littleBits StarterKit Lessons.pdf - Sturgeon Moodle
littleBits Starter Kit Lessons
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littleBits Starter Kit Lessons
Table of Contents About littleBits
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Awards & Press
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About the Starter Kit
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How to give a littleBits Demo
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Unit 1: Quake Machine
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Lesson 1: Clocks & Timing
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Lesson 2: Graphs
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Lesson 3: Make the Quake Machine
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Lesson 4: Quake Machine Activity
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Lesson 5: Results
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Unit 2: Lessons in Light
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Lesson 6: Primary Colors
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Lesson 7: Light Mixing
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Lesson 8: Sun God
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Unit 3: Weight in Gold
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Lesson 9: Weight in What?
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Lesson 10: Chump Change
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Lesson 11: Money Scales
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Contact Us
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About littleBits littleBits is an opensource library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping, learning, and fun. littleBits consists of tiny circuit-boards with simple, unique functions engineered to snap together with magnets. No soldering, no wiring, no programming, just snap and play. Each bit has a simple, unique function (light, sound, sensors, buttons, thresholds, pulse, motors, etc), and modules snap to make larger circuits. Just as LEGO™ allows you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are small, simple, intuitive, blocks that make creating with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together. We spend more than 7.5 hours with technological devices every day, yet most of us don’t know how they work, or how to make our own.For all the interactivity of these devices, we are limited to passive consumption. At littleBits, we believe that we need to create the next generation of problem-solvers, and interventions need to occur early. The time is ripe to create the pipe cleaner and the popsicle stick of the 21st century. We built littleBits to break down the barriers between the products we consume and the things we make, to make everyone into an inventor. We believe in open innovation — that’s why littleBits is open source and building a community of contributors who experiment, share online, and learn from each other’s creativity. For more information, please speak to our team to discuss options at [email protected] or +1 917 464 4577
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Awards
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Press “littleBits are breaking down the boundaries of technology, to empower young and old alike, to simply create”
“It’s like your momma always said: Life is like a box of adorable electronic components.” — Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan
“If Schools Kill Creativity, Can Toys Bring It Back to Life?”
“Instead of buying your kid or young-atheart loved ones a battery-operated gadget for the holidays, why not give them a kit that challenges them to make gadgets of their own?”
“[...] encourage people to design and build their own products during the consumptionheavy holiday season.” — Alexandra Chang
“Making electronics components into LEGO©*-like bricks that could be used by anybody, even the technically ungifted.” — Anand Giridharadas
“[one of 6] machines behind a maker revolution”
“Finding the right holiday gift for your kids can be tough. [...] But what if your kids could create and design their own gifts instead? That’s what a company called littleBits is encouraging this holiday season.”
“[...] a kind of Legos for the future wired set. The difference of course lies in how, through creative play, users are taught the fundamentals of circuitry.” — Peter Himler
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littleBits Starter Kit
The littleBits Starter Kit contains the following: • • • • • • •
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Quick-start instruction set power Bit dimmer Bit pulse Bit rgb led Bit bargraph Bit button Bit
• • • •
pressure sensor Bit led Bit vibration motor Bit wire Bit Custom-made 9V battery • 9V battery connector • Custom plastic screwdriver
How to give a littleBits Demo Step 1: Start with blue power Bit
off
switch it
on
Give each student a blue power Bit and turn it on. Say something like, “Every circuit needs a blue power Bit. It provides the electricity for the circuit we are going to build”. A red light will indicate that the power is on. If you do not see a red light, you may need to replace your battery or charge your coin battery with a micro usb cable. If you are using the usb power, then each student will need a computer or usb power outlet.
Step 2: Add green output Bit Next, give each student a green output Bit. Tell them to snap it to the blue power Bit. Students will figure out quickly which way the Bits snap together. The Bits only correctly snap together one way. Once snapped, their green outputs should turn on. This is the most basic concept: power + output = something happens!
Step 3: Introduce pink input Bit Now give each student a pink input Bit. Say something like, “The pink Bits talk to the green Bits and tell them what to do. The pink Bits go after blue Bits and before green Bits.”
squeeze it
Depending on which input Bit they have, the pink Bit will “tell a different story” to the green Bits. In most cases, the student has to do something to the pink Bit to make the green BIt turn on.
Step 4: Discover Let the students explore the Bits! It’s always great to let students discover for themselves what each Bit does. This way they may get their own ideas on what project they would like to make.
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Quake Machine Demographic: 2nd and 3rd grade students
Time: 4-6 Hours
Description:
Lessons:
The quake machine activity and supplemental lesson plans provide students with the opportunity to practice telling time and measuring the passage of time, gathering and collecting data, representing that data through charts and graphs, and finally analyzing data in their graphs.
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Clocks & Timing Graphs Make the Quake Machine Results
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Quake Machine / Lesson 1 Lesson 1: Clocks & Timing This lesson plan will review the basics of reading an analog clock, and will provide practice timing how long it takes to complete a task using the second hand on a clock.
Materials Needed: • • • •
Visible clock with second hand Paper Pencil Ruler (optional)
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The following matieral should be covered as a class with the teacher.
Consider the clock to the right: The face is divided into 12 sections, which correspond to the hours in the day. On the clock, there is a short hand that points to the hour of the day.
Look at the clock to the right: Since the short hand is pointing to the 4, this means it must be 4 o’clock.
Look at the clock to the right: Can you guess what time it is?
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Quake Machine / Lesson 1 When the short hand (or hour hand) on the clock is pointing between two numbers, this means we are in the middle of an hour. To tell what hour it is, you should choose the hour that the short hand has already passed (as opposed to the hour it will soon pass).
Consider the clock to the right: Since the short hand is between 8 and 9 (and has already passed 8), it is sometime past 8 o’clock.
Look at the clock to the right: Approximately what time is it?
Look at the clock to the right: The smaller lines around the edge of the clock are the minutes of the hour. There are 60 minutes every hour.
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Consider the clock to the right: The hour hand is between the 5 and the 6, so we know it is sometime past 5 o’clock. The minutes tell us exactly how much past 5 o’clock it is. In this case, it is 22 minutes past 5 o’clock. In other words, it is 5:22.
Look at the clock to the right: What time is it? Great! Almost done. Some clocks have a second hand. It points to the minute markers, and it goes all the way around the clock once every minute. Each time it moves, it means another second has passed. In the following example, the second hand is green.
Look at the clock to the right: It is 12:15, and 20 seconds.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 1 This is not particularly useful because we don’t often care how many seconds have passed when we think about time. However, the second hand can be very useful when we want to know how long it took somebody to do something! By noting when something started and stopped, you can figure out how long it took someone to complete a task.
Look at the clock to the right: The light green line shows when you started timing something. The dark green line shows when you stopped timing. By counting the minute markers in between the start and stop time, you can see that 13 seconds have passed.
Look at the clock to the right: How many seconds have passed?
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This portion of the lesson can be completed by students in groups of 2-4.
Step 1: Write Down Names First we are going to create a grid where we can keep track of your data. To start, write the names of the people in your group down the left hand side of your paper.
Step 2: Fill in Grid Across the top, write down the tasks you are going complete: 10 jumping jacks, name on chalkboard, count to 20.
Step 3: Draw Grid Make a grid around the names and tasks, like in the picture below. If you have a ruler, use it to keep the lines tidy.
Quake Machine / Lesson 1 Step 4: Time Choose one person to start. Using a clock with a second hand, time how long it takes them to complete 10 jumping jacks and note it in the box on your chart.
Step 5: Record Time the same person walking to the chalkboard, writing their name on the board and walking back to their seat. How long did it take them to copmlete the task? Write it down in your chart.
Step 6: Repeat Finally, time how long it takes the same person to count to 20, and write the time down in the chart.
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Step 7: Complete Chart Have every person in your group complete the tasks, and write their times down in your chart.
Step 8: Give to Teacher When you are finished, put your name on your chart and give it to your teacher for safe keeping.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 2 Lesson 2: Graphs This lesson plan will review the basics of reading information from bar graphs, as well as how to create graphs given a set of data.
