How to Implement

• Have girls work in groups of three or four.
• Hand out the LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus board, a (charged) LiPo Battery, a laptop and a USB cable.
• At the heart of the LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus board is the LilyPad USB Plus micro controller, much like the Hummingbird and the LilyMini. The LilyPad USB Plus consists of inputs and outputs as well as a processor that can be coded and acts as the brains of their project.
• The rest of the board includes other LilyPad components that are prewired to the LilyPad USB Plus.
• Explain to the girls that the LilyPad USB Plus is a board that can be programmed in Arduino IDE (which is where they used Ardublock for the Hummingbird) and is programmed with the Arduino programming language. This can get a little confusing because the word Arduino can refer to the board, the programming environment, and the language.
• Hand out a LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus board to each small group and give them five minutes to examine it and try to identify the components based on their previous work with the LilyMini and Hummingbird. If you haven't charged the batteries in advance they will need to plug the LilyPad into their laptops using the USB cord.
  • Ask them to turn on the board and observe what happens. The video embedded on this page shows an example of the code that comes preloaded.
  • Have the girls test out the different components built into the board (light sensor, button, switch).
• Bring the group together to have a discussion about the components.
  • Draw a table for the whole group to fill in while the girls take notes in their design journals. The table needs to be 3 columns wide by at least 12 rows long. In the first row have them label the columns:
    1. LilyPad Component
    2. USB Sew Tab (This is called a Pin in the programming language)
    3. Description
    4. Input/Output
  • Allow girls time to work with their group and fill in the table in their design journal.
  • Refer to this completed table to help guide the conversation and fill in anything the girls missed. You can skip the expansion ports and explain that they are available for coding once they break the board apart and work on their makeathon projects.
  • Next, discuss how the USB Plus sew tabs correspond to a Pin in the Arduino coding language. The number next to the sew tab is the Pin number they will need to identify in their code.
    • Note about Sew Tabs and Pins: Every microcontroller chip has electrical connections to the board that look like metal legs. These are commonly referred to as pins. Each sew tab around the outside edge of the LilyPad USB Plus is connected electrically to one of these pins on the microcontroller chip. These connections are not as easy to see as the external connections (traces) between the USB Plus and the boards included on the rest of the ProtoSnap Plus. In this guide, we'll be referring to sew tabs when referencing the hardware and electrical connections on your ProtoSnap and pins when talking about the code that controls electricity in or out of the tabs." (From Sparkfun's LilyPad Protosnap Plus Activity Guide)
• When they learn how to program the board, initially they will refer to the pins on the board. When they create their final project and break the board apart, they can choose to reassign some of the components to different pins. You can decide if you want them to do this but sometimes things get sewn on wrong and it is easier to change the code rather than take apart a project.
• Now that girls are familiar with the parts of the board and the demo program (the pre-loaded program), they are ready to move on to the next activity and start programming the LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus!