Build lights for the holidays lesson plan
Four builds on the Uno for New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Diwali and Hanukkah, each one ready to put in a window.
Objectives and materials
By the end, students can
- Glide a ball down with the clock, and draw a heart in eight bytes.
- Flicker a row of diyas, then light a menorah in the right order.
Materials for the whole unit
- Addressable RGB LEDs
- Arduino Uno R3
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- LED matrix, 8x8
- Piezo speaker
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton
- Resistor
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.
A countdown and a heart
Glide a ball down with the clock, and draw a heart in eight bytes.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Eve: a ball dropPress the button and a servo lowers a ball of LEDs over the last ten seconds, beeping each second. How to make a move follow the clock instead of the beeps. | 45 min |
|
| Valentine's Day: a beating heartA heart on an 8x8 LED matrix beats lub-dub at a pace a knob sets. How a picture becomes eight bytes, and why a heartbeat is two beats and a rest. | 45 min |
|
Materials
- Addressable RGB LEDs
- Arduino Uno R3
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- LED matrix, 8x8
- Piezo speaker
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton
- Resistor
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Valentine's Day: a beating heart" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Make it a card".
Festivals of light
Flicker a row of diyas, then light a menorah in the right order.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Diwali: a row of diyasEight LEDs inside clay diyas light one by one, then flicker like small oil lamps. How to give every flame a life of its own without delay(). | 45 min |
|
| Hanukkah: a menorahNine flickering lights, eight candles and the shamash: each press is the next night. How to put a tradition’s order into code, step by step. | 45 min |
|
Materials
- Addressable RGB LEDs
- Arduino Uno R3
- Half breadboard
- Pushbutton
- Resistor
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Hanukkah: a menorah" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "A menorah for the window".
Teach this unit as a class
Start a class from this course and its 4 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.