Materials Needed: • • • • •
Data from clock activity Paper Masking tape Markers, crayons or colored pencils Ruler (if available)
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Have a look at the bar graph below:
Bar graphs tell us information about data that has been collected. We can see that the graph is showing us data about the number of pets different people have. Across the bottom are the names of the people, and on the left hand side going up are numbers. Since the bar on top of Mary’s name goes as high as the number 4, we know that Mary has 4 pets. Likewise, we can tell that Victor has 7 pets. Since Bill doesn’t have a bar on top of his name, we can tell that Bill has no pets (too bad for Bill).
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Quake Machine / Lesson 2 Look at the graph below:
• • • •
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What is this graph showing us? How many siblings does Henry have? Which person has 3 siblings? Which perosn has the least siblings?
This portion of the lesson can be completed individually.
Step 1: Get Clock Data Get the data you collected from yesterday’s clock activity back from your teacher.
Step 2: Draw Axis On a new piece of paper, draw a line on the left of your paper and across the bottom of your paper, leaving a little space to write between the lines and the edge of your paper.
Step 3: Write Names Write the names of the tasks you completed yesterday across the bottom of your paper.
Step 4: Label Add a label indicating what the information along the bottom of the graph is showing - this will make it easier for other people to read and understand your graph.
Quake Machine / Lesson 2 Step 5: Analyze Look at your chart from yesterday, specifically at your own times. Figure out the longest amount of time it took you to complete a task, and write that number on the left side of your graph near the top.
Step 6: Draw Y Axis Make marks indicating the seconds on the left side of your graph.
Step 7: Label Add a label indicating what the information along the left side of the graph is showing.
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Step 8: Draw Bars Using the data from yesterday, draw bars on your graph that show how long it took you to complete each task. Be creative when you color in your bars!
Step 9: Label Chart Finally, across the top, give your chart a name that will tell other people what the chart is showing.
Step 10: Show it off! Add a label indicating what the information along the left side of the graph is showing.
Step 11: Check Out Other Charts • Who completed each task the fastest? • Who completed each task the slowest? • About how long do you think it takes to complete each task (on average)?
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Quake Machine / Lesson 3 Lesson 3: Make the Quake Machine This lesson plan will review the basics of littleBits electronics, and will take you through the necessary steps to create the Quake Machine.
Materials Needed: • • • • • •
littleBits Starter Kit Cardboard boxes Tape (preferably electric or masking) Scissors Paper Markers
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The following material should be covered as a class with the teacher. littleBits are simple electronics that snap together with magnets to create a circuit. A circuit is a path made out of electronic components (like the littleBits) that electricity can flow through. Electrcity flows through a circuit like water flows through a hose. Just like a hose needs to have a source of water, our circuits that we build with littleBits will need to have a power course. The battery (or the power adapter, if you have one) is our source for electricity. You can plug the battery into the blue power bit (p1) to give your circuit power. When you use a hose, no water comes through the hose until you turn on the spigot. The same is true of our littleBits circuit. Once you have connected the power, turn on the power switch to start the flow of electricity. A red light on the power bit will turn on when power is running through the circuit.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 3 If you had a sprinkler hooked up to your hose, the water would activate the sprinkler once it flowed through the hose and reached the sprinkler. The green vibration motor Bit (o4) in your Kit is like the sprinkler. If you attach it directly to your power, the motor Bit will vibrate. Now imagine someone stepped on your hose between the spigot and the sprinkler. The water might stop running, because the person’s foot would be preventing the flow of water through the hose to the sprinkler. The pink button Bit (i3) works in your circuit like a person’s foot on the hose. If the button is between your power Bit and your motor Bit, it is like someone is stepping on the hose and the motor will not vibrate because it isn’t getting any power. When you push the button, it is like taking your foot off the hose, and the motor will vibrate because it is receiving power. Someone standing on a hose can put a little pressure or a lot of pressure on the hose with their foot. This means that water can flow quickly, slowly, or not at all depending on how much they are squishing the hose. The spinkler would spray a lot of a little depending on how much water it was receiving.
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The pink Dimmer Bit (i6) is a knob that can be turned to vary the amount of electricity that flows through your circuit. When you turn it from one side to the other, it is like changing how much pressure you are putting on the hose with your foot. When the dimmer is between your power and the motor, you will notice that as you turn it, the motor vibrates more or less, depending on how much power it is receiving. If you want to know approximately how much electricity is flowing through your circuit after the dimmer, you can attach the green bar graph output (o9). It has five lights on it, and can be used to give you a visual approximation of your power level.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 3 The next section can be completed by students independently or in small groups, depending on how many Kits you have.
Step 1: littleBits Take out the following parts from your littleBits Kit. • • • • • •
Battery and connector Wall power (p1) Dimmer (i6) Vibration Motor (o4) Bargraph (o9) Wire (w1)
Step 2: Snap the Bits together Connect the Bits in the following order: Battery + Power + Wire + Dimmer + Bargraph + Vibration Motor
Step 3: Cut Cardboard Cut a piece of cardboard approximately the size of a postcard or a little bigger out of a used box.
Step 4: Put Bits in Cardboard Place your circuit on the cardboard. Using it as a guide for positioning, mark where holes should be cut for the dimmer, bargraph lights, and the motor to pop through.
Step 5: Cut Holes Cut the holes out of your cardboard face and make sure that everything fits well. If you holes are too small make them a little bigger. If you didn’t get it quite right, try again! Ask for help if you need it.
Step 6: Decorate! Take the cardboard off your circuit and decorate it as you like.
Step 7: Place Bits in Machine Place your decorated cardboard back on your circuit.
Step 8: Attach Circuit Carefully flip the circuit and your cardboard over, and attach your circuit to your cardboard with electrical tape.
Quake Machine / Lesson 3 Step 9 Cut a small square out of the cardboard, about one inch on each side.
Step 10 Loop a piece of regular tape to the back of the square piece of cardboard.
Step 11 Stick one side of the motor to the tape.
Step 12 Make another loop of tape, and attach it to the cardboard front of your quake machine.
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Step 13 Stick the other side of the motor to your quake machine. you should now have a little platform that will quake when you turn on your circuit.
Step 14 Test out your circuit. When you turn the dimmer, you should see the bargraph light up. The more lights you see on the graph, the more your quake machine should shake.
Step 15 Once your machine has been tested and is working, put it in a safe place until you are ready to use it in the next activity.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 4 Lesson 4: Quake Activity This lesson plan will provide an opportunity for students to gather data using their quake machines.
Materials Needed: • • • • •
Completed quake machine Paper Pen or pencil Ruler (if available) Small objects of varying sizes and weight, such as coins, buttons, paper clips, and anything that will fit on the quake machine platform.
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This tutorial should be completed by students in small groups of three.
Step 1 Choose 3 or 4 objects to use with your quake machine. Make sure they are of varying sizes and weights!
Step 2 Designate one student as the recorder, one as the placer, and one as the timer.
Step 3 Make a chart that has the objects you are using down the left side, and the power level across the top.
Step 4 Turn on your quake machine, and set it to power level 1 (one green light on the bargraph should be on).
Step 5 Have the placer put the first object on the quake machine platform, and when the person keeping track of the time says “go”, the placer should let go of the object.
Step 6 The placer should watch the object. When the object falls off the platform they should call time.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 4 Step 7 Figure out how many seconds the object was on the platform before it fell off. Record the time in your chart.
Step 8 Set the quake machine to power level 2, and have see how long the same object can stay on the platform. Record your findings in the chart.
Step 9 Repeat this process for all 5 levels of power on the quake machine, each time recording the results in your chart.
Step 10 Put your other objects to the test in the same way. Record your findings in the chart.
Step 11 When your chart is completely filled out, turn off your quake machine, write your names on your charts and put them in a safe place until you are ready to use them for the next lesson.
time for lesson 5!
Quake Machine / Lesson 5 Lesson 5: Results This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to create graphs given a set of data.
Materials Needed: • • • • •
Data from quake machine activity Paper Markers, crayons or colored pencils Ruler (if available) This portion of the lesson can be completed individually
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This portion of the lesson can be completed by students individually.
Step 1 Take out the data you collected from yesterday’s quake machine activity.
