Robot Karaoke
by Jada Nazarian and Gabriella Vasquez
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Over the last month or so, we have been working with electricity. In the beginning, we worked with wires and circuits, then we advanced to designing our own circuit, or known as the "Robot Art Show." Then for the final part of this unit we did something called "Power Novato" and we figured out the use of power in Novato or at San Marin High School and we figured out how we can change that to solar energy. This is one of the last units we will do in STEM as the school year is coming to an end. The video to the right is the only clip I could capture of the LCD screen showing the words. The music is very hard to hear, but it's there.
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Robot Art Show
In the beginning of the unit, we worked a lot with circuits. A circuit is made up of electrically conducted material. It is connecting one end of a power source (+) to the other (-) and a closed/connected loop/series. We learned about everything that makes up a circuit, like resistance, current, and voltage. They can be in a series or in parallel. In a series, they match up in some way like ABC, and a parallel is when on a circuit board both A and D are parallel to each other. We then got to an "Electrical Bulb" lab, and we used a battery and a copper wire, then we connected it to the positive and negative side of it and we tried it using series and parallel to see if it would light up. After that, we got into breadboards, which is what is used to create and program a circuit. For the last section of the unit, we did sixteen circuits and we programmed them on the breadboard by following a book with the instructions. Each circuit did something different and it was coded in a different way each time. We used a program on the computer called "Arduino" and it was used to activate each circuit. After doing all sixteen circuits, the next thing we would do is to create our own circuit using the information from the previous circuits. My partner and I decided to create a karaoke machine. We used the codes from the previous circuits that played music and the circuit that showed words on an electrically powered screen. We did the song "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey and we successfully got it to work (kind of). Below shows a video of it playing the song, then another photo of how the words appeared on the screen. Below is my partners website.
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ReflectionI enjoyed this project and learning new material, but it definitely wasn't a favorite. The circuits were simple enough, but coding and copying down the codes in the packet we received was pretty difficult for me. I liked figuring out all this new information about circuits, but I wish I understood it a little more. Towards the end I got a little more stressed trying to code our own circuit, but I believe me and my partner did a pretty good job. On this project, I think I definitely improved on collaboration and leadership. I did as much as I could and when my partner wasn't there I worked two times harder and in the end it all worked out well. I could probably work on talking a bit less and trying to keep conversation topics on task. Overall this was a good project and I had some fun doing it.
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Power Novato
Overview
We took a trip to the Stone Edge Farm Micro grid in Sonoma, California. After that day we were given an assignment to create our own micro grid of either San Marin or Novato. Our group decided on doing San Marin so we can focus in more on the details.