To Code or Not to Code: That is the Question

 I registered for this class at the last minute upon the advice of Dr. Dondlinger.  I had some prior knowledge of Makerspaces, an interest in STEAM, but absolutely no idea what I was getting into. 

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive when I learned we needed to purchase an Arduino kit, but I was up for the challenge, or at least I hoped I was.  When I began the first week's Maker Challenge, I would be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated.  When I look back over that post, I "see" a girl who wanted to succeed, not disappoint.  The first week, I felt like I failed, and I didn't like that feeling.  

The class and Dr. B were so understanding and encouraging, that I quickly got over it.  I was impressed with how quickly we built a community of learners.  This was definitely the type of classroom community I would like the students at Royse City High School to be in. From the beginning of class, I knew I didn't know how to code, and the little html experience I had wasn't serving me well.

After a few weeks of tinkering, making, and learning from peers and co-workers, I had learned to code, a little.  Each week, I learned a little bit more, but I also realized the more I learned, the more I didn't know.  I wanted to understand how it all worked together.  If I read my blogs from the perspective of a teacher to student, I hear a student who is getting more comfortable with learning through failure and not being perfect.  

Through this class, I did learn some coding.  I am more confident in the general idea of the void set-up and the void loop, and I made some lights dance to Christmas music.  Who would have thought?!  The dancing lights to Christmas music is the project I am most proud of - even if it didn't do all that I wanted it to do.  It gave me confidence that I could do something unexpected, and that I could persevere.

Throughout the class, I continued to struggle with the coding, but I impressed myself with how I learned to follow the schematics and troubleshoot when a borrowed code didn't work for me.  I learned more about circuitry than I knew before the class.  

I would love for students to have these same opportunities.  I really would like to see a Makerspace at our campus.  Currently, a small percentage of our student population are enrolled in classes where they get to create.  The creating and challenges I had this session have made me a stronger student and I've learned that "old dogs can learn new tricks."   Moving forward, I will look for ways to encourage Making at our school.

ARGH!!!!! I Really Wanted It to Work!!!!

When I heard the secret ingredient this week, I had a BIG idea!  I wanted to take my previous build, add a photoresistor AND a motor to it.  I wanted the lights to dance to the music and the motor to turn a Christmas figurine.  Of course, the song had to be a Christmas song.  I chose to keep Santa Claus is Coming to Town because it reminds me of my mom and Childhood Christmases.  I really felt like I was on the right track, but although I learned a lot and have more understanding of the coding than I did last week, I could not get my project to do what I wanted it to do.  

I started off with my two-button project from last week, but reduced it to one button and added more lights.  In the beginning, I could not figure out how to make the lights dance as I had wanted them to, so I posted to the board for advice. 

I didn't quite understand the few responses I got, so I reached out to my friend, Rich.  I sent him the code I had and told him what I wanted my project to do - the first step.  He was able to give me some notes and I succeeded with my first goal!  Woohoo!  

I understand more about the setup and the loop.  I learned the setup is a collection of the different routines we want the Arduino to run, and the loop is where we tell the Arduino the order of the routines we would like it to run.  This is probably a very basic explanation, but it helped me to have this AHA moment.  From reading Rich's notes, I realized there was even more flexibility and approaches to writing code than I previously thought.  Each coder has their own techniques to help them recall the different components of their commands.  I still have a lot to learn, but I'm proud of the dendrites I've built during this course.  One of the reasons I continue learning is in an attempt to ward off Alzheimer's since my mom was diagnosed at 59 1/2.  I do believe I have learned new things and kept my brain active this week. 😉

Click Here for the Code That Worked

Feeling good about my progress, I was confident I could exchange the button in my project to a photoresistor which would initiate the song to play with different shades of light.  I tried multiple different configurations. I built and rebuilt.  I went back to the practice circuit t for practice, but I could not get it to work.  Strike 2 for this week!  I decided to nix the idea of the photoresistor and go for the motor.  I didn't have enough room on the breadboard to have lights and a motor; I thought it would be fun if a song would play while a Christmas figurine rotated.  One of our classmates pondered our ambitiousness, and I believe I have been a little overly ambitious after my success with combining codes.  As with the photoresistor quest, I tried taking everything apart and still couldn't get it to work.  I searched on Google and tried projects written by others to get ideas, but I just couldn't get it running in the amount of time I had to tinker this week.

I learned some new things even though it didn't work.

I really wanted to create something cool this week.  I am pleased with my progress and work ethic, but I  just wanted more.  Oftentimes, I felt like this was me this week:  

But hey, in the end, all that matters is we are taking risks, learning new things, and growing from our experience.  I want the students at RCHS to have the same experiences of growing at their own pace and learning to problem solve and reach out to others.  Have a wonderful week everyone.

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer is "Programming" Loud for All to Hear

As I tackled the Arduino this week, I knew I wanted to make the music.  Dr. B had put that bug in my ear in some of my blog feedback.  I started with the demo circuit and code - it worked perfectly! The arduino is coded to use the buzzer to play a tune.

Image of Project #9 in the handbook set up.

sketch up of project #1

Being the Christmas nerd that I am, I wanted it to play a Christmas song, but not Jingle Bells, because I wanted it to be different. I tried to create a song from scratch - ha, that was tough.  I spent way too much time trying to make it work, until I finally searched for a project t that I felt like I could adapt.  Using the buzzer and switches, I was able to get my Arduino playing, not one, but two Christmas melodies!    I ended up using a project from the web and had fun with it.  Each switch activates a different Christmas song when pressed.  One of the things I have learned is that there are multiple ways to code the Arduino to do the same thing.  This might be one of the things that makes it difficult when figuring out what to do and how to combine.  The coding for the project was different than the coding I found for the Christmas songs.  For the Christmas songs, I had to use a second tab and upload the "pitches.h" code.  It did take me a while to figure this error out, but thankfully there are a lot of resources on line and I was able to figure it out.  I learned something new!

Image showing the buzzer and two switches that activate the two different Christmas songs.

Sketchup for final project - only I had 2 switches, not 3 

I got the melodies to work, but I have yet to figure but how to combine two different codes.  I thought I understood how to incorporate the lighting, but I wasn't able to make the adjustments like I wanted.  At some point, I might continue tinkering with it, but I looked up at the clock and it was 12:30 am.  Time flies when you're having fun.  Realizing I had worked for the majority of my Saturday afternoon and evening without realizing it had been so long, helped me see how far I had come since my first week of frustration with this "thing." 😁 I enjoyed the process and didn't feel frustrated once.  I wanted to figure it out, but simply couldn't keep my eyes open, and realized I would have to "play" with my end goal at another time.

I am grateful one of our classmates, Heidy, shared her code with me as she was able to get the lights dancing.  I will try for the dancing lights, even if it isn't before posting on my blog.

Below is the code for my final project:

In case you've been curious just how Christmas Crazy my family is and why coding lights would be a welcome addition, here are some pictures of our yard; I'm off to catch up with the inside decorations.  This how grad school thing has me a little behind on Christmas cheer. 

There are so many things I actually own that utilize this type of coding.  I have some Christmas decorations that are motion activated to play music, light up, or both.  It's been fun learning how these things actually work.  And here's a funny for the week:  My daughter, a Mechanical Engineering student at SMU, told me I was "such a nerd," and giggled when I faced time to show her how my project worked! 😍