Step 2 On a new piece of paper, draw a line on the left of your paper are across the bottom of your paper, leaving a little space to write between the lines and the edge of your paper.
Step 3 Write power levels one through fiver across the bottom of your graph.
Step 4 Add a label indicating what the information along the bottom of the graph is showing - in this case, it is the power level of the quake machine.
Step 5 Look at your chart from yesterday and choose one object. Figure out the longest time it took for the object to fall off the quake machine, and write that number on the left side of your graph near the top.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 5 Step 6 Make marks indicating the seconds on the left side of your graph
Step 7 Add a label indicating what the information along the left side of the graph is showing - in this case, it is seconds to fall off the quake machine.
Step 8 Using the data from yesterday, draw bars on your graph that show how long it took for the item of your choice to fall off the quake machine at each power level. Be creative when you color in your bars!
Step 9 Finally, across the top, give your chart a name that will tell other people what the chart is showing.
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Step 10 When you are finished, put your chart on the blackboard at the front of the class.
Step 11 Look at other people’s graphs. See if you can figure out the following: • Does weight seem to have anything to do with how long an object will stay on the quake machine • Does size affect how long an object will stay on the quake machine? • Generally speaking, what happens to your object when you turn up the power of the quake machine? • About how long will an object stay on the quake machine at each power level
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Lessons in Light
Time: 4-6 Hours
Description:
Grade: 2nd - 7th grade students
These light activities provide a few ways to introduce your classes to the idea of light, colors, shadows and spectrums.
Lessons: 6 7 8
Primary Colors (5th-7th grade) Light Mixing (5th-7th grade) Sun God (2nd grade)
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 6 Lesson 6: Lessons in Light This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to solidify their understanding of color and light.
Materials Needed: • Paint (optional) • Paper (optional)
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This portion of the lesson plan should be covered with students and teachers together. Should teachers want to demonstrate the mixing of primary colors, they can do so by having their students create color wheels or color triangles. What do you think the primary colors are? If you said red, yellow and blue, you are correct! If you said red, green and blue, then you are also correct! If you got all fancy with your colors and said cyan, magenta and yellow, then you are also correct! As it turns out, the concept of primary colors means different things in different contexts. To start our investigation of primary colors, let’s look at the primary colors as they are considered by artists. For artists, the primary colors are red, yellow and blue. From red, yellow and blue we can make orange, green and purple. Orange, green and purple are called the secondary colors, because they can be made by mixing the primary colors together. If you look at the colors in the circles on the right, you can see how red and blue make purple, yellow and red make orange, and blue and yellow make green. If you mix all the colors together, then you usually get a muddy brown looking color. When using red, yellow and blue it is very hard to make some colors, especially bright pinks and shades of bluish greens. This is why we have the CMYK color wheel, or the primary colors cyan, magenta, and yellow (and, in printing, black).
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 6 The colors in the wheel to the left show how cyan, magenta and yellow can be combined to make red, green and blue (which are, incidentally, one of the sets of primary colors). So, what makes something red and another thing blue? What is happening when I am seeing different colors? Let’s start with the idea of light. As it turns out, light is actually a wave like in the picture to the right. Different waves with different frequencies make up different parts of the light. Frequencies have to do with how many “hills” and “valleys” each wave has in a given space. For example, the top wave in the picture has a lower frequency than the bottom wave, because in the same amount of space it has fewer hills and valleys. This notion of frequencies and waves might be confusing, but all you need to know is that light is made up of different waves, and those waves have different frequencies. Their frequencies control what color of light they correspond to. When we put all the different frequencies (colors) of light that exist in a single light source (such as the sun, for example) next to each other, what we get is called a spectrum. It often looks like a rainbow!
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The above spectrum is (roughly) depicting the spectrum of light that we get from the sun. As you can see, it holds all the colors that we humans can detect with our eyes (we call this visible light). In sunlight, all these colors exist together, and when we mix them together we get the “color” of sunlight. Pigments are responsible for the different colors that we see. Different pigments reflect different colors of light. Take a look at the diagram below:
Here the black line is an object with a pigment in it that will only reflect the color green. You see that all the colors in the sunlight hit the object (like a shirt, or a backpack), but only the green is reflected. Therefore, the object you are looking at will appear to be green in sunlight!
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 7 Lesson 7: Light Mixing This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to explore how light mixes together.
Materials Needed: • littleBits Starter Kit
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This portion of the lesson plan should be covered with students and teachers together. Yesterday we discussed two sets of primary colors: red, yellow and blue, and cyan, magenta and yellow. Both of these sets of primary colors are called subtractive primary colors, because (as we learned before) when their pigments are exposed to light (such as the sunlight) they only reflect certain colors (like the green in the example). Another set of primary colors consists of red, green and blue. These are the primary colors of light. Unlike the subtractive primary colors, these primary colors are additive. This means that when you put the colors of light together, they mix with each other to create a new color. Think of it this way: subtractive primaries are given the entire spectrum of light, and they reflect only a few of those colors. With additive primaries, you are starting with a single color. When you mix that color with other colors, you get a new spectrum of light, or a different color. If this is confusing, don’t worry! The littleBits activity will make this all a lot clearer. Before we get to that, though, one thing that is interesting to note is that in the RGB color wheel, red, green and blue can be combined to make yellow, cyan and magenta. In the CMYK color wheel, cyan, magenta and yellow can be combined to make red, green and blue. This is a very interesting parallel!
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 7 This portion of the lesson plan can be completed by students individually or in small groups.
Step 1 Take out the following Bits from your littleBits Starter Kit: • Battery • Battery connector • Power Bit • RGB LED Bit
Step 2 Put the Bits together in the same order as above, so they your completed circuit looks something like the picture.
Step 3 Turn on your circuit by flipping the on/off switch on the power Bit. Take the included purple screwdriver and turn the screws on the rgb led that correspond to red, green and blue all the way to the right (clockwise). While not off completely, this should make the LED dim enough to look at.
Step 4 If you can and it doesn’t hurt your eyes, look carefully at the LED. You should see three little lights: a red one, a green one and a blue one. The diagram here shows a closeup of what your RGB LED looks like if you are unable to see for yourself.
Step 5 Take your screwdriver and turn up the red all the way. You should see your LED shine red.
Step 6 Take your screwdriver and turn the red back down. Turn up the green all the way. You should see your LED shine green.
Step 7 Take your screwdriver and turn the green back down. Turn up the blue all the way. You should see your LED shine blue.
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 7 Step 8 Take your screwdriver and with the blue on, turn up the green and watch what happens as you do so. What color do you see now. Is this the color you expected.
Step 9 Turn the green back down. Now watch what happens as you turn the red up when the blue is on. What color do you see? Is this the color you expected?
Step 10 Turn off the blue, and leave the red one on. This time, turn the green up slowly. (In our experience, if you turn the green LED up all the way, the green will overpower the red and you won’t see the color you should.) As you slowly turn up the green, you should at some point see yellow light! Is this surprising, or is this what you expected based on the rgb color wheel?
Step 11 Based on the color wheel, if you were to now turn up the blue (adding it to the yellow), what color will you get? Try turning up the blue and see if you are right. (Like with green, the blue can overpower the light you are supposed to see, so turn it up slowly! If your light starts to look blue, you’ve turned it too far.)
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 8 Lesson 8: Sun God This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to explore the effect that the positioning of a light source has on a shadow.
Materials Needed: • • • •
littleBIts Starter kit Scissors Tape Markers, Crayons or colored pencils (optional) • Small objects or trinkets (flat objects are not ideal) • A sunny day • A compass (optional)
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This lesson may be broken up over two days (outdoor shadows and littleBits shadows). For continuity and clarity, you may want to have a longer lesson to complete the tutorial in full.
Step 1 On a sunny day, head outside and observe your shadow and the sun. Take note of the following: • • • • • • • • • •
What time of day is it? Where is the sun in the sky? Which direction is East? Which direction is West? What does your shadow look like? What do other people’s shadows look like? What happens to your shadow if you spin around? What happens to your shadow if you crouch down? Where will the sun be later on in the day? What do you think your shadow will look like then? What time of the day do you think your shadow will look the longest? What time of the day do you think your shadow will look the shortest?
