Jointly reported by:
Foo Zhing Yee Sr1ScA
Lim Sze Kee Sr1ScB
Goh Yu Xin Sr1ScD
In order to enhance the STEM education as well as let students dedicate themselves to self-motivated learning, Kuen Cheng High School Academic Department and University of Nottingham jointly organized the Arduino Workshop at our own Computer Lab, from June to August. The workshop included both face-to-face physical and online training. Physical workshops will be held separately on the 13th of June, 20th of June and 27th of June, from 3:15 p.m. to 4:45p.m, students of Electronic Engineering and the lecturer from the University of Nottingham guided every participant patiently.
On 13th June 2022, the first day of the workshop, every participant gathered at Computer Lab A on time. Madam Koo Lai Ping, Vice Principal of Kuen Cheng High School welcomed all the mentors and lecturers and thanked them for conducting such a meaningful workshop. Madam Koo expressed her gratitude on behalf of the School towards Ir. Ts. Dr Belle Ooi and Ir. Ts. Dr Daniel Pu with a fruit hamper.
The lecturers and Kuen Cheng teachers
Following the brief opening ceremony, Dr Pu introduced the circuit and the cathode and anode of a LED light. Afterwards, participants examined the Arduino set before they started their first experiment. In the first experiment, students were able to see the physical output from the Arduino microcontroller board as it blinks the on-board LED.
Lab 1
On 20th June 2022, students were assigned to two different computer labs. The lecturer, Dr. Pu started off guiding us in identifying anode and cathode electrodes using a multimeter, in order to complete the circuit constructions on a breadboard. We used an online platform named TinkerCAD to design programs. After completing the assigned projects, the programs were uploaded to the Arduino UNO board.
The main project of the day was to complete the designing and programming of a Three-team responder. The main purpose of this responder was to be used in competitions, it determines which team has managed to secure the right to give their answer. Two of the other buttons will be automatically disabled after the first team pressed their corresponding button. The students proceeded to start programming and constructing the circuit on the breadboard with assistance from the mentors.
Lab 2
Participants during the workshop
27th June 2022, the assignment on this day was to create a liquid-crystal display. As usual, the lecturer gave a briefing on the instructions and issues to take note of. The responder of the three-team was being carried on since last week. Instead of using a 7-Segment, LCD was introduced to show the corresponding team’s number after a button is pressed by the team. LCD can be used to display numbers, symbols and characters. Hence, by using LCD, a user could get more meaningful messages from the 3-team responder.
In this experiment, the programming and hardware connection of LCD to the existing responder’s circuit were concerned. With the experiences accumulated since the past lab seminars, students are able to manipulate breadboard construction techniques of the responder with LCD confidently. Everything progressed in success under the guidance of all helpful mentors. Students had a whale of a time enjoying the workshop and learnt loads of new knowledge that could be carried along their journey of becoming triumphant people.