arduino

Programmable Paper Circuits Workshop at ISTE with Chibitronics

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ISTE Workshop

I spoke with Jie Qi today to talk about her plans for the Chibitronics Love to Code workshop I’m helping her with at ISTE this summer.

YOU NEED TO SIGN UP FOR THIS WORKSHOP!

Because if you attend, you’re going to be one of the first #edtech teachers to have access to her and Bunnie’s awesome new Arduino board that you can program with your PHONE or a Chromebook! (No software downloads for the Arduino IDE! HOORAY!)

In this 3 hour workshop, you’ll learn to craft paper circuits, learn about Arduino coding, and make something pretty rad you can show off to all of your friends.

So why haven’t you signed up yet?

Why Paper Circuits?

Okay, so you might be thinking, why paper circuits? I still remember my first adventure with Arduino at the Denton Public Library. I was so baffled at wiring things to a breadboard and then writing my first code. It was a lot to take in: reading circuitry diagrams AND learning to write code. (Read another post about getting started with Arduino here.) When I tried using Arduino with students at Lamar, I usually only had my students tinker with code or attempt to wire up a project, I felt like introducing both at once would be too confusing.

Then something magical happened. I started a club for my middle schoolers with the Chibitronics Circuit Sticker Notebooks. I learned all about simple and parallel circuits alongside my Circuit Girls. Then I started sewing circuits and programming Lilypad Arduino projects. And suddenly, all of that wiring on breadboards MADE SENSE to me! The tangible nature of laying out a circuit just made it all click for someone visual (and hands on) like me.

So for teaching students new to to these concepts, I like to start with paper circuits before moving to sewing circuits. (And if they are interested, THEN we get to move into programming. However, if you just want special effects and aren’t ready to program, the Chibitronics Effect Stickers are another alternative for adding new ideas to your projects!)

Why Program Paper Circuits?

You still might be asking, why program paper circuits? I can already program with a regular Arduino. What makes programming paper circuits special? Well, I think there are a couple of things about programming paper circuits that are amazing.

  1. Some students follow and create Arduino projects, but never really grasp how to get a project off of a breadboard and into the real world. Programming paper circuits could get your students thinking about real world applications. Plus, it’s like creating your own PCB out of paper and copper tape! How cool is that?
  2. Being able to clip an Arduino board onto a paper circuit makes computational tinkering much more accessible than hard wiring/breadboarding/soldering a project!

I’m excited for this board to come out and buy a class set for my library. Plus, I’m stoked to see what other teachers’ students do once they get hands on experience with coding and wiring components with the Chibitronics Love to Code board.

This new Arduino board from Chibitronics is going to make it even easier for students to understand how a microcontroller works and how they can “wire ” it themselves. 
If you want to learn more about programming your own paper circuits, sign up for this awesome workshop in San Antonio at ISTE this summer. You won’t regret it!

Link to ISTE Workshop!

(See my previous post about using this board for light-up poetry.)

Here’s a run down of all the sessions I’m involved in at ISTE:

June 24- 28: ISTE , San Antonio, Texas

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Project- Light Up Poetry with Chibitronics “Love to Code” Arduino Board

/ gravescolleen / 6 Comments

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Programming Goodies!

About two months ago, I was honored to get to receive a prototype of a “Love to Code” Arduino board that Jie Qi and Chibitronics are currently working on. (If you don’t know how much I love paper circuits and Chibitronics, then read this post before going any further.)

The first thing I had to try was to hack my own disco paper circuit from our Big Book of Makerspace Projects and get my disco dancing on it’s own!

Computational Tinkering

I LOVE how easy it is to map out a circuit and then clip this “Love to Code” board to the circuitry. I decided to try out an RGB LED and do a little computational tinkering to see how different sets of code would effect the blink.

It was so simple to dream up an idea and map it out with copper tape, that I began to get way too complicated in my design ideas. I had a few failures, so I started chatting with other makers about design ideas and brainstorming more ways to use this new technology. Suddenly I had it, I’d seen lots of black out poetry, but what about using lights to “light up” poetry?  I spoke with Josh Burker about tweaking this fun poetry idea and he made a super cool project with lights and poetry.

See Josh’s light up poem here.

Light Up Poetry

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I’ve been dreaming up multiple ideas for what I wanted my own light up poetry to look like, and I kept coming back to one of my favorite poems by e.e. cummings: “l(a” I absolutely adore this poem and how the words themselves look like a leaf falling, so I knew I had to make this poem as if the words were animated and portrayed the loneliness of a leaf as it falls to the ground. I wanted each stanza to light up separately and give the viewer some time to think and experience the words as the falling leaf. Initially, I wanted to have the circuit on the clipboard, then have a sheet with the poem and put a semi-transparent gold paper with leaf drawings on top. I made my circuit, practiced drawing leaves, and tested out the light.  Plus, I decided to incorporate my battery holder from sewing circuit club.

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When I started testing out my ideas, I found that the words would barely show through when I layered multiple papers. But I still really still only wanted leaves on the top layer and the words to not be visible until the light shined on them. I kept trying different types of paper and printing the poem darker…. it wasn’t working, but I didn’t want to give up on my idea.

I ended up making the poem into an image, flipping it and printing it so that the words were printed in reverse (or mirror image) on the back side of the paper. I mapped out a new circuit and hot-glued together a cardboard frame so the light would be able to diffuse a bit before lighting up each word on the top paper.

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My reversal trick worked, but I still wanted to harness the light from those little LEDs. So I made some foil leaves to aid in reflection, poked holes for the LEDs to shine through, and covered the bottom of the foil with scotch tape to insulate my copper tape traces and prevent short circuits. (And I ended up adding more LEDs to the template above)

 

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The pieces fit together and now the light gives off a magical glow of a hidden leaf under the drawing.
I hacked a simple fade code on my phone to light up each stanza and then light the first and last stanza together so readers would see the word “loneliness.” I’m pretty happy with the result! See below:

I have more ideas about lighting up poetry that I want to try soon, and I hope this tinkering will convince students (or teachers!) to play around with literacy in this way.

Coding and Paper Circuits

One of the things I really love about Arduino (versus something like Raspberry Pi) is the hands on aspect. But all the wires and breadboarding can be confusing when you are totally new to this type of making. I remember when I was hooking up my first Arduino project and I thought I had to match all the wires to the correct numbers on the breadboard so that it would look exactly like the diagram. I had no concept of what I was doing electronic-wise. I knew I had to hook wires from the Arduino to the bread board to the components, but I don’t think I really understood how any of it worked.
And I think that’s why I now prefer sewing circuits. Once I started sewing my circuits and programming and controlling components with e-textile boards like Lilypad, Flora, and Gemma, I actually started to understand how the wiring and coding was controlling the project. 
All of the coding and wiring made so much more sense when I had hands on experience with the components. That’s why I often suggest teaching students paper circuits before sewing circuits, and before programming with Arduino. I think these skills build on one another and students will need a solid foundation to understand how circuits work so they can pull those components off of breadboards and put them into projects.
I’m stoked about Jie’s new board because I think it will make it even easier for you or your students to understand how the microcontroller is working and I think laying out copper tape traces will make your learning visible.