Overview
In this unit my class and I explored electricity and programming. In the electricity part of this unit we made electrical magnets by wrapping a copper wire around a nail, then running an electrical current through the wire. Also we did some circuitry with breadboards, potentiometers, resistors and many other things. The most exciting thing, in my opinion that we did in this project was the robot art show. The robot art show combined circuitry and programming to make lights turn on and off at certain speeds. Also you could play music using a buzzer if you wanted to. The last thing that we did in this project was creating plans for a micro grid that the city of Novato could use.
Power Novato
When we first started the power Novato project we had to first learn about all the different types of equations used to calculate different things. V=voltage i=current r=resistance P=power
V=ir
i=V/r
r1+r2+r3=r total
But voltage, current, and resistance aren't the only things that go into powering something. The type of circuit also plays an important role too. One type of circuit is a series circuit. A series circuit is when the currents must run through all components one after the other. This also means if one component doesn't work the whole thing doesn't work. The second type of circuit that we were taught about was a parallel circuit. A parallel circuit is when there are two or more pathways for the circuit to "choose". This means if one component breaks the whole thing doesn't stop working.
Electrical/Magnetic Field
Another thing that we learned about is electric and magnetic fields. One way that we did this is conducting g an experiment using copper wire and a nail to make a magnetic field. In our experiment we were testing how the amount of coils of copper wire around the nail increased the strength of the magnetic field that it produced. Another thing that we did to explore electrical and magnetic fields was to take part a car motor and see what all the different parts did and how they made an electrical field. Below is the lab write up I did on our electromagnet experiment.
V=ir
i=V/r
r1+r2+r3=r total
But voltage, current, and resistance aren't the only things that go into powering something. The type of circuit also plays an important role too. One type of circuit is a series circuit. A series circuit is when the currents must run through all components one after the other. This also means if one component doesn't work the whole thing doesn't work. The second type of circuit that we were taught about was a parallel circuit. A parallel circuit is when there are two or more pathways for the circuit to "choose". This means if one component breaks the whole thing doesn't stop working.
Electrical/Magnetic Field
Another thing that we learned about is electric and magnetic fields. One way that we did this is conducting g an experiment using copper wire and a nail to make a magnetic field. In our experiment we were testing how the amount of coils of copper wire around the nail increased the strength of the magnetic field that it produced. Another thing that we did to explore electrical and magnetic fields was to take part a car motor and see what all the different parts did and how they made an electrical field. Below is the lab write up I did on our electromagnet experiment.
Novato Micro Grid
The last thing we did in the power Novato unit was to design a micro grid for the city of Novato. A microgram is an electrical grid that can produce it's own energy using solar panels, turbines, or whatever method of energy production the makers seem fit. The first thing we did to start out this project was to go to a farm in Sonoma that had it's own micro grid and gain some knowledge about how they work and how to make one. Then after we started doing research on our own micro grids and what energy sources needed to power them. Below is the slide we made with all of our information.
Robot Art Show
In this unit we mainly focused on circuitry and and coding. In our Robot Art Show we had a San Marin fight song playing through the buzzer while green and yellow led lights were flashing in the background. In this project we also had to do a lot circuitry before even going to the Arduino board. One of the most challenging things was the blink light quiz. The Blinky light quiz was when you had a timer, a led light, some resistors, and a potentiometer. Then you had to get the led to flicker and you could change the pace by changing the resistance of the potentiometer. Below is the circuit diagram and code on how our project worked.
Reflection
In this project I had to overcome many difficulties and frustrations. Working with the small components and wires while making a circuit was very frustrating because if a one wire was in the wrong place. Then the whole circuit was messed up and I had to go through every connection to see what was wrong. Besides this in the project I had a good time making stuff light up and making music play throughout the project. I feel like I could've helped more in the micro grid part of the project because doing so much research was a little boring for me. I like having a mixture of research and hands-on sort of work. Overall, I really enjoyed this project.