Micro:Bit Week 2A

Design Challenge #1

Make your own Micro:bit “Name Tag”. The name tag must display your name in some way, use the speaker to play tones, and have an animation that you think represents you. You have 20 minutes to create your design.

Response: This summer has been a lot of ups and downs. I chose a sin wave as my animation to represent that. I played with the image blocks, since they were new for me. The curve has always reminded me of the ebb and flow of the waves on the ocean. There is something about its continuous and smooth pattern makes the highs and lows more manageable. You know there will always be a return to the middle, even if it only lasts a little while.

I also created a sound based on a sin wave. This is the first time I've used the sound blocks rather than music blocks. I wanted to experiment with something new. The tools for sound did not disappoint. I could see these being the basis of a great science lesson!

The sound can be paused when the B button is pressed. (In honestly, if I were to actually wear this I would have the sounds triggered by the button and be off otherwise.) When the A button is pressed, my name crosses the screen.

Design Challenge #2

Create an animation of images to display on your led matrix. Store images in a list. Use a for loop to display the images in sequential order. Use a variable and math operator to change the speed of the animation.

Response: Both my kids are working full-time for the first time this summer. I miss them. It's also making me think back to my high school days and working all summer to earn money for college. I remember my first car -- a beatup, but beloved Honda hatchback I bought for $1 -- and my favorite cassette tape that I listened to on the way to my lunch shift at the restaurant each day -- They Might Be Giants' "Flood." So I made this animation in tribute.

As for the actual coding, I'm pretty familiar with Python and MircoPython, so this wasn't very scary for me. I did keep forgetting my colons, as usual. Getting to know the micro:bit version of MicroPython has been on my list of things to do, so this is fun to experiment with. I liked being able to easily build my own images for the LED screen. I used the while loop and variable to speed up the animation over each iteration.

Now I want to figure out how to play music on the micro:bit using MicroPython so I can play the melody as well and sync it with the animation. Fun! Thanks for the creative challenge. I needed that.