DECEMBER 4, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: Is cereal, soup? List three reasons to support your position.
After reading Lesson 5, move on to the Interactive Traffic Lights Assignment.
If you have finished everything to this point, start Part 1 of the 3D Art + Arduino Interactive Sculpture Project
Students completed safety tests on Canvas along with any test corrections needed.
DECEMBER 2, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: Describe your experience using Adobe Illustrator and the laser engraver. (If you haven't used either, that is OK!)
After reading Lesson 5, move on to the Interactive Traffic Lights Assignment.
If you have finished everything to this point, start Part 1 of the 3D Art + Arduino Interactive Sculpture Project
NOVEMBER 24, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: What side of a turkey has the most feathers?
After reading Lesson 5, move on to the Interactive Traffic Lights Assignment.
If you have finished everything to this point, start Part 1 of the 3D Art + Arduino Interactive Sculpture Project
NOVEMBER 20, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: Google arduino projects. Find one that is interesting to you and link it in the journal. Tell me WHY you chose this project and what materials you would need to complete it (kind of like a bill of materials).
The Important Things to Know about Arduino document is TODAY.
Students then finished working on LED Light Effects Day 2.
Students who finished LED Day 2, started working on the Piezo and Photoresistor Assignment.
Students worked on the Traffic Light Simulation, then moved on to Lady Ada Lesson 5 (read through this only).
After reading Lesson 5, move on to the Interactive Traffic Lights Assignment.
NOVEMBER 18, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: No journal for today!
The Important Things to Know about Arduino document is DUE 11/20.
Students then finished working on LED Light Effects Day 2.
Students who finished LED Day 2, started working on the Piezo and Photoresistor Assignment.
Students worked on the Traffic Light Simulation, then moved on to Lady Ada Lesson 5 (read through this only).
After reading Lesson 5, move on to the Interactive Traffic Lights Assignment.
NOVEMBER 17, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: What is a Piezo? Does it do anything else besides make noises?
The Important Things to Know about Arduino document is DUE 11/20.
Students then finished working on the LED Light Effects Day 1 assignment and started on LED Light Effects Day 2.
Students who finished LED Day 2, started working on the Piezo and Photoresistor Assignment.
NOVEMBER 13, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: What does a potentiometer do?
Students worked on 8.6-11.8 on the Important Things to Know about Arduino document (make a copy to edit).
Students then finished working on the LED Light Effects Day 1 assignment and started on LED Light Effects Day 2.
Students who finished LED Day 2, started working on the Piezo and Photoresistor Assignment.
NOVEMBER 10, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: What are some reasons that a sketch might not work, even if all the right pieces are in it?
Students worked on 4-8.5 on the Important Things to Know about Arduino document (make a copy to edit).
Students then finished working on the LED Light Effects Day 1 assignment and started on LED Light Effects Day 2.
NOVEMBER 6, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: Does capitalization and spelling matter when you are setting up your sketch?
Students worked on 2 -3.17 on the Important Things to Know about Arduino document (make a copy to edit).
Students then finished working on the LED Light Effects Day 1 assignment and started on LED Light Effects Day 2.
NOVEMBER 4, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: How many void setup() and void loop() can you have in your sketch?
Students completed the Blink 3 Challenge.
Students worked on 1.1 -1.13 on the Important Things to Know about Arduino document (make a copy to edit).
Students then started working on the LED Light Effects Day 1 assignment.
NOVEMBER 3, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic programming and using an Arduino microcontroller.
DAILY JOURNAL: 1. What is a sketch? 2. What happens to anything after two slashes in a sketch? ex: \\ 3. What MUST be at the end of each line of code in your sketch?
Students worked on the Blink 3 Challenge.
Students who were absent or just want some extra help, check out this video to set up the blink program in TinkerCAD.
OCTOBER 28, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand the role of a capacitor within a circuit, and will understand the meaning of the time constant for an RC circuit.
DAILY JOURNAL: No journal today.
Students completed this Intro to Arduino Assignment.
If you complete the Intro to Arduino Assignment, come see me to get an Arduino and breadboard. Everyone will need their own for this next section of the class.
The Blink Program was completed together as a class.
