[IAEP] It's Time to Sign Up For Sensors!

[Mike Lee]

Hi,

Looking forward to being in SF! I'm not ready to sit down for a sensor
session, but here's a historical bit...

I found one of XOExplosion.com's temperature sensor kits from 2008 and just
posted photos and their parts list to Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/sets/72157631756048008/with/8081515681/

Plan Ceibal's handout is a nice update of the wiki page:

http://www.reducativa.com/xo/man-sis-sensoresdetemperatura.pdf

I'll bring the kit. It looks like an assortment of heat shrink tubing is
needed along with basic soldering supplies. I typically use a heat gun on
shrink tubing, but a BIC lighter is quick and easy. You might want to check
with Sameer if it's OK to use one of those. I think this video by Becky
Stern of Adafruit demonstrates soldering in a snappy way:

http://youtu.be/yZkz_a52I6s?t=1m18s

Looking at some of the sensor documentation for Turtle Art, it looks like
the use of a thermistor with two leads simplifies the assembly a bit, but
the addition of a resistor or zener diode are suggested for XO-1.5 and
XO-1.75.

Guzman's video of temperature graphing in Turtle Art is awesome. Are these
project files available anywhere? Looking at his video surfaces the fact
that there's much more to the sensor exercise than just soldering:

- Source parts and assemble the desired sensor
- Test (and calibrate?) with the particular model of XO
- Test with a specific project file for Turtle Art w/sensors, Scratch
w/sensors, Physical Etoys, etc.
- Create updated documentation and devise lesson plan ideas

I messed around with the temperature sensor briefly back in the simpler
times of 2008. Now the solution matrix has grown quite a bit.

Mike


On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 12:40 PM, Steve Thomas <sthomas1 at gosargon.com>wrote:

> Unfortunately I will not be in SF, but I am very interested in Sensors.
> Perhaps I can attend or see the final results if you do presentations via
> Google Hangout?
>
> I hope to be going to Haiti next March and plan to bring some lessons and
> an "engineering challenge" around the kids/adults building Solar Stills.
>  So temperature and humidity sensors would be good.  I would also be
> interested in ones we can hook in through an arduino (like the versions C.
> Scott Ananian designed) for data collection.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Stephen
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 12:06 AM, Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  Hi Folks, It's crunch time!
>>
>>
>> STEM, SET, SCIB... no matter what you call it, the world is focusing more
>> and more on science and technology in education. The XO is an ideal
>> platform for furthering science education through hands-on student based
>> experiments that will teach and/or reinforce science concepts from core
>> curriculums. It is a perfect use of the XO for any deployment.
>>
>>
>> So far the following people have shown interest in doing something with
>> sensors at the SF Summit and/or Sugar Camp.
>>
>>
>> Tony Anderson, Janissa Balcomb, Ed Bigenho, and myself.  Also, it is
>> possible Nick Doiron and/or Alex Kleider can help us with the building.
>>
>>
>> Surely there must be more of you that are interested in this!
>>
>>
>> The plan is to make the sensors early on, maybe in free time, maybe at
>> the Noisebridge makerspace, maybe at the Summit itself. That way, folks who
>> aren't staying over for Sugar Camp will have the sensors to take home with
>> them.  Those people who are able to stay past Sunday will have a chance to
>> experiment with the sensors and find ways to use them in science lessons,
>> probably focusing on upper elementary to middle school science. These ideas
>> will be shared with all who are interested, principally on the SugarLabs
>> wiki.
>>
>>
>> Sensors we will probably  build will include temperature, light, and
>> possibly one or two others. Once we know how to build and use them, it
>> should be fairly easy to transfer what we learn to building others once we
>> are home.
>>
>>
>> If you want to be a part of this, I need to know in time to get the
>> supplies for you. I plan to make a trip to a large electronics store in the
>> San Fernando Valley next week to purchase the parts we will need. Their
>> prices are excellent and they will sell small quantities if needed.  My
>> best guess is that most sensors can be made for $5 or less… maybe much
>> less. That means your investment for one each of 4 different sensors would
>> be $20 or less.
>>
>>
>> So… what I need to know is…
>>
>>
>> Do you want to be included in this project?
>>
>>
>> If yes, *what days/dates * will you be in SF and what part of town are
>> you staying in?
>>
>>
>> What sensors besides light and temperature are you interested in
>> building?***
>>
>>
>> Ideally, how many sets of parts for each sensor would you like me to get
>> for you? I don't have an endless pot of money and expect to be reimbursed,
>> but I can probably put enough into this for everyone interested to have at
>> least one of each, maybe more.
>>
>>
>> I will be making my shopping list for this over the weekend, so don't
>> delay in making up your mind!! Just send me a reply to this email with your
>> "reservation" and info.
>>
>>
>> Hope to see you in SF.
>>
>> Caryl (aka SweetXOGrannie or GrannieB)
>>
>>
>> *** If you missed or misplaced the links to into about sensors, here is a
>> list from the SugarLabs wiki and a link to a series of videos make by
>> Trinidad Guzman who makes and uses a lot of sensors with his students in
>> Uruguay. The narration is in Spanish, but if you know any science no
>> language is needed!
>>
>>
>>
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art/Using_Turtle_Art_Sensors
>>
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/user/guzmantrinidad?feature=watch
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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