hands dirty tearing things apart; mixing chemicals in the basement with our Gilbert chemistry sets; building cranes and ferris wheels with our erector sets. . They laughed and said, "Mr. Weiss... you grew up in the olden days." It wasn't always like this... A few years back one boy had brought in a huge motor he ripped from an old broken upright freezer and we spend days exploring it and getting really dirty along the way. I mentioned it to these three boys and do you know what they said? "That kid was a nerd." A nerd? For getting down and dirty and l
oving to do something with his hands and learning how things work? In fact, one boy in this current class showed me his iPhone and said, "This is our world. I don't need to know how motors work. All I have to know is how to get things done on this." This is supposed to be a physics class? If they didn't have to take physics I'm sure they would rather take a free period, search on Twitter or Facebook and while away the time watching funny antics of cats and dogs performing tricks.


On Jan 1, 2015, at 5:54 PM, Anthony Lapinski wrote:

I, like most teachers on this list, like these simple thinking problems.
Most students, at least the ones I teach, don't. They can't/don't think
like we do. They don't really care about these ratio/scaling problems
as they find them irrelevant. They feel the same way about most of
what they learn in math classes. In physics, they just want a formula
to solve a problem. Their critical thinking skills are generally poor,
mainly because they are not taught how to critically think in high
school. What courses do this, besides physics? And with all the new
handheld devices these days, students are weaker at fixing things
and solving real problems. However, they can text very efficiently! Sad...
I assume others on this list feel the same way.

I also like the question about making the sides of a square and triangle
two times longer. I might incorporate some of these into my "placement"
survey I give each year to assess kids' thinking skills and whether they
are in
the right physics class (honors or regular).

When I teach electricity, I give each student a battery, bulb, and wire
and ask them to make it light. Most can't initially. I tell them not to
look at their neighbors and what they are doing. I eventually give them
some hints, and they all eventually get it. It's a good thinking activity
for kids
at any level (regular, honors, even middle school). I then show the Harvard
video clip, where the graduates can't do this simple task. These are
"smart"
kids ("engineers") who don't know the basics of electricity. Maybe they
were
never taught?



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