When my son asked if I would like to give a workshop at his school I answered – without hesitation – “definitely, absolutely, yes! “But…” he continued “it has to be in Italian.” I do not speak Spanish, and my Italian only somewhat better. So I thought for a minute, and I changed my answer into; “Si, ..eh…, Certo!” – but with some hesitation.
I suggested something with Ardiuno. I’ve seen students create amazing stuff with them. “Are you sure?” my son challenged. He remembered I tried this once before. See here. Not a big success. I was very proud of the new application of popsicles, and the pragmatic use of half a washing peg, but I also learned that soldering 64 LED in a 8×8 grid for most is a few bridges too far as first introduction. So I promised to simplify.
About 3 weeks ago the confirmation came that the workshop was accepted. A few evenings serious play to prepare – well, several. Lesson one: LED there be light; wire up a LED and a resistor, and from there we expanded – small steps – into building a digital dice that would randomly show a number after you pressed a button.
The workshop was this week. I threw them in feet first; go build, which they did, at the beginning a little careful. “I’ve used 10K-ohm instead of 220-Ohm. Is that a problem?” but quickly finding their way, learning, fixing problems as they moved along. “Yes, you’ve just shortcut the circuit, but those boards are quite resilient, aren’t they?”
Great enthusiasm in the group, and I was impressed how fast they picked it up. I expected, based on the time I spent on it preparing that we would maybe manage half in time we had, but almost all managed to complete.
Here you find the workshop materials, including sketch files. Enjoy.