Step 2 Once you have observed your shadow, head back inside.
Step 3 Construct a cardboard box that is approximately five inches on each side (or, if you have a cardboard box already constructed, then feel free to use that as dimensions are not particularly important).
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 8 Step 4 On the front side, cut a small hole in the box. This is so you can see inside.
Step 5 On the top, cut a slit that goes down the middle of the box, from one side to the other.
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Step 6 Take out your littleBits Starter Kit. You will need the following components: • • • • • •
Battery Battery Connector Power Bit Dimmer Bit Wire Bit LED or RGB LED Bit
Step 7 Connect the Bits in the same order as they are listed above. When you are done, your circuit should look like the one in the picture.
Step 8 If you are using the rgb LED, to make a yellow color like the sun turn the blue all the way off (clockwise), the red all the way up with the included purple screwdriver. Slowly turn the green up until you have a warm, yellow color. (Or, use the rgb LED to make your own color!)
Step 9 Choose one or two trinkets and put them inside your box.
Lessons in Light / Lesson 8 Step 10 Place the battery and power section of your littleBits circuit either next to your box or on top of it, depending on the height of your box. You’ll want to be able to move the LED around freely.
Step 11 If you’ve not done so already, turn on your littleBits circuit by flipping the power switch on the power Bit. Turn the potentiometer so that the LED is shining brightly.
Step 12 Look through the slot you cut into the side of your box. As you do this, shine the LED into the box (through the long slot you cut into the top). Look at the shadow of your trinket.
Step 13 Move the LED along the slot in the top of the box. Watch what happens to the shadow of your trinket
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Step 14 Take note of the following things: • Where is the shadow the longest? • Where is the shadow the shortest? • When I dim the light or make it brighter (using the dimmer), how does it affect the shadows.
Step 15 Think about how the box is like the world, and your LED is like the sun. Were your guesses about when your shadow would be the shortest and the longest correct?
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Weight in Gold
Time: 1 - 1.5 hours each lesson
Description:
Grade: 5th-6th grade
This activity rolls history and math into one! Students will research the origin of the phrase, “worth your weight in gold.” They will also calculate how much their weight is worth in quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies. Finally, they will create a primitive scale for measuring if various items truly are “worth their weight!”
Lessons: 9 10 11
Weight in What? Chump Change Money Scales
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 9 Lesson 9: Weight in What? This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to conduct preliminary research online.
Materials Needed: • Internet access • Something to write with (pen, pencil) • Something to write on (paper)
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Students! Your challenge, should you accept it, is to unearth the origins of the wacky phrase, “worth your weight in gold.” What does it mean? How did it come about? Is it still relevant today? The instructions below will give you hints and guidance along the way (should you want or need it).
Step 1 Google is your friend! Start by googling your phrase.
Step 2
Step 5
Does anything look interesting? If you are having trouble, try adding the word “idiom” to your search. An idiom is like a common phrase or saying, and there are entire dictionaries of idioms! This may help you to find a quick definition.
Have you run across the phrase, “worth their salt” yet? If you have, then perhaps you know that the two phrases are practically synonymous. Try and find out why salt was so valuable.
Step 3 If you are reading up on World of Warcraft, stop! Go back! You’ve taken a wrong turn.
Step 4 Try adding the word “origin” to your search as well. Does this help?
Step 6 In addition to investigating salt, look up the word salary, and try to find the origins of that word. Write down all pertinent findings (including where you found your information!), and see if you can answer the question: What does the phrase “worth it’s weight in gold” mean?
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 9 After you have finished your research, report your findings back to the class. Together, discuss the following: •
What web sites were particularly helpful in finding answers and furthering your research?
•
What web sites were not helpful?
•
How did you decide what web sites were legitimate and what web sites were not?
•
What was the most challenging thing about researching this topic?
•
What did you learn about research that will be helpful for the future?
•
What resources are available to you (aside from the internet) that you might consider using to aid your studies in the future?
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 10 Lesson 10: Chump Change This lesson will give students the opportunity to practice math skills and applied problem solving in an interesting, unique way.
Materials Needed: • Internet access • Pen/pencil • Paper
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Teachers should go over this material with their students. The following table was taken from http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/ index. cfm?flash=yes&action=coin_specifications and was last accessed on February 28, 2012.
Look at the weight for a penny, and nickel, a dime and a quarter. Determine which one weighs the least, and which one weighs the most. Notice that the “g” after all the weights is a unit of measurement. What does it stand for? How many grams are in a kilogram? (1000) How many grams are in an ounce? (~28.35) How many ounces are in a pound? (16) How many pounds are in a kilogram? (~2.2) Can you figure out what the inverse conversions of these would be (kilograms in a gram, ounces in a gram, pounds in an ounce, kilograms in a pound)?
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 10 Now for the fun part! Knowing approximately what you weigh in pounds, and also knowing how many kilograms are in a pound, can you figure out how much you weigh in kilograms? Can you now figure out how much you weigh in grams? Can you now figure out how many quarters weigh the same amount in grams as you do? Can you now figure out how much your weight in quarters is worth? Using the same process as before, can you figure out how much your weight in pennies is worth? What about in nickels? And dimes? If someone were to give you your weight in coins, what coins would you hope they would choose? What coins would be your last choice for payment?
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 11 Lesson 10: Weight in Gold This lesson will give students the opportunity to practice math skills and applied problem solving in an interesting and out of the ordinary way.
Materials Needed: • • • • • • • • •
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Lots of coins (heavier coins work best, coins should ideally all be the same denomination) littleBits Starter Kit Tape Cardboard Elevated (~1”) surface (open laptops, hard cover books, plywood work well) Scissors Pencil/pen Paper Trinkets (medium weight - you may have to play around with this to find a few good ones)
Students can complete this assignment in small groups or individually.
Step 1 For this circuit, you will need the following littleBits from your Starter Kit. • • • • • •
Battery Battery connector Power Bit Pressure Sensor Bit Wire Bit LED bargraph Bit
Step 2 Connect the Bits in the order they are listed above. When you are done, your circuit should look like the one in the picture.
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 11 Step 3 Look at the pressure sensor. It has the same function as a potentiometer would, except for instead of twisting the knob to change the flow of electricity, you apply pressure to the sensor. The greater the pressure, the more electricity will flow through your circuit. The tricky thing about using the pressure sensor as a scale for weighing things is that the black rim around the edge of the pad is not pressure sensitive (only the inner part with the golden lines detects the pressure). Therefore, if you put something flat directly on it and try to weigh it, you might have trouble detecting the resulting pressure.
Step 4 As a work around, cut a small circle out of a thin cardboard and tape it to the pressure sensor. Make sure that the circle is not so small that your coins will wobble and fall off, but also make sure it is small enough so that it rests completely inside the the black ring.
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Step 5 Lay your circuit flat and bend the pressure sensor back so that the pad is resting on a book or other hard surface (the firmer the surface the better).
Step 6 Turn on your circuit by flipping the switch on the power Bit to the “on” position, and slowly start to stack coins onto the center of the pressure sensor. When the first light on the LED bar graph lights up and remains lit without flickering, note how many coins are on the scale.
Weight in Gold / Lesson 11 Step 7 Add more coins to the scale until the second light turns on. Again, note how many are on the scale.
Step 8 Continue to add coins and note how many are on the scale for each light on the LED graph.
Step 9 When you are done, take the coins off the scale. Grab an object from the trinket supply and put it on the scale.
Step 10 Note how many lights on the LED graph show up. Approximately how much does this object cost based on its weight? Would you pay that amount of money for that object?
Step 11 Continue to weigh various trinkets and classroom objects. Try to find one object that is worth more than its weight, and one that is worth less than its weight. Are there any that you think are “worth their weight in gold?”
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Contact Us For more detailed information about littleBits products, visit our website: www.littleBits.cc For pricing information for wholesale, boutique and educators, please contact us at [email protected] For customer support, e-mail [email protected] For press and speaking inquiries, as well as Kit requests, please email [email protected]
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now go have some geeky fun!
