Week 2 recap

We've just gotten through analog to digital and if/else statements.   Mrs. Johnston reports that her kids are excited and thoroughly enjoying themselves.    I'm hoping that we can get outside some this week and play around with the wireless some. 

On Friday I gave kids a challenge to figure out how to use if/else to make a light come on or off based on a potentiometer value.  Several kids got it, and so did our intrepid librarian, Mrs. Wells.

On introducing FOR loops, the best approach is to probably show how kids who have stacked lots of LED's in sequence can make their code a lot shorter and simpler with arrays.  

The catch for us right now is time- how to make 35 minute sessions really work.  

Some changes: 

• For sketches that are meant to demonstrate a concept, have a copy printed out or uploaded onto something like Google Drive.  Let them load up and then explain to them what is controlling what.  Then they can start tweaking away on the sketch by changing code and hardware. 
• Also during these purely instructional sessions, let them pair up on a screen and a kit.  That means less troubleshooting of board pinouts, sketches that won't load, unrecognized ports, which means less wasted time. 
• I'm letting students checkout a simplified kit with an Uno, small breadboard, and a few jumpers, leds, buttons, resistors.Not quite ready to let them check out the SIK kits yet.