Introduction
This week the team has been working on documentation and finishing up the Color Wheel activity (formerly named Make-A-Rainbow). We have finished the first draft of our documentation, and we are essentially done with the Color Wheel activity. It is also the soft opening week this week. There are 8 faculty members who visited our project room, including our faculty consultant, Mo Mahler.
Color Wheel Activity
Both the hardware and the code part of the Color Wheel activity have been finished. The Color Wheel activity includes 2 modes: problem solving mode and a creative mode, controlled by a touchpad. The Color Wheel activity is powered the same way as the LED Light strip. However, with a different input method, turn knob and LED push button, kids are less likely to get confused when playing both activities at the same session.
The problem solving mode encourages children to try to figure out the right combination of RGB to make all the colors of the color wheel. The kids use a knob to select color and LED button to submit. There are 12 colors in the color wheel, plus 3 colors in the center for tinted white. Completing the color wheel will trigger a light show in the end.
The creative mode allows kids to fill all sections of the wheel with any combination of colors they like, using the same input and interface. The center LEDs will always be on while this mode is active so you cannot fill them in. There will be a light show at the end too.
Documentation
We have been working on documentations this week. We have sent a draft of them to some faculty members and our client, Lou Karas. The documentation package include:
- User Guide per activity + printable visual starter guides for teachers
- Color theory guide per activity
- Full design documentation
- Schematics and CAD Drawings
- Full materials spreadsheet
- Tutorial Videos (WIP)
- Software prototype archive app for PC
- Arduino Code
For more information please visit our Resources page.
Soft Opening
We have invited some faculty members to come and visit our project room. Our visitors include Robert Zacharias, John Balash, Mike Christel, John Dessler, Dave Culyba, Brenda Harger, and last but not least, our faculty consultant Mo Mahler. We have received mostly positive feedback. We have also got some good advice on topics such as what prompt we can give to kids when they are playing the activities.
Mo thinks that our Color Wheel activity has some more depth than its previous version. The light show after you complete the activity is also satisfying. Mo also suggested that we include a recording of an artist working on the whiteboard in our final presentation.
Looking into Next Week
- Work on finals presentation
- Finalize Documentation
- Minor polishing of activities and organization of documentation
- Final playtest at Assemble Thursday 4/28 at 5pm