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littleBits Starter Kit Lessons
Table of Contents About littleBits
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Awards & Press
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About the Starter Kit
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How to give a littleBits Demo
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Unit 1: Quake Machine
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Lesson 1: Clocks & Timing
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Lesson 2: Graphs
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Lesson 3: Make the Quake Machine
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Lesson 4: Quake Machine Activity
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Lesson 5: Results
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Unit 2: Lessons in Light
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Lesson 6: Primary Colors
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Lesson 7: Light Mixing
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Lesson 8: Sun God
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Unit 3: Weight in Gold
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Lesson 9: Weight in What?
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Lesson 10: Chump Change
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Lesson 11: Money Scales
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Contact Us
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6
About littleBits littleBits is an opensource library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping, learning, and fun. littleBits consists of tiny circuit-boards with simple, unique functions engineered to snap together with magnets. No soldering, no wiring, no programming, just snap and play. Each bit has a simple, unique function (light, sound, sensors, buttons, thresholds, pulse, motors, etc), and modules snap to make larger circuits. Just as LEGO™ allows you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are small, simple, intuitive, blocks that make creating with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together. We spend more than 7.5 hours with technological devices every day, yet most of us don’t know how they work, or how to make our own.For all the interactivity of these devices, we are limited to passive consumption. At littleBits, we believe that we need to create the next generation of problem-solvers, and interventions need to occur early. The time is ripe to create the pipe cleaner and the popsicle stick of the 21st century. We built littleBits to break down the barriers between the products we consume and the things we make, to make everyone into an inventor. We believe in open innovation — that’s why littleBits is open source and building a community of contributors who experiment, share online, and learn from each other’s creativity. For more information, please speak to our team to discuss options at [email protected] or +1 917 464 4577
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Awards
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Press “littleBits are breaking down the boundaries of technology, to empower young and old alike, to simply create”
“It’s like your momma always said: Life is like a box of adorable electronic components.” — Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan
“If Schools Kill Creativity, Can Toys Bring It Back to Life?”
“Instead of buying your kid or young-atheart loved ones a battery-operated gadget for the holidays, why not give them a kit that challenges them to make gadgets of their own?”
“[...] encourage people to design and build their own products during the consumptionheavy holiday season.” — Alexandra Chang
“Making electronics components into LEGO©*-like bricks that could be used by anybody, even the technically ungifted.” — Anand Giridharadas
“[one of 6] machines behind a maker revolution”
“Finding the right holiday gift for your kids can be tough. [...] But what if your kids could create and design their own gifts instead? That’s what a company called littleBits is encouraging this holiday season.”
“[...] a kind of Legos for the future wired set. The difference of course lies in how, through creative play, users are taught the fundamentals of circuitry.” — Peter Himler
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littleBits Starter Kit
The littleBits Starter Kit contains the following: • • • • • • •
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Quick-start instruction set power Bit dimmer Bit pulse Bit rgb led Bit bargraph Bit button Bit
• • • •
pressure sensor Bit led Bit vibration motor Bit wire Bit Custom-made 9V battery • 9V battery connector • Custom plastic screwdriver
How to give a littleBits Demo Step 1: Start with blue power Bit
off
switch it
on
Give each student a blue power Bit and turn it on. Say something like, “Every circuit needs a blue power Bit. It provides the electricity for the circuit we are going to build”. A red light will indicate that the power is on. If you do not see a red light, you may need to replace your battery or charge your coin battery with a micro usb cable. If you are using the usb power, then each student will need a computer or usb power outlet.
Step 2: Add green output Bit Next, give each student a green output Bit. Tell them to snap it to the blue power Bit. Students will figure out quickly which way the Bits snap together. The Bits only correctly snap together one way. Once snapped, their green outputs should turn on. This is the most basic concept: power + output = something happens!
Step 3: Introduce pink input Bit Now give each student a pink input Bit. Say something like, “The pink Bits talk to the green Bits and tell them what to do. The pink Bits go after blue Bits and before green Bits.”
squeeze it
Depending on which input Bit they have, the pink Bit will “tell a different story” to the green Bits. In most cases, the student has to do something to the pink Bit to make the green BIt turn on.
Step 4: Discover Let the students explore the Bits! It’s always great to let students discover for themselves what each Bit does. This way they may get their own ideas on what project they would like to make.
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Quake Machine Demographic: 2nd and 3rd grade students
Time: 4-6 Hours
Description:
Lessons:
The quake machine activity and supplemental lesson plans provide students with the opportunity to practice telling time and measuring the passage of time, gathering and collecting data, representing that data through charts and graphs, and finally analyzing data in their graphs.
1 2 3 4
Clocks & Timing Graphs Make the Quake Machine Results
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Quake Machine / Lesson 1 Lesson 1: Clocks & Timing This lesson plan will review the basics of reading an analog clock, and will provide practice timing how long it takes to complete a task using the second hand on a clock.
Materials Needed: • • • •
Visible clock with second hand Paper Pencil Ruler (optional)
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The following matieral should be covered as a class with the teacher.
Consider the clock to the right: The face is divided into 12 sections, which correspond to the hours in the day. On the clock, there is a short hand that points to the hour of the day.
Look at the clock to the right: Since the short hand is pointing to the 4, this means it must be 4 o’clock.
Look at the clock to the right: Can you guess what time it is?
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Quake Machine / Lesson 1 When the short hand (or hour hand) on the clock is pointing between two numbers, this means we are in the middle of an hour. To tell what hour it is, you should choose the hour that the short hand has already passed (as opposed to the hour it will soon pass).
Consider the clock to the right: Since the short hand is between 8 and 9 (and has already passed 8), it is sometime past 8 o’clock.
Look at the clock to the right: Approximately what time is it?
Look at the clock to the right: The smaller lines around the edge of the clock are the minutes of the hour. There are 60 minutes every hour.
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Consider the clock to the right: The hour hand is between the 5 and the 6, so we know it is sometime past 5 o’clock. The minutes tell us exactly how much past 5 o’clock it is. In this case, it is 22 minutes past 5 o’clock. In other words, it is 5:22.
Look at the clock to the right: What time is it? Great! Almost done. Some clocks have a second hand. It points to the minute markers, and it goes all the way around the clock once every minute. Each time it moves, it means another second has passed. In the following example, the second hand is green.
Look at the clock to the right: It is 12:15, and 20 seconds.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 1 This is not particularly useful because we don’t often care how many seconds have passed when we think about time. However, the second hand can be very useful when we want to know how long it took somebody to do something! By noting when something started and stopped, you can figure out how long it took someone to complete a task.
Look at the clock to the right: The light green line shows when you started timing something. The dark green line shows when you stopped timing. By counting the minute markers in between the start and stop time, you can see that 13 seconds have passed.
Look at the clock to the right: How many seconds have passed?
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This portion of the lesson can be completed by students in groups of 2-4.
Step 1: Write Down Names First we are going to create a grid where we can keep track of your data. To start, write the names of the people in your group down the left hand side of your paper.
Step 2: Fill in Grid Across the top, write down the tasks you are going complete: 10 jumping jacks, name on chalkboard, count to 20.
Step 3: Draw Grid Make a grid around the names and tasks, like in the picture below. If you have a ruler, use it to keep the lines tidy.
Quake Machine / Lesson 1 Step 4: Time Choose one person to start. Using a clock with a second hand, time how long it takes them to complete 10 jumping jacks and note it in the box on your chart.
Step 5: Record Time the same person walking to the chalkboard, writing their name on the board and walking back to their seat. How long did it take them to copmlete the task? Write it down in your chart.
Step 6: Repeat Finally, time how long it takes the same person to count to 20, and write the time down in the chart.
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Step 7: Complete Chart Have every person in your group complete the tasks, and write their times down in your chart.
Step 8: Give to Teacher When you are finished, put your name on your chart and give it to your teacher for safe keeping.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 2 Lesson 2: Graphs This lesson plan will review the basics of reading information from bar graphs, as well as how to create graphs given a set of data.
