Introduc

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Nick Jackson

Year 10 Digital Leaders course - Introduction to Raspberry Pis/Arduinos through Making

This course presents an introduction to experimenting and creating something worthwhile using Raspberry Pis and/or Arduinos.  It is designed for students with no or little programming experience but have had time to explore with the hardware.

This way of working and the assessment was piloted with a group of 18 students over a 5-6 week program (3 1/2 hrs per week) and groups could self select who to work with, whether to work with a Raspberry Pi and/or Arduino. There was access to add ons from starter kits and various accessories bought cheaply for these devices. The focus for these students was on being able to:

  • Experiment with something that they are not familiar with
  • Collaboratively work together to access online assistance to create programs/objects that have previously been created by others
  • Remix or reinvent these existing programs/objects to create new projects
  • Share these projects
  • Build teamwork and problem solving techniques including the use of online resources to assist with problems

Below is a sample rubric to use when assessing students at the completion of the course.  Because the topics of student projects can vary so widely it is important to modify this to assess the topics that students end up exploring over the course of the week.

  Excellent Good Satisfactory Needs Improvement
Programming and building the final project Student creates a sophisticated and thoughtful object that is shareable and personally meaningful.  The student utilized sensor input and performs some computing on that input in order to create an output.  The student’s programming demonstrates mastery of the programming concepts covered in the course, including conditional-statements and looping along with extended self directed research into other programming or technical topics. Student creates a sophisticated and thoughtful object that is shareable and personally meaningful.  The student utilized sensor input and performs some computing on that input in order to create an output.  The student’s programming demonstrates mastery of the programming concepts covered in the course, including conditional-statements and looping. Student creates a thoughtful object that is shareable and personally meaningful.  The student utilized sensor input and performs some computing on that input.  The student’s programming demonstrates mastery of the programming concepts covered in the course, including conditional-statements and looping. Student creates an object that is shareable.  The student utilized sensor input.  The student’s programming does not demonstrates mastery of the programming concepts covered in the course, including conditional-statements and looping.
Collaboration The student actively solicited classmates for help and viewed them as assets.  There was no sense of competition between students, and the student also sought out opportunities to help other students.  The student was an active participant during peer review and often had honest suggestions to help peers improve their projects. The student actively solicited classmates for help and viewed them as assets.  There was no sense of competition between students.  The student was an active participant during peer review and often had honest suggestions to help peers improve their projects. The student solicited classmates and the teacher for help.  There was little sense of competition between students.  The student was an active participant during peer review and had some honest suggestions to help peers improve their projects. The student did not view classmates as resources and avoided helping peers.  The student often viewed the project as a competition and held back information from other groups or accused groups of “cheating” or “stealing my ideas.”
Presentation The student’s presentation addressed the purpose of the project and centers on why the project is personally meaningful.  The presentation has been practiced multiple times and all demonstrations run smoothly.  The student honestly and accurately answers questions from the audience and demonstrates a command over the technology being presented. The student’s presentation addressed the purpose of the project and centers on why the project is personally meaningful.  The presentation has been practiced and the student addresses any demonstrations that do not work without becoming flustered.  The student honestly and accurately answers questions from the audience and demonstrates a command over the technology being presented. The student’s presentation addressed the purpose of the project.  The presentation has been practiced and the student addresses any demonstrations that do not work without becoming flustered.  The student honestly and accurately answers questions from the audience and demonstrates a beginning command over the technology being presented. The student’s presentation does not address the purpose of the project.   The student has not practiced or planned the presentation.   The presentation contains demonstrations that have not been previously run.   The student is unable to answer questions that address topics covered during the week.


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