Don’t Be Tardy! An Arduino Warning System
Students working on coding their Tinkercad simulation.Copyright Becky Eyestone-Malbouef
Students engineer a device to alert peers who are about to be late to class. To do this, students first define the problem and success criteria for an alert system. Students plan the algorithm for their system and then code an Arduino circuit to display a repeating/blinking message on an LCD screen with LED lights (in Tinkercad). Then they work collaboratively in groups of 2 or 3 to build (put it together) an Arduino circuit with an LCD screen and LED lights. Students create a simulation first and then build a physical model. As part of the coding, they learn about loops, conditionals, and variables, and they test their code in stages to identify and fix errors. Students learn more about circuitry and coding and how the skills apply to many applications in the real world. Students have the option to refine and improve their design by adding other elements to their warning system. Finally, they share and analyze their solutions based on their defined success criteria.
Electrical engineers can take a basic circuit and transform it into a more complex circuit that is programmed to alert people to various events. These circuits can be used to promote safety (e.g., smoke alarm) or support accessibility (e.g., doorbell for the hearing impaired). In this activity, students build a circuit and program it to deliver a message to help students not be late for class.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Define a problem and success criteria in the school where a new alert system would benefit all.
- Apply what they learned about block coding, and how circuits are constructed, to design a system for alerting students in the hallway 30 seconds before the tardy bell rings.
- Build and code an Arduino circuit that gives off a 30-second alert before the tardy bell rings.
- Test and discuss what other challenges would need to be considered to implement the circuit in the whole building (connecting them all throughout the hallways, how to mount them in the hallways out of reach of students, programming them for half days, etc.).
- Improve their design by adding in other elements to their design.
- Evaluate their designs based on agreed-upon success criteria.