Teaching with Microcontrollers

By Laurens Derks from the T4L team

What are they?

Microcontrollers are miniature computers that gather information and make decisions collected by sensors. They don’t necessarily have a keyboard, screen or a mouse like conventional computers. Looking at one, it appears to look like a bunch of microchips on a circuit board - but they have a lot of power. You can find them in almost any electronic device from cars, refrigerators, and even coffee machines. They’re probably even making decisions for you when you iron your clothes in the morning ready for school. More and more industries, across all sectors of society, are using microcontrollers to do things more efficiently. Microcontrollers are now so common they are affordable and available for students to use in the classroom to practice designing their own solutions. The stem.T4L microcontroller kit is designed for students to do exactly this. It’s an opportunity for creative problem-solving.

New microcontroller stem.T4L kit

The microcontroller in the stem.T4L kit has 2 advantages over others. It includes 8 built-in inputs and sensors and can be programmed with both visual programming tools and generalpurpose programming languages (TE4-4DP), making it a scalable solution. For users who want to expand the range of inputs and outputs in their solution design, the kit has a total of 20 inputs and outputs, using the expansion module. The microcontroller kit is an ideal way for students to show they are responsible users of technology, capable of designing and producing solutions to identified needs or opportunities.

Designing learning tasks

Year 6 students at Melrose Park Public School used microcontrollers to illustrate how they might automate activities on a farm using sensors to detect motion, light, distance, and conductivity. For Stage 3, this is an excellent example for student understanding of digital systems (ST3-11DI-T) with algorithms that include user input (ACTDIP020).

When designing a learning task for students to complete with a microcontroller, begin with an authentic purpose. Students should consider an environment, scenario, or location they are familiar with and decide on one problem in that situation to solve. This will mean that a variety of projects and ideas will simultaneously develop in the class.

Unpacking the new microcontroller kit

The microcontroller kit supports the understanding of students to define problems, and plan and implement digital solutions. The syllabus requires students to connect computational, design and systems thinking and introduces concepts of algorithms, and user input and output.

This kit and its resources provide the technologies and opportunities for students to take those concepts and see them in action; action that they can predict, define, apply, and debug. One of the unique ideas behind the microcontroller kit is that students have access to 20 inputs and outputs that can be combined to create and innovate.

Each kit contains 18 sets of:

Micro:bit v2 built in sensors

• 25 LED matrix input & output

• simple speaker out

• 2 button input

• microphone input

• 1 touch pad input

• radio receiver input

• compass input

• temperature input

• accelerometer input

Learn more about it or book one here.

External sensors

• rotary angle input

• light sensor input

• ultrasonic ranger input

• gesture sensor input

• temperature and humidity input

• speaker output

• red LED output

• waterproof LED strip output

• 4 digit display out

• servo output