My students need wiring and simple programming skills for little computer chips before they build solar panel arrays or robots.
$674 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
Imagine assembling solar panels or building a robot and asking "what's a resistor" or "what's an LED" or "voltage, huh" or not even asking, because parts are parts. Not good. Students need to understand what they are doing, not just to wander amidst the bazaar of technology.
My students frequently walk as zombies with ear buds connected to iPods.
They are disconnected from normal high schools, but they reconnect at my continuation high school. Teachers adjust to the students by minimizing rules and increasing interaction with technology and the outdoors. The students love assembling solar panels in our mini-factory, but getting them to read the manuals isn't easy. If they learned electronics, hands-on, they would connect more intellectually, not just assemble, not just screw things together. The students conduct small robot wars with sumobots, but they don't understand the photoelectric sensors or what they do. These inadequacies must be remedied.
My Project
Small circuit boards each with a breadboard (an area to plug-in parts without soldering with liquid lead) combined with kits of electronic components introduce students to electronics and circuits naturally within projects. This knowledge applies to robots, solar technology, and the guts of iPods, TV's, computers, and more.
The microcontrollers requested are extremely low-cost and are identical to the low-cost robotics that many of the students will use in their next course. Their added, simple programming skills will transfer to robots and make the logic used in solar panel controllers more understandable.
My students will learn how to wire complete circuits, how insulation prevents electrocution, and how to program to turn LED's and speakers on and off.
My students complete my tech courses, not just more career-ready, but also more insightful of what's inside modern boxes and better prepared for more advanced projects.
Fluent in technology doesn't mean being facile with Word and Excel.
It means being able to make things happen with electronics and computers. The art of using a BASIC computer language has actually declined over the past two decades. Controlling various aspects of a machine mimics control of oneself: understanding with practice is needed. Learning to use microcontrollers, small dedicated computers, like those controlling refrigerators, may let students earn a living at jobs that matter.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. A and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