Materials Needed: • • • • •
Data from clock activity Paper Masking tape Markers, crayons or colored pencils Ruler (if available)
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Have a look at the bar graph below:
Bar graphs tell us information about data that has been collected. We can see that the graph is showing us data about the number of pets different people have. Across the bottom are the names of the people, and on the left hand side going up are numbers. Since the bar on top of Mary’s name goes as high as the number 4, we know that Mary has 4 pets. Likewise, we can tell that Victor has 7 pets. Since Bill doesn’t have a bar on top of his name, we can tell that Bill has no pets (too bad for Bill).
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Quake Machine / Lesson 2 Look at the graph below:
• • • •
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What is this graph showing us? How many siblings does Henry have? Which person has 3 siblings? Which perosn has the least siblings?
This portion of the lesson can be completed individually.
Step 1: Get Clock Data Get the data you collected from yesterday’s clock activity back from your teacher.
Step 2: Draw Axis On a new piece of paper, draw a line on the left of your paper and across the bottom of your paper, leaving a little space to write between the lines and the edge of your paper.
Step 3: Write Names Write the names of the tasks you completed yesterday across the bottom of your paper.
Step 4: Label Add a label indicating what the information along the bottom of the graph is showing - this will make it easier for other people to read and understand your graph.
Quake Machine / Lesson 2 Step 5: Analyze Look at your chart from yesterday, specifically at your own times. Figure out the longest amount of time it took you to complete a task, and write that number on the left side of your graph near the top.
Step 6: Draw Y Axis Make marks indicating the seconds on the left side of your graph.
Step 7: Label Add a label indicating what the information along the left side of the graph is showing.
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Step 8: Draw Bars Using the data from yesterday, draw bars on your graph that show how long it took you to complete each task. Be creative when you color in your bars!
Step 9: Label Chart Finally, across the top, give your chart a name that will tell other people what the chart is showing.
Step 10: Show it off! Add a label indicating what the information along the left side of the graph is showing.
Step 11: Check Out Other Charts • Who completed each task the fastest? • Who completed each task the slowest? • About how long do you think it takes to complete each task (on average)?
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Quake Machine / Lesson 3 Lesson 3: Make the Quake Machine This lesson plan will review the basics of littleBits electronics, and will take you through the necessary steps to create the Quake Machine.
Materials Needed: • • • • • •
littleBits Starter Kit Cardboard boxes Tape (preferably electric or masking) Scissors Paper Markers
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The following material should be covered as a class with the teacher. littleBits are simple electronics that snap together with magnets to create a circuit. A circuit is a path made out of electronic components (like the littleBits) that electricity can flow through. Electrcity flows through a circuit like water flows through a hose. Just like a hose needs to have a source of water, our circuits that we build with littleBits will need to have a power course. The battery (or the power adapter, if you have one) is our source for electricity. You can plug the battery into the blue power bit (p1) to give your circuit power. When you use a hose, no water comes through the hose until you turn on the spigot. The same is true of our littleBits circuit. Once you have connected the power, turn on the power switch to start the flow of electricity. A red light on the power bit will turn on when power is running through the circuit.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 3 If you had a sprinkler hooked up to your hose, the water would activate the sprinkler once it flowed through the hose and reached the sprinkler. The green vibration motor Bit (o4) in your Kit is like the sprinkler. If you attach it directly to your power, the motor Bit will vibrate. Now imagine someone stepped on your hose between the spigot and the sprinkler. The water might stop running, because the person’s foot would be preventing the flow of water through the hose to the sprinkler. The pink button Bit (i3) works in your circuit like a person’s foot on the hose. If the button is between your power Bit and your motor Bit, it is like someone is stepping on the hose and the motor will not vibrate because it isn’t getting any power. When you push the button, it is like taking your foot off the hose, and the motor will vibrate because it is receiving power. Someone standing on a hose can put a little pressure or a lot of pressure on the hose with their foot. This means that water can flow quickly, slowly, or not at all depending on how much they are squishing the hose. The spinkler would spray a lot of a little depending on how much water it was receiving.
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The pink Dimmer Bit (i6) is a knob that can be turned to vary the amount of electricity that flows through your circuit. When you turn it from one side to the other, it is like changing how much pressure you are putting on the hose with your foot. When the dimmer is between your power and the motor, you will notice that as you turn it, the motor vibrates more or less, depending on how much power it is receiving. If you want to know approximately how much electricity is flowing through your circuit after the dimmer, you can attach the green bar graph output (o9). It has five lights on it, and can be used to give you a visual approximation of your power level.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 3 The next section can be completed by students independently or in small groups, depending on how many Kits you have.
Step 1: littleBits Take out the following parts from your littleBits Kit. • • • • • •
Battery and connector Wall power (p1) Dimmer (i6) Vibration Motor (o4) Bargraph (o9) Wire (w1)
Step 2: Snap the Bits together Connect the Bits in the following order: Battery + Power + Wire + Dimmer + Bargraph + Vibration Motor
Step 3: Cut Cardboard Cut a piece of cardboard approximately the size of a postcard or a little bigger out of a used box.
Step 4: Put Bits in Cardboard Place your circuit on the cardboard. Using it as a guide for positioning, mark where holes should be cut for the dimmer, bargraph lights, and the motor to pop through.
Step 5: Cut Holes Cut the holes out of your cardboard face and make sure that everything fits well. If you holes are too small make them a little bigger. If you didn’t get it quite right, try again! Ask for help if you need it.
Step 6: Decorate! Take the cardboard off your circuit and decorate it as you like.
Step 7: Place Bits in Machine Place your decorated cardboard back on your circuit.
Step 8: Attach Circuit Carefully flip the circuit and your cardboard over, and attach your circuit to your cardboard with electrical tape.
Quake Machine / Lesson 3 Step 9 Cut a small square out of the cardboard, about one inch on each side.
Step 10 Loop a piece of regular tape to the back of the square piece of cardboard.
Step 11 Stick one side of the motor to the tape.
Step 12 Make another loop of tape, and attach it to the cardboard front of your quake machine.
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Step 13 Stick the other side of the motor to your quake machine. you should now have a little platform that will quake when you turn on your circuit.
Step 14 Test out your circuit. When you turn the dimmer, you should see the bargraph light up. The more lights you see on the graph, the more your quake machine should shake.
Step 15 Once your machine has been tested and is working, put it in a safe place until you are ready to use it in the next activity.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 4 Lesson 4: Quake Activity This lesson plan will provide an opportunity for students to gather data using their quake machines.
Materials Needed: • • • • •
Completed quake machine Paper Pen or pencil Ruler (if available) Small objects of varying sizes and weight, such as coins, buttons, paper clips, and anything that will fit on the quake machine platform.
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This tutorial should be completed by students in small groups of three.
Step 1 Choose 3 or 4 objects to use with your quake machine. Make sure they are of varying sizes and weights!
Step 2 Designate one student as the recorder, one as the placer, and one as the timer.
Step 3 Make a chart that has the objects you are using down the left side, and the power level across the top.
Step 4 Turn on your quake machine, and set it to power level 1 (one green light on the bargraph should be on).
Step 5 Have the placer put the first object on the quake machine platform, and when the person keeping track of the time says “go”, the placer should let go of the object.
Step 6 The placer should watch the object. When the object falls off the platform they should call time.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 4 Step 7 Figure out how many seconds the object was on the platform before it fell off. Record the time in your chart.
Step 8 Set the quake machine to power level 2, and have see how long the same object can stay on the platform. Record your findings in the chart.
Step 9 Repeat this process for all 5 levels of power on the quake machine, each time recording the results in your chart.
Step 10 Put your other objects to the test in the same way. Record your findings in the chart.
Step 11 When your chart is completely filled out, turn off your quake machine, write your names on your charts and put them in a safe place until you are ready to use them for the next lesson.
time for lesson 5!
Quake Machine / Lesson 5 Lesson 5: Results This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to create graphs given a set of data.
Materials Needed: • • • • •
Data from quake machine activity Paper Markers, crayons or colored pencils Ruler (if available) This portion of the lesson can be completed individually
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This portion of the lesson can be completed by students individually.
Step 1 Take out the data you collected from yesterday’s quake machine activity.