OCTOBER 27, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand the role of a capacitor within a circuit, and will understand the meaning of the time constant for an RC circuit.
DAILY JOURNAL: On Tuesday, we are going to start working with Arduinos. Have you ever used an Arduino before? If so, what did you do with it?
Click on this link: 2025 Graduate Research Showcase . Pick 4 (full length, not shorts) presentations to watch. Try to pick ones that are of interest to you, not just the first 4 on the page. As you watch, answer these questions about each presentation.
OCTOBER 23, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand the role of a capacitor within a circuit, and will understand the meaning of the time constant for an RC circuit.
DAILY JOURNAL: List 3 important things about capacitors.
Students started the RC Time Constant Lab.
OCTOBER 21, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand the role of a capacitor within a circuit, and will understand the meaning of the time constant for an RC circuit.
DAILY JOURNAL: What does the potentiometer do in your coin tosser kit? (Hint: read the paper that came with it...)
Capacitors within RC circuits was discussed. Class Notes on Capacitors
Students finished the Combined Circuit Lab and started the RC Time Constant Lab.
OCTOBER 20, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
DAILY JOURNAL: How is soldering going? What is the most challenging part?
Students finished soldering their coin tosser soldering kits.
OCTOBER 16, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
DAILY JOURNAL: Watch this video. Name three ways engineers are working to protect people from earthquake. What was one thing that surprised you?
Students who finished the Soldering Sculpture practiced soldering on a PCB.
Reinwald handed out coin tosser soldering kits.
OCTOBER 14, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
DAILY JOURNAL: Watch these two day in the life videos (with headphones!) Day in the Life: Electrical Engineer #1 and Day in the Life: Electrical Engineer #2 , then answer the following questions:
How are Katelynn and Danny's jobs as electrical engineers the same? How are they different?
Name three important skills that are essential for electrical engineers.
Which job would you prefer and why?
Students worked on the Solder Sculpture Assignment.
Students who finished the Soldering Sculpture practiced soldering on a PCB.
OCTOBER 13, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
DAILY JOURNAL: What is a PCB? You may have to answer this after the demo today.
Reinwald demonstrated how to solder on a PCB.
Students worked on the Solder Sculpture Assignment.
OCTOBER 9, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
DAILY JOURNAL: Describe the steps to make a good soldered connection.
Students worked on the Solder Sculpture Assignment.
OCTOBER 7, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
DAILY JOURNAL: For your journal today, we will do a comprehension check. You are working on your own. Get a paper from Reinwald and show ALL of your work. The answer is 216mA.
Students finished their combined circuits labs.
Students started the Solder Sculpture Assignment.
OCTOBER 6, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and demonstrate the basics of soldering.
DAILY JOURNAL: On a scale from 1 -10, 10 being I feel completely confident, how would you rate your understanding of series, parallel and combined circuits. (It is reasonable to have different numbers for each circuit.)
Reinwald demonstrated how to solder and talked about the safety associated with soldering.
OCTOBER 2, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: Why is it important to know the "rules" about current and voltage when working with combined circuits?
Students created a combined circuit on a breadboard.
Students worked on the combined circuit lab.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: Why is it important to keep the "rules" for series AND parallel circuits in mind when you are solving combined circuits?
Students created a combined circuit on a breadboard.
Students worked on the combined circuit lab.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: No journal today. Each group needs their toolbox and their notebook.
Students created a combined circuit on a breadboard.
Students who finished early, where to attempt the Combined Circuits Worksheet.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: What is the junction rule?
Next, get a notecard or sticky note and write out the rules we know for finding voltage, current and resistance for series circuits and parallel circuits. Keep this card in your toolbox. (Yes, everyone needs one.)
Students finished the Parallel Circuit Lab.
Students created a combined circuit on a breadboard.
Students who finished early, where to attempt the Combined Circuits Worksheet.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: Why does adding resistors in parallel reduces effective resistance? Watch this video (with headphones and stop at 3:00) and then summarize.
Students started the Parallel Circuits Lab. For this lab, all students are to submit a sheet showing all work for the predictions. These two sheets should be stapled to the final lab that is submitted for grading.
