Written by Diane Gibbard, Don Galbraith Award Recipient 2024, Brock University
In this lesson, students will combine their knowledge of electric circuits (parallel and series) and coding to design and build an LED light show using a breadboard and Arduino microcontroller to create an automated circuit. This lesson allows students to engage in the research engineering process by designing and testing prototypes by using both the simulation software and equipment to have a real-life product they create. By allowing students to build their circuits, it will simulate real-life scenario where they may encounter unanticipated challenges, they need to problem solve. Breadboards are commonly use in real-life applications when building electrical circuits for projects and would be a useful skill for student to acquire. Using an online simulator (Tinkercad) students will test their design before creating the real circuit/LED show.