Step 2 On a new piece of paper, draw a line on the left of your paper are across the bottom of your paper, leaving a little space to write between the lines and the edge of your paper.
Step 3 Write power levels one through fiver across the bottom of your graph.
Step 4 Add a label indicating what the information along the bottom of the graph is showing - in this case, it is the power level of the quake machine.
Step 5 Look at your chart from yesterday and choose one object. Figure out the longest time it took for the object to fall off the quake machine, and write that number on the left side of your graph near the top.
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Quake Machine / Lesson 5 Step 6 Make marks indicating the seconds on the left side of your graph
Step 7 Add a label indicating what the information along the left side of the graph is showing - in this case, it is seconds to fall off the quake machine.
Step 8 Using the data from yesterday, draw bars on your graph that show how long it took for the item of your choice to fall off the quake machine at each power level. Be creative when you color in your bars!
Step 9 Finally, across the top, give your chart a name that will tell other people what the chart is showing.
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Step 10 When you are finished, put your chart on the blackboard at the front of the class.
Step 11 Look at other people’s graphs. See if you can figure out the following: • Does weight seem to have anything to do with how long an object will stay on the quake machine • Does size affect how long an object will stay on the quake machine? • Generally speaking, what happens to your object when you turn up the power of the quake machine? • About how long will an object stay on the quake machine at each power level
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Lessons in Light
Time: 4-6 Hours
Description:
Grade: 2nd - 7th grade students
These light activities provide a few ways to introduce your classes to the idea of light, colors, shadows and spectrums.
Lessons: 6 7 8
Primary Colors (5th-7th grade) Light Mixing (5th-7th grade) Sun God (2nd grade)
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 6 Lesson 6: Lessons in Light This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to solidify their understanding of color and light.
Materials Needed: • Paint (optional) • Paper (optional)
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This portion of the lesson plan should be covered with students and teachers together. Should teachers want to demonstrate the mixing of primary colors, they can do so by having their students create color wheels or color triangles. What do you think the primary colors are? If you said red, yellow and blue, you are correct! If you said red, green and blue, then you are also correct! If you got all fancy with your colors and said cyan, magenta and yellow, then you are also correct! As it turns out, the concept of primary colors means different things in different contexts. To start our investigation of primary colors, let’s look at the primary colors as they are considered by artists. For artists, the primary colors are red, yellow and blue. From red, yellow and blue we can make orange, green and purple. Orange, green and purple are called the secondary colors, because they can be made by mixing the primary colors together. If you look at the colors in the circles on the right, you can see how red and blue make purple, yellow and red make orange, and blue and yellow make green. If you mix all the colors together, then you usually get a muddy brown looking color. When using red, yellow and blue it is very hard to make some colors, especially bright pinks and shades of bluish greens. This is why we have the CMYK color wheel, or the primary colors cyan, magenta, and yellow (and, in printing, black).
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 6 The colors in the wheel to the left show how cyan, magenta and yellow can be combined to make red, green and blue (which are, incidentally, one of the sets of primary colors). So, what makes something red and another thing blue? What is happening when I am seeing different colors? Let’s start with the idea of light. As it turns out, light is actually a wave like in the picture to the right. Different waves with different frequencies make up different parts of the light. Frequencies have to do with how many “hills” and “valleys” each wave has in a given space. For example, the top wave in the picture has a lower frequency than the bottom wave, because in the same amount of space it has fewer hills and valleys. This notion of frequencies and waves might be confusing, but all you need to know is that light is made up of different waves, and those waves have different frequencies. Their frequencies control what color of light they correspond to. When we put all the different frequencies (colors) of light that exist in a single light source (such as the sun, for example) next to each other, what we get is called a spectrum. It often looks like a rainbow!
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The above spectrum is (roughly) depicting the spectrum of light that we get from the sun. As you can see, it holds all the colors that we humans can detect with our eyes (we call this visible light). In sunlight, all these colors exist together, and when we mix them together we get the “color” of sunlight. Pigments are responsible for the different colors that we see. Different pigments reflect different colors of light. Take a look at the diagram below:
Here the black line is an object with a pigment in it that will only reflect the color green. You see that all the colors in the sunlight hit the object (like a shirt, or a backpack), but only the green is reflected. Therefore, the object you are looking at will appear to be green in sunlight!
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 7 Lesson 7: Light Mixing This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to explore how light mixes together.
Materials Needed: • littleBits Starter Kit
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This portion of the lesson plan should be covered with students and teachers together. Yesterday we discussed two sets of primary colors: red, yellow and blue, and cyan, magenta and yellow. Both of these sets of primary colors are called subtractive primary colors, because (as we learned before) when their pigments are exposed to light (such as the sunlight) they only reflect certain colors (like the green in the example). Another set of primary colors consists of red, green and blue. These are the primary colors of light. Unlike the subtractive primary colors, these primary colors are additive. This means that when you put the colors of light together, they mix with each other to create a new color. Think of it this way: subtractive primaries are given the entire spectrum of light, and they reflect only a few of those colors. With additive primaries, you are starting with a single color. When you mix that color with other colors, you get a new spectrum of light, or a different color. If this is confusing, don’t worry! The littleBits activity will make this all a lot clearer. Before we get to that, though, one thing that is interesting to note is that in the RGB color wheel, red, green and blue can be combined to make yellow, cyan and magenta. In the CMYK color wheel, cyan, magenta and yellow can be combined to make red, green and blue. This is a very interesting parallel!
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 7 This portion of the lesson plan can be completed by students individually or in small groups.
Step 1 Take out the following Bits from your littleBits Starter Kit: • Battery • Battery connector • Power Bit • RGB LED Bit
Step 2 Put the Bits together in the same order as above, so they your completed circuit looks something like the picture.
Step 3 Turn on your circuit by flipping the on/off switch on the power Bit. Take the included purple screwdriver and turn the screws on the rgb led that correspond to red, green and blue all the way to the right (clockwise). While not off completely, this should make the LED dim enough to look at.
Step 4 If you can and it doesn’t hurt your eyes, look carefully at the LED. You should see three little lights: a red one, a green one and a blue one. The diagram here shows a closeup of what your RGB LED looks like if you are unable to see for yourself.
Step 5 Take your screwdriver and turn up the red all the way. You should see your LED shine red.
Step 6 Take your screwdriver and turn the red back down. Turn up the green all the way. You should see your LED shine green.
Step 7 Take your screwdriver and turn the green back down. Turn up the blue all the way. You should see your LED shine blue.
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 7 Step 8 Take your screwdriver and with the blue on, turn up the green and watch what happens as you do so. What color do you see now. Is this the color you expected.
Step 9 Turn the green back down. Now watch what happens as you turn the red up when the blue is on. What color do you see? Is this the color you expected?
Step 10 Turn off the blue, and leave the red one on. This time, turn the green up slowly. (In our experience, if you turn the green LED up all the way, the green will overpower the red and you won’t see the color you should.) As you slowly turn up the green, you should at some point see yellow light! Is this surprising, or is this what you expected based on the rgb color wheel?
Step 11 Based on the color wheel, if you were to now turn up the blue (adding it to the yellow), what color will you get? Try turning up the blue and see if you are right. (Like with green, the blue can overpower the light you are supposed to see, so turn it up slowly! If your light starts to look blue, you’ve turned it too far.)
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 8 Lesson 8: Sun God This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to explore the effect that the positioning of a light source has on a shadow.
Materials Needed: • • • •
littleBIts Starter kit Scissors Tape Markers, Crayons or colored pencils (optional) • Small objects or trinkets (flat objects are not ideal) • A sunny day • A compass (optional)
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This lesson may be broken up over two days (outdoor shadows and littleBits shadows). For continuity and clarity, you may want to have a longer lesson to complete the tutorial in full.
Step 1 On a sunny day, head outside and observe your shadow and the sun. Take note of the following: • • • • • • • • • •
What time of day is it? Where is the sun in the sky? Which direction is East? Which direction is West? What does your shadow look like? What do other people’s shadows look like? What happens to your shadow if you spin around? What happens to your shadow if you crouch down? Where will the sun be later on in the day? What do you think your shadow will look like then? What time of the day do you think your shadow will look the longest? What time of the day do you think your shadow will look the shortest?
