Shameless plug

We're going to use theSparkfun Inventor's Kit  for our Project.  This summer I trained with Brian Huang at Sparkfun's HQ in Boulder, and can say that after spending a week there using it, and a good chunk of the summer prototyping some of the our project's core ideas on it, it is the way to go..  The kit has it all:

• an arduino
• a breadboard
• cable
• a very good guide
• an LCD screen
• lots of components to get through the core concepts of Arduino, like analog to digital, serial read, digital to digital: LED's, resistors, pushbuttons, and a series of sensors that offer opportunities for students to understand how to convert the analog world of what's around them to a set value

We're going to spend a good chunk of the early part of our 12 week cycle on using these sensors: thermistors, photoresistors, etc because a great deal of our project is about referencing a certain part of the environments (which is variable, and thus, analog) and turning the voltage is puts out  into a calibrated value.

In water, those parameters will include temperature, ph, and conductivity. In air, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and ozone. We hope to get other parameters in our project as we progress.

For example, a CO2 sensor will return a dimensionless value somewhere between 0 and 5 volts.  It will be up to the kids to turn it into a usable value that prints out, such as parts per million (ppm).

At the Sparkfun training, one veteran teacher and I were discussing my project, and he said, when you start having to calibrate, or in other words, find your "k" (constant), you're on the road to real science.

I'm not a math guy.  Wish me luck.