Cover image is courtesy of Valeria Boltneva – https://www.pexels.com/@valeriya/
Celebrating Halloween – Halloween, less commonly known as Allhalloween or All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve is celebrated in many western countries during the month of Oct (Oct 31st or Nov 1st). Its a time of the year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, martyrs and other departed souls. It has also become a celebration of horror being associated with the macabre and supernatural (source – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween).
History.com (source – https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween) suggests, “Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31, and Halloween 2024 will occur on Thursday, October 31. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.”
3D Printed Halloween Artefacts – We decided to celebrate halloween here at CoderDojo Altona North by working on some halloween related STEM challenges. I did a bit of homework and identified a number of designs that i could 3Dprint. These include –
I have a couple of 3D printers at home, these include the Creality Ender 3 KE and the Creality Ender 3 Max. My Creality Ender 3 KE is my goto printer for 95% of the things i want printed. If you are in the market for an affordable 3D printer, i would highly recommend considering the Creality Ender 3 KE, more on that on a subsequent post.
I setup a new roll of eSUN PLA+ filament within the Creality Ender 3 KE and kicked off the prints. eSUN PLA+ filament has worked well for me over the years, has consistently delivered good prints and can be obtained at an affordable price. I end up purchasing most of my eSun PLA+ filament from a local firm here in Melbourne, sometimes through Amazon when they have specials running. Now with the halloween models finalized i ended up printing a number of each over a period of a week. The prints were ready to be taken into class on the weekend.
So what’s the STEM challenge about – The STEM challenge involves using one’s creativity to light up the halloween artefact, detecting human presence if possible and playing some macabre musical tunes. Our kids at CoderDojo Altona North are between 7-17 years of age, most have some experience with the basics of electronics, while a few younger ones are just getting started with exploring the basics of electronics. Most of our kids have been with us for a few years, have progressed through the learning curve exploring a number of different programming languages and micro-controller platforms along the way. For the halloween challenge i haven’t mandated a particulate micro-controller or choice of programming platform but have made some recommendations.
One of my most experienced volunteers (Emil) suggested we might get the younger kids to use the BBC micro:bit, program it using block coding using the BBC makecode platform. The scope of the challenge would be as follows –
- Light up some LED’s
- Play some macabre tunes using a buzzer
- Use a sound sensor, activate the LED’s and music when you hear a sound
The older kids were going to use the Raspberry Pi Pico W, program it using micropython and follow the similar approach suggested above. The kids were going to have to prototype the electronic circuit in class using a breadboard, get everything working first and work out a list of components they would need to invest in. Once they had finalized list of components required, kids would get their parents to invest in the hardware. Once the hardware landed, kids would transfer their breadboard prototypes to circuits using their own hardware, program the micro-controllers (BBC micro:bit and block coding using makecode or Raspberry Pi Pico using micropython), test the circuit to make sure everything was working before taking them home.
To make things easier we decided to use expansion boards for the Raspberry Pi Pico W and BBC micro:bit. These expansion boards for the Raspberry Pi Pico W, BBC micro:bit breakout each of the pins, make it easy for one to connect LED’s, sensors, etc. Due to various reasons, we are unable to make use of soldering irons in class. Hopefully we’ll have a show and tell session at the end of the term where kids will get to show off their creations. More on that in the coming months.
There’s always some learning to be gained – The challenge might not seem that complicated, and it isn’t. This is an opportunity for the kids to be creative, use a combination of music, lights and sensors to build an interactive halloween exhibit. For the older kids this is an opportunity to showcase the creativity and consolidate the learning they have gained over the years working with the volunteers at CoderDojo Altona North. For the younger kids this is an opportunity to explore the world of electronics using the BBC micro:bit, interact with the real world using some simple sensors and showcase their creativity. The prototype, test, fail, learn process the kids follow in class is an opportunity for each of them to understand the importance of iterating quickly, failing early, learning lessons in the least expensive way and forging forward with ideas that work. Hopefully you can use some of this for your own STEM challenges at home with your kids or with kids you work at in school.
Feel free to reach out to me over email at trevor at hack2 dot live.
