This year, the event centered around the AdaFruit Circuit Playground Express (CPE from here on out). The CPE is an amazing piece of hardware at an affordable price point: $25. For that price, you get a micro-controller that has (video stolen from AdaFruit website - didn't want to hot-link it):
- 10 LEDs each can display any color
- Motion sensor
- Temperature sensor
- Light sensor
- Microphone
- Mini speaker/buzzer
- Infrared receiver and transmitter
- Multiple alligator-clip friendly Input/Output pins
- A/B slider switch
- 2 x push buttons
And a few other neat features. I cannot gush over how amazing I think this little thing is. There's three levels that it supports, some better than others. The simplest way is a scratch/block based drag and drop programming interface on: https://makecode.adafruit.com/ The site has a CPE simulator so you can even test it out with out owning a CPE. The next level, and probably the most flexible is Circuit Python. Circuit Python is an extension of Micro Python with deeper hooks for AdaFruit boards. It also supports the Arduino Zero, so it's not exclusively an AdaFruit thing, but that's what it was written for. The last level would be to use it as a full-on Arduino device. It also works with some of the Code.org curriculum.
So this meant that every student needed a $25 CPE and a laptop to participate. I offered to put a bulk order in to AdaFruit to reduce the cost of CPEs so we could by battery holders and other goodies. Side note about the ones I bought and the JST connectors I got to connect them with them. The polarity doesn't match the colors. I had to solder red to black to get them to work. It was weird, and didn't make sense to me but it worked. I also bought pipe cleaners, double sided tape and some other craft supplies.
The next part was pretty easy. I started with showing them how to work with the scratch blocks, dragging and dropping shapes and so forth. I also showed them how to copy the code to their CPE - you hit the reset button, it shows up as a generic thumb drive, you drag and drop your code on it like you're copying a file and it takes care of the rest, it reboots itself and starts running. After that I had the kids work through the fantastic tutorials on the Makecode website. It starts out pretty easy - you make a siren and flasher, then you make a magic wand and go from there.
The arts and crafts supplies came in handy for the magic wand part and some of the other projects on the website. All and all the kids had a great time. I'd post some photos but I didn't ask the parents if that's ok so I think I better not.
