Introduction to Raspberry Pi through Making
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Connect a temperature sensor for reading input from RPi
- Use conditional statements in Python
- Modify and improve starter Python code
Lesson Outline
- Present students with a working demo (15 minutes)
- with students (10 minutes)
- Students build temp sensors (90 minutes)
Teaching/Learning Activites
- Start off the lesson by showing students a pre-wired and programmed temperature sensor running the provided sample code.
- Wiring instructions can be found here:
- The temp starter code was modified slightly from the above tutorial to simplify access to students. If the students in the course have more than a very introductory level of programming knowledge it probably doesn’t need to be modified. The starter code can be found in:
- temp_starter.py (see Resources)
- Do not explain a lot about how the sensor works at first, but instead invite students to explore the sensor and ask questions about it.
- Give students the adafruit tutorial and the starter code and have them follow it to build the temp sensor.
- http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-11-ds18b20-temperature-sensing
- Check in with students as they work. As always encourage collaboration and point out that sharing and borrowing code are common parts of the maker community.
- If students seem to wrap up early, push them towards the improve stage. Ask them to start thinking about what else they can do with the skills they currently have.
- Facilitate a wrap up discussion that pushes all students into the improve phase of the maker workflow.
- If students don’t bring this up themselves, guide them to the understanding that the sensor is an INPUT that is providing information to the raspberry pi. We can then use that information to do some output.
- If the students don’t come up with this on their own, suggest a system with an LED that lights up if the temp is too high.
- Ask students for real world examples of where this might be useful?
- There is a temp sensor monitoring computers at all times (sometimes when iPhones/iPods get too hot they display a warning message.
- Monitoring water temp for small children (or tired people who accidentally get in a cold shower in the morning)
- Challenge students to think about how they could build something like this given the skills they currently have. Tell them that they will be doing this soon.
Resources
Temperature Sensor Tutorial