Lessons for Arduino

This set of resources was hunted and gathered to support student engagement and growth in AP PHYSICS C EM through the implementation of a set of activities built around the Arduino Uno microprocessor and the Engineering Design module of the Next Generation Science Standards. Many ideas from the book “Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom,” were also used in the structuring (or unstructuring) of these lessons. Needless to say, there are no keys except computer keys and no bubble sheets, either-- just empty breadboards and blinking LED’s.

Origin:Paul Bianchi
/ PB / PB / PB / PB / PB
PB / PB / PB / PB / PB / PB

Origin: John Boxall
/ Origin: Tom Igoe
/ Origin: John Owen*
/ JO*
/ The Physics Teacher Article:
Arduino-Controlled Photogate / Origin: Jody Culkin
ARDUINO!
Origin: Mitch Altman, Andie Nordgren, Jeff Keyzer
Soldering is Easy

*contains copyrighted material used with permission of the author

Arduino is a low-cost, open-source electronics prototyping platform that is relatively easy to get started with, but not so easy to outgrow. There are lots of “tinkerers” and “makers” working with this platform and new projects and tutorials are discussed and freely shared online. The majority of online lessons and tutorials are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike v3.0 license. Beyond that, a quick glance at Amazon finds more than a dozen books about programming and building with the Arduino platform.

AP Physics C is divided into two separate courses: Mechanics in the Fall and Electricity and Magnetism in the Spring semester. E&M is the more natural arena for the study of circuits and microprocessor control, however, since there is a lot groundwork to be laid before serious focused study can take place, and limited time in the confines of one Semester to get it all done, I plan to take some time in the Fall Semester to do a few introductory projects. In the Spring, the students will choose projects for further study, but in the Fall semester we will all work together.

My idea for the activities in the Fall semester center around building sensors and other components that can actively be used to take data in our mechanics labs. I am concentrating on the following sensors: ultrasonic rangefinder, optical detector, 3-axis accelerometer and photogate. My goal is not to replace the commercial sensors and detectors that we use in the classroom, but for students gain knowledge of the inner workings (and limitations) of these otherwise magical devices. Students will also develop an appreciation of the engineering behind these commercial devices as they struggle to match performance and ease of use.

A couple of words about scheduling these activities. In order to get ready to build the sensors, students will have to work through the introductory lessons. The First lesson will take an entire class period. After students are familiar with the equipment, we can schedule 20-30 minute blocks (perhaps after tests or quizzes) that fit well with our class schedule and school calendar. Also, I hope that students will work efficiently to finish up book work and lecture notes, knowing that any time saved is reserved for there prototyping exploration activities.

Materials (for a group of 20 students):

10 Arduino Uno Ultimate Microcontroller Packs

10 laptop or desktop computers with Arduino software installed

10 usb cables

10 multimeters

Soldiering station

We will have one or two after-school soldiering lessons and will build our Maker Shield prototyping boards at that time.

FALL Agenda

  • ARDUINO! comic by Jody Culkin
  • 12 Lessons by Paul Bianchi, Tom Igoe, John Boxall, Michael Margolis, and Charles Platt
  • Soldering is Easy comic by Mitch Altman, Andie Nordgren, and Jeff Keyzer
  • “An Arduino-Controlled Photogate” article by Calin Galeriu, The Physics Teacher, Vol. 51, March 2013

The First document in the suite is the “ARDUINO!” comic by Jody Culkin. With clever and engaging illustrations, it introduces the students to the microcontroller board as well as many of the circuit components that they will use in their designs (photocells, LEDs, momentary switches, force sensitive resistors, DC motors, servos, etc.). The comic is a cleverly designed tutorial through the basics of getting started with Arduino, and does not need any formal setup by a classroom instructor to be used. The only instructions that I plan to do ahead of the comic is to hand out a guide for reading resistors.

The 12 lessons are from a New York physics teacher named Paul Bianchi. He based his work on Tom Igoe’s book on Power Computing. The lessons are online in the form of a blog at

We will also have 2 projects for the Fall Semester: Building a sonic rangefinder and building a photogate.

SPRING Agenda

We begin our Spring Semester inquiry of Arduino with a couple of projects: Making a Voltage Divider, and Making a Voltmeter.

Once students learn the basics of coding and wiring, they can apply these skills to set up a (simplified) power grid test bed to support our study of the smart grid, smart metering, and renewable energy. The goal is to construct a smart grid shield with a DC power source connected to a small motor driving a second motor acting as a generator, a PV panel, and several switchable lights (reed relays are used to turn on the LEDs when voltage is sufficient and can be controlled by digital outputs on the Arduino). The students will be challenged to write a sketch that will adjust the output from the DC power source to supplement the power output of the PV panel and deliver the correct power to the circuit based on a selected load. As the solar panel is exposed to bright light, the generator “turns down,” and as lights are turned on or off, the power supplied to the circuit is automatically adjusted to match the load requirements.

We will build and use a circuit very similar to the myGrid circuit found here. These are available ready-made, but I think there is strong value in working out the details of the system and constructing it ourselves.

After this whole-class project is complete, each team of students will be tasked to come up with a project of their choosing, to build, test and present to the class.

FUTURE WORK

After I have gone through this sequence with a group of students, I will take a close look at these lessons again, to evaluate what needs to be improved or replaced. I need to be mindful to ensure that the course content doesn’t get “pushed aside” by these lessons. I will work hard to make strong connections between the hands-on activities and our heads-on course material and I’m convinced that making these hand things will make those head things easier to understand.