(OPTIONAL) ARTICLE: Resistors in Parallel: Understanding Current and Voltage in Parallel Networks
Students who finished early, where to attempt the Combined Circuits Worksheet.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to represent electrical quantities in proper metric notation (by using either the stair-step method, or straight conversion)
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: Name 3 things should you check for if you aren't getting a reading (or one that doesn't make sense) on your multimeter?
The start of the period today was used to discuss parallel circuits, and the issues associated with connecting components in parallel within circuits. Class Notes on Parallel Circuits.
With the remaining time, students started the Parallel Circuits Lab. For this lab, all students are to submit a sheet showing all work for the predictions. These two sheets should be stapled to the final lab that is submitted for grading.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to represent electrical quantities in proper metric notation (by using either the stair-step method, or straight conversion)
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: What do we know is true about current, ohms, volts and watts in series circuits?
Students worked on the Series Circuit Lab.
Remaining time in the class was used to start the Series Circuits Worksheet. (If you would like to check your work, solutions can be found on Canvas.)
SEPTEMBER 16, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to represent electrical quantities in proper metric notation (by using either the stair-step method, or straight conversion)
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: What does it mean to "break a circuit?" What are you measuring for when you break it?
The use of digital multimeters (DMM's) was discussed. We will be using these all year long. Breadboards were also discussed. DMM Class Notes.
Students practiced measuring resistance, voltage and current with a multimeter.
We discussed series circuits, and the issues associated with connecting components in series within circuits.
Students started the Series Circuit Lab.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to represent electrical quantities in proper metric notation (by using either the stair-step method, or straight conversion)
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: What is Ohms Law? What is Watts Law? What are three components of ColesLaw?
Students had time to work on the Ohms and Watts Law worksheet.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to represent electrical quantities in proper metric notation (by using either the stair-step method, or straight conversion)
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to work with both Ohm's and Watt's Laws
DAILY JOURNAL: If a problem states that you have a 220 ohm resistance and 5 volts, what can you find and what law will you se to find it?
The use of digital multimeters (DMM's) was discussed. We will be using these all year long. Breadboards were also discussed. DMM Class Notes.
Students completed a breadboard activity using series circuits.
Students had time to work on the Ohms and Watts Law worksheet.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic electrical quantities and the units they are measured with.
OBJECTIVE: Using a color code table, students will be able to identify the resistance of a resistor using its colored bands, along with its permissible tolerances.
DAILY JOURNAL: What do each of the stripe represent on a resistor? What unit do we use to measure resistance?
Electrical quantities and resistor labeling were discussed. Electrical Quantities and Resistor Labeling Class Notes.
Ohm's and Watt's Laws were introduced. Example problems were worked. Class Notes on Ohm's and Watt's Laws.
SEPTEMBER 8, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand basic electrical quantities and the units they are measured with.
OBJECTIVE: Using a color code table, students will be able to identify the resistance of a resistor using its colored bands, along with its permissible tolerances.
DAILY JOURNAL: Why is it important to convert long numbers into proper metric notation? Would you have to convert numbers back to their base form to divide or multiply them? Why?
Electrical quantities and resistor labeling were discussed. Electrical Quantities and Resistor Labeling Class Notes.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will understand concepts of resistance, current, and voltage, as well as the units they are measured by.
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to represent electrical quantities in proper metric notation (by using either the stair-step method, or straight conversion).
DAILY JOURNAL: Students were directed to open up a blank Google Doc, and then save it as their STEAM Daily Journal. For today's entry, answer the following questions regarding the course syllabus:
How much is an assignment penalized if turned in late?
What must you do to request an extension on an assignment?
If you wish to replace a score on something, what must you do?
To be considered for rounding of your final grade at the end of the semester, what must be true?
Additional terms associated with electrical systems were discussed at length, as well as some common electrical quantities, and how to deal with metric units. Students were asked to make a copy of the metric system stairs in their notes as shown in class and in the attached notes. Atomic Theory, Units & Metric System Class Notes.
The Metric Units Worksheet was assigned.
SEPTEMBER 3, 2025
OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to access the class website, the Canvas class, complete the initial class survey, and access the class syllabus and contract.
Students completed this beginning of the year survey.
Students were given a brief introduction to the class.
Students were given the course syllabus that needs to be signed and summitted to Canvas.