Session 5: Intro to the Circuit Playground

25 minutes

lesson exploration

Purpose

This session is intended to familiarize participants with the Circuit Playground and associated tools. The session begins with a board exploration followed by a check to ensure the board is working properly. The session ends with participants programming with the circuit playground to control the LED light.

Objectives

Participants are familiar with the Circuit Playground and associated tools
Participants are able to program the LED light on the Circuit Playground

Supplies & Prep

Room Setup:

Participants are seated in pairs

Facilitator Supplies:

Your local copy of the CSD Workshop 4 Slides Template
Your local copy of the CSD Workshop 4 Notes Template
Circuit Playground Troubleshooting Guide
Chart paper
Markers

Teacher Materials:

Circuit Playground (2 teachers to 1 board)
Computer

Agenda

Overview of Circuit Playground and Maker Toolkit (10 minutes)

Practice using the Circuit Playground (15 minutes)

Facilitation Guide

Overview of Circuit Playground and Maker Toolkit (10 minutes)

(5 minutes) Board Inspection

Remarks

This is the Warm Up from Unit 6 Lesson 3 that we will do to start exploring the Circuit Playground.

Group: Put participants in pairs.

Distribute: Pass out a board and USB cable to each pair of participants. Let participants know that:

They should not plug the boards in yet
They can use their own board if they brought it
These boards belong to the Regional Partner and you will collect them at the end of the day

Ask pairs to spend one minute looking over the board, focusing on the details.

Prompt: What do you think this board does (or could do) and why?

Share: Have groups share their thoughts with the whole group, keeping track of ideas on the board. Push participants to support their ideas with evidence from reviewing the board, but don't worry about ensuring correctness at this point.

(5 minutes) Intro to Unit 6 Tools

Using the slides, go over the tools (Circuit Playground, Maker App, and Maker Toolkit ) used in Unit 6.

Section	Content
Circuit Playground	Inputs Buttons Switch Sensors (Temp, Light, Sound) Outputs Buzzer LEDS With extra wires, buttons and lights, you can make even more ways to interact with the Circuit Playground
Maker App	The App that allows your computer to connect to the Circuit Playground (Note that the maker app isn’t needed on chromebooks. Chromebooks use the Code.org Serial Connector Chrome App in place of the Maker App.)
Maker Toolkit	App Lab extension that provides extra toolboxes for programming the Circuit Playground Does the work behind the scenes to connect the board to App Lab Board needs to be plugged into the computer to run the program (you can't load a program on the board and then unplug it)

Section

Content

Circuit Playground

Inputs

Buttons
Switch
Sensors (Temp, Light, Sound)

Outputs

Buzzer
LEDS
With extra wires, buttons and lights, you can make even more ways to interact with the Circuit Playground

Maker App

The App that allows your computer to connect to the Circuit Playground (Note that the maker app isn’t needed on chromebooks. Chromebooks use the Code.org Serial Connector Chrome App in place of the Maker App.)

Maker Toolkit

App Lab extension that provides extra toolboxes for programming the Circuit Playground
Does the work behind the scenes to connect the board to App Lab
Board needs to be plugged into the computer to run the program (you can't load a program on the board and then unplug it)

Practice using the Circuit Playground (15 minutes)

Facilitator Tip

Teachers should already have installed the Maker App on their computers during break. If they haven't, you will need to take time now to do it. Participants will be working in pairs, so it is only necessary for half of the participants to have the program installed on their computers. If someone has difficulty installing the program, pair them with someone who has it working on their computer. However, remember to check in with them later in the day to make sure everyone leaves the workshop with the App working.

(3 minutes) Check the Board

Remarks

We are going to write our first program with the Circuit Playground! We will start with the red LED on the board.

Group: Put teachers in pairs so they are using only one computer and one board.

Have every group plug in their board and click on the the gear at the top of Maker App (Installation instructions can be found at https://studio.code.org/maker/setup ). They should get all green checks if everything is plugged in and set up correctly.

(12 minutes) Circuit Playground Programming

Facilitator Tip

If teachers want to make sure they have the code they create with their partner on both accounts, you may want to suggest that they use the pair programming feature.

Once the pairs have set up their boards, they should:

Log into one of their Code.org accounts.
Navigate to Unit 6 Lesson 3 Level 4.
Complete Levels 4 to 7.

Some pairs may make it farther than Level 7 if they get their computer and board set up quickly. That is ok!

Remarks

This morning we have done a very quick introduction to App Lab and the Circuit Playground. Your students will experience a more gradual introduction to these tools with more practice along the way. Now that we have seen how to set up the Circuit Playground and program the red LED, let's take a step back and look at where this introduction fits into the start of Unit 6.