Step 2 Once you have observed your shadow, head back inside.
Step 3 Construct a cardboard box that is approximately five inches on each side (or, if you have a cardboard box already constructed, then feel free to use that as dimensions are not particularly important).
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Lessons in Light / Lesson 8 Step 4 On the front side, cut a small hole in the box. This is so you can see inside.
Step 5 On the top, cut a slit that goes down the middle of the box, from one side to the other.
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Step 6 Take out your littleBits Starter Kit. You will need the following components: • • • • • •
Battery Battery Connector Power Bit Dimmer Bit Wire Bit LED or RGB LED Bit
Step 7 Connect the Bits in the same order as they are listed above. When you are done, your circuit should look like the one in the picture.
Step 8 If you are using the rgb LED, to make a yellow color like the sun turn the blue all the way off (clockwise), the red all the way up with the included purple screwdriver. Slowly turn the green up until you have a warm, yellow color. (Or, use the rgb LED to make your own color!)
Step 9 Choose one or two trinkets and put them inside your box.
Lessons in Light / Lesson 8 Step 10 Place the battery and power section of your littleBits circuit either next to your box or on top of it, depending on the height of your box. You’ll want to be able to move the LED around freely.
Step 11 If you’ve not done so already, turn on your littleBits circuit by flipping the power switch on the power Bit. Turn the potentiometer so that the LED is shining brightly.
Step 12 Look through the slot you cut into the side of your box. As you do this, shine the LED into the box (through the long slot you cut into the top). Look at the shadow of your trinket.
Step 13 Move the LED along the slot in the top of the box. Watch what happens to the shadow of your trinket
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Step 14 Take note of the following things: • Where is the shadow the longest? • Where is the shadow the shortest? • When I dim the light or make it brighter (using the dimmer), how does it affect the shadows.
Step 15 Think about how the box is like the world, and your LED is like the sun. Were your guesses about when your shadow would be the shortest and the longest correct?
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Weight in Gold
Time: 1 - 1.5 hours each lesson
Description:
Grade: 5th-6th grade
This activity rolls history and math into one! Students will research the origin of the phrase, “worth your weight in gold.” They will also calculate how much their weight is worth in quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies. Finally, they will create a primitive scale for measuring if various items truly are “worth their weight!”
Lessons: 9 10 11
Weight in What? Chump Change Money Scales
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 9 Lesson 9: Weight in What? This lesson plan will give students an opportunity to conduct preliminary research online.
Materials Needed: • Internet access • Something to write with (pen, pencil) • Something to write on (paper)
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Students! Your challenge, should you accept it, is to unearth the origins of the wacky phrase, “worth your weight in gold.” What does it mean? How did it come about? Is it still relevant today? The instructions below will give you hints and guidance along the way (should you want or need it).
Step 1 Google is your friend! Start by googling your phrase.
Step 2
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Does anything look interesting? If you are having trouble, try adding the word “idiom” to your search. An idiom is like a common phrase or saying, and there are entire dictionaries of idioms! This may help you to find a quick definition.
Have you run across the phrase, “worth their salt” yet? If you have, then perhaps you know that the two phrases are practically synonymous. Try and find out why salt was so valuable.
Step 3 If you are reading up on World of Warcraft, stop! Go back! You’ve taken a wrong turn.
Step 4 Try adding the word “origin” to your search as well. Does this help?
Step 6 In addition to investigating salt, look up the word salary, and try to find the origins of that word. Write down all pertinent findings (including where you found your information!), and see if you can answer the question: What does the phrase “worth it’s weight in gold” mean?
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 9 After you have finished your research, report your findings back to the class. Together, discuss the following: •
What web sites were particularly helpful in finding answers and furthering your research?
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What web sites were not helpful?
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How did you decide what web sites were legitimate and what web sites were not?
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What was the most challenging thing about researching this topic?
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What did you learn about research that will be helpful for the future?
•
What resources are available to you (aside from the internet) that you might consider using to aid your studies in the future?
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 10 Lesson 10: Chump Change This lesson will give students the opportunity to practice math skills and applied problem solving in an interesting, unique way.
Materials Needed: • Internet access • Pen/pencil • Paper
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Teachers should go over this material with their students. The following table was taken from http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/ index. cfm?flash=yes&action=coin_specifications and was last accessed on February 28, 2012.
Look at the weight for a penny, and nickel, a dime and a quarter. Determine which one weighs the least, and which one weighs the most. Notice that the “g” after all the weights is a unit of measurement. What does it stand for? How many grams are in a kilogram? (1000) How many grams are in an ounce? (~28.35) How many ounces are in a pound? (16) How many pounds are in a kilogram? (~2.2) Can you figure out what the inverse conversions of these would be (kilograms in a gram, ounces in a gram, pounds in an ounce, kilograms in a pound)?
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 10 Now for the fun part! Knowing approximately what you weigh in pounds, and also knowing how many kilograms are in a pound, can you figure out how much you weigh in kilograms? Can you now figure out how much you weigh in grams? Can you now figure out how many quarters weigh the same amount in grams as you do? Can you now figure out how much your weight in quarters is worth? Using the same process as before, can you figure out how much your weight in pennies is worth? What about in nickels? And dimes? If someone were to give you your weight in coins, what coins would you hope they would choose? What coins would be your last choice for payment?
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 11 Lesson 10: Weight in Gold This lesson will give students the opportunity to practice math skills and applied problem solving in an interesting and out of the ordinary way.
Materials Needed: • • • • • • • • •
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Lots of coins (heavier coins work best, coins should ideally all be the same denomination) littleBits Starter Kit Tape Cardboard Elevated (~1”) surface (open laptops, hard cover books, plywood work well) Scissors Pencil/pen Paper Trinkets (medium weight - you may have to play around with this to find a few good ones)
Students can complete this assignment in small groups or individually.
Step 1 For this circuit, you will need the following littleBits from your Starter Kit. • • • • • •
Battery Battery connector Power Bit Pressure Sensor Bit Wire Bit LED bargraph Bit
Step 2 Connect the Bits in the order they are listed above. When you are done, your circuit should look like the one in the picture.
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Weight in Gold / Lesson 11 Step 3 Look at the pressure sensor. It has the same function as a potentiometer would, except for instead of twisting the knob to change the flow of electricity, you apply pressure to the sensor. The greater the pressure, the more electricity will flow through your circuit. The tricky thing about using the pressure sensor as a scale for weighing things is that the black rim around the edge of the pad is not pressure sensitive (only the inner part with the golden lines detects the pressure). Therefore, if you put something flat directly on it and try to weigh it, you might have trouble detecting the resulting pressure.
Step 4 As a work around, cut a small circle out of a thin cardboard and tape it to the pressure sensor. Make sure that the circle is not so small that your coins will wobble and fall off, but also make sure it is small enough so that it rests completely inside the the black ring.
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Step 5 Lay your circuit flat and bend the pressure sensor back so that the pad is resting on a book or other hard surface (the firmer the surface the better).
Step 6 Turn on your circuit by flipping the switch on the power Bit to the “on” position, and slowly start to stack coins onto the center of the pressure sensor. When the first light on the LED bar graph lights up and remains lit without flickering, note how many coins are on the scale.
Weight in Gold / Lesson 11 Step 7 Add more coins to the scale until the second light turns on. Again, note how many are on the scale.
Step 8 Continue to add coins and note how many are on the scale for each light on the LED graph.
Step 9 When you are done, take the coins off the scale. Grab an object from the trinket supply and put it on the scale.
Step 10 Note how many lights on the LED graph show up. Approximately how much does this object cost based on its weight? Would you pay that amount of money for that object?
Step 11 Continue to weigh various trinkets and classroom objects. Try to find one object that is worth more than its weight, and one that is worth less than its weight. Are there any that you think are “worth their weight in gold?”
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Contact Us For more detailed information about littleBits products, visit our website: www.littleBits.cc For pricing information for wholesale, boutique and educators, please contact us at [email protected] For customer support, e-mail [email protected] For press and speaking inquiries, as well as Kit requests, please email [email protected]
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now go have some geeky fun!
