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Lesson plan

Build a laser sword lesson plan

A light saber style sword in three builds: a blade that ignites, motion you can hear, then the whole hilt with a sound font.

1 chapter, 3 lessons, about 3 hours, on the Arduino Uno R3. Every lesson runs in the browser, with nothing to install.

Start a class from this course
The unit

Objectives and materials

By the end, students can

  • Light the blade, give it motion and sound, then put the whole hilt together.

Materials for the whole unit

  • Accelerometer and gyroscope, MPU6050
  • Addressable RGB LEDs
  • Arduino Uno R3
  • Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
  • DFPlayer Mini MP3 module
  • Full-size breadboard
  • Half breadboard
  • LED x 3
  • Piezo speaker
  • Pushbutton
  • Resistor x 7
  • Speaker, 8 ohm

Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too.

Chapter 1. About 3 h

Blade, motion, sword

Light the blade, give it motion and sound, then put the whole hilt together.

LessonTimeWhat students do
Light the bladeTwenty-four WS2812 LEDs on one data wire and a single button. Ignite the blade from the hilt up, retract it, and pick its color.50 min
  1. One wire, a whole blade
  2. Ignite it
  3. Watch the data fly
  4. Pick a color
  5. Retract it
Hear the swingAn MPU6050 feels every move of the hilt. Tell a swing from a clash with a gyroscope and an accelerometer, and give each its own sound on a piezo.50 min
  1. Wake the sensor
  2. The hum
  3. Swing it
  4. Faster is higher
  5. Clash
The whole swordBlade, motion and a real sound font together: a DFPlayer Mini plays ignition, hum, swing, clash and retract, and a gauge shows the battery.80 min
  1. Check the charge
  2. Ignite
  3. The hum
  4. Swing
  5. Clash
  6. Your color, remembered
  7. Run the pack down
  8. Retract

Materials

  • Accelerometer and gyroscope, MPU6050
  • Addressable RGB LEDs
  • Arduino Uno R3
  • Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
  • DFPlayer Mini MP3 module
  • Full-size breadboard
  • Half breadboard
  • LED x 3
  • Piezo speaker
  • Pushbutton
  • Resistor x 7
  • Speaker, 8 ohm

Check for understanding

Each student finishes "The whole sword" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 8 of its 8 steps as they go.

Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Retract".

Your class

Teach this unit as a class

Start a class from this course and its 3 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you.

The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way.

Start a class from this courseSee the demo class
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