Again CEP 811 at Michigan State University has challenged me. This week we were given the task of finding random items and using them with our maker kits to create something to be used for a learning purpose. There were several steps that needed to be followed during this challenge: #1 was to thrift–find things that we could use for our project, #2 was to repurpose those items to create something new out of them and #3 was create a prototype of the our new repurposed product. I would like to tell you a little about what I did. Maker Kit First, I chose to purchase the Circuit Scribe maker kit. I purchased the $50 kit, as I felt this would be a reasonable price for a teacher or student on a budget and just might be in a price range to get a district or department to yes for a classroom project…
The Circuit Scribe is electronic ink that allows you to create circuits without the need for wires and cables. You simply draw the connections using the special pen.
Thrifting For my thrifting experience, I started out at the thrift stores and could not find anything that I thought would benefit my project. So, I went home and started to play around and experiment with my maker kit. The cool thing about this maker kit is that it comes with a manual that allows you to practice and teaches you how to create different types of circuits. I was literally able to start drawing circuits within seconds of opening up the manual and reading the first page.
I landed on the page of how to make a touch sensor circuit. By creating a sensor that can be touched by different items that would conduct electricity– I started to flood my brain with ideas of what I could make and things that I might be able to use to make prototype out of. I started out looking through my office and house for random items that I could use. I found different types of clips, aluminum foil, pencils, pens, bottle caps, coins, fabric and all sorts of random things. Once I figured out what items I could use to create the touch sensor. I got the idea to try to create two touch sensors, because with my kit I received two Bi-LED sensors that can change color depending on how the current of the charge is flowing. So, I decided to take a trip to the dollar store where I found a few items that I thought would enhance my touch sensor. Repurpose I decided to pick up some magnetic numbers, acrylic paint, play-dough and some tongue depressors. Everything else I found lying around my house. I found that the quarters, bottle caps covered with aluminum foil and the play-dough conducted the best for making the sensor light up. However, the play-dough kept the best current, but did not allow for a touch sensor as the light stayed on.
The play-dough just kept the sensor lights on! Pretty cool, though!
I used the colored play-dough to coordinate with the colors of the light sensors. This got me thinking more about how to create my prototype and the best use of the prototype for the purposes that I though it would work best for. Prototype With all of the trials on how to get the two light sensors to work as a touch sensor. I thought it would be best used for a yes/no response for students that are non-verbal. Whether they might have Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome or maybe traumatic brain injuries or otherwise. A sort of clicker system to be able to respond to someone asking them questions about wants and needs. Since a lot of the students that I work with are non-verbal and have goals to increase interverbals and respond to yes/no questions. I decide this might be a cool thing to make. Even teachers or a provider or even parents could create one of these for their student(s) and be able to have them communicate in some format until the verbals came or they received an assistive technology device. After a few versions of the two light touch sensor, I thought I could make a few adjustments to the design for better ease of use by the users.
Then I started to think about how I could make my “touch sensors”–the quarters, more attractive and fun to the user. I began to play with my “thrifting” finds.
I first tried making word sensors with magnetic letters, tongue depressors and quarters. This made the quarters more heavy and would tend to keep the sensor lights on and I lost my “touch” sensor button status.
Next, I decided to paint the quarters with red and blue paint and paint a white Y and N on top.
Finally, I tried one more button repurpose. I took the thumb depressors and painted them to correspond to the light sensor colors and put quarters on the end to create a response stick.
After reviewing all of my trials and playing around with all the different options, I decided that the sticks would only work if the user was capable of identify and distinguishing between the two sticks and then being able to correlate that information to touching the right sensor. I finally settled on using the quarters painted with the white Y and N on them. I felt this would be the best use for my prototype of a touch sensor response system.
How-to In order for a teacher or parent to re-create this they would need to purchase a Circuit Scribe make kit. Once you have the kit you can practice drawing circuits with the manual to get familiar with how it all works. Do not feel intimidated about the science parts. It is very easy to use and the manual walks you through it. You can even practice making a “touch sensor”: i the manual and then work your way to creating your own circuits and sensors on the blank pages that are included in the back of the manual. Then you can start to draw your own circuits. You start with your power source which is a 9 volt battery and then connect your sensors using the scribe pen. Making sure that you negative and positive circuits all connect accordingly. I recommend even trying to create different “buttons” then the ones that I have mentioned. Maybe you will enhance what I have done. I designed this prototype to be used with non-verbal children with Autism to be able to communicate, but it can have many different purposes. A classroom teacher could have all of their students create one of these touch sensors and use it for a check for understanding system, or it could be used for stroke victims to be able to communicate or whatever else super creative people can think of to use it for or enhance to be better used to serve your purpose. #CEP811 #MAET #ASD #NonVerbal #Clicker #SPED
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