For these lessons, our SEPA grad mentors, along with our partners at the Montshire Museum, worked with middle school teachers to develop lessons to enable students to learn simple programming in Arduino to measure the effect of varying conditions on plants growing in classroom terraria.
Terrarium Unit 1
Lesson One: Introduction to Arduino Boards and Coding
Big Questions: What is a microcontroller and how can we use it to learn about the world? Students will be introduced to the Arduino microcontroller with a light sensor and get them excited about using it.
Lesson Two: Building your First Sensor
Big Question: How can you use a microcontroller to make measurements? This lesson guides students to build a simple circuit that uses an Arduino to control a sensor.
Lesson Three: Recording Data Over Time
Big Question: How should sensor measurements be saved for later analysis? Group exploration of ideal frequency of measurement. Introduction to storing Arduino outputs to a memory card and bringing stored outputs into Excel.
Lesson Four: Integrating Multiple Sensors with a Real-Time Clock
Big Question: How can multiple sensors be integrated into one experiment? Expanding your simple circuit to include multiple integrated sensors controlled by the Arduino.
Lesson Five: Collecting and Interpreting Time-Lapse Imagery
Big Question: How can a camera be a measurement device? “Images are more than pictures, they are data.” - Gillies et al. 2016. Introduction to a camera as a set/bundle/matrix of light detectors. Introduction to imaging as a scientific tool.
Terrarium Unit 2
Lesson One: Experimental Variables
Big Question: What variables can I manipulate when studying plant growth?
Lesson Two: Measuring Outcomes
Big Question: How can we best measure the effects of experimental conditions on plants?