Technical Demonstration - Suggestions & Ideas

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Bar Sport
1

Hi All,

I have a lecture / demonstration session at a local univ's tech fest tomorrow. Its going to be an hrs session and I'm thinking of demonstrating Arduino. I'm planning to demonstrate programming the Arduino and building a simple LED dimmer, Then invite members of the audience to try it. Any suggestions on any interesting tricks to demonstrate. I don't want to show anything complex as I want to be able to work everything up in front of the audience as well as invite them to try.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Cheers,
Prakash

2

Something fancy that is easy...

Well, you could make a row of 8 LEDs and let race a light through them (dont know how to say this better in english, but i guess you know what i mean). Also you could add One poti to control the speed or even a second one to control the brightness of the LEDs (which would leave you with using the PWM pins only)...

3

Some ideas to show how easy it is to do digital output and then analog input and output:

Start with the simple 'hello world' blink sketch (with the led on a pwm pin).

Then change the blink delay so its mapped to an analog input - the blink rate changes depending on a sensor (say a light dependent resistor) .

Then change the digitalWrite to analogWrite (using map of the sensor value) so the intensity of the LED also depends on the sensor.

4

I have my first demo lesson next week (a 20 minute lesson in either Reading or Math for 4th grade special education students).

For reading, I am thinking of a read-aloud picture book. I would LOVE to hear how to teach it effectively in 20 minutes OR any ideas of which book would be suitable for multi-level readers OR any other suggestions for reading!

Also, any ideas about what Math lesson would engage the students?
What does a 20 minute lesson look like? Should I ask students to write their names on tags? How long should I talk and how long should the kids work? I have so many questions

I am very nervous and really appreciate any suggestions...thanks!