The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project
Micro:Bit Morse Code
Micro:Bit Morse Code
A 3rd- 8th grade STEM lesson
Hope Loveland
June 1, 2023
Notes for teachers
This lesson was designed for 3rd grade gifted students as enrichment.
There are 3 parts to this lesson:
This could be a two week plan and parts of the plan can be skipped or taken further.
For the second part of the lesson about electromagnetic radiation, I give sections of this for homework as a flipped lesson. Students can watch the short videos at home and take “I notice/I wonder” notes.
The videos for electromagnetic radiation can be technical, so I stress to my students their objective is to understand and be curious about electromagnetic radiation (not to know all of the details).
When students are ready to code the Micro:Bit, have them work in partners. I had one partner in the hallway and the other in the classroom as they sent and received the Morse Code messages. This demonstrated how radio frequency works and was fun to send messages at a distance.
If you would like to use the Electromagnetic Radiation Thinking Organizer for notes, you will want to make your own copy and share the copy link with your students.
List of Materials
Standards
Arizona 3rd Grade Physical Science Standard
3.P2U1.2
Plan and carry out an investigation to explore how sound waves affect objects at varying distances.
Next Generation Science Standards Grades 3-5
4th Grade Physical Science
NGSS 4-PS4 Waves and their Application in Technologies for Information Transfer
4-PS4-3 Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.
NGSS Disciplinary Core Idea Progressions
PS4.C Information Technologies and Instrumentation
Grades 3-5
Patterns can encode, send, receive and decode information.
Grades 6-8
Waves can be used to transmit digital information. Digitized information is comprised of a pattern of 1s and 0s.
Standards
AZ Educational Technology Standards Grades 3-5
Standard 1. Empowered Learner - Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
3-5.1.d. Students explore age appropriate technologies and begin to transfer their learning to different tools or learning environments
Standard 5. Computational Thinker - Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.
3-5.5.d. Students understand and explore basic concepts related to automation, patterns, and algorithmic thinking.
Objective(s):
I am learning to encode and decode messages using Morse Code (with a reference sheet).
I am learning to understand how radio can transmit and receive messages.
I am learning to create an algorithm to send and receive messages using Micro:Bits and Microsoft Makecode.
Agenda (lesson time)
Days 1 and 2- Morse Code
Introduce students to Morse Code and how it works.
Show Ss the video of the Invention of Morse Code by Dr. Binocs.
Give students a reference sheet of Morse Code to practice encoding and decoding their own three word messages.
Have students practice their messages on the Morse Code Keyer.
Day 3- Electromagnetic Radiation
Ask Ss as a class, how else can we send messages?
Ask Ss what they know about electromagnetic radiation.
Ss may need reminders that they have background knowledge. Have them watch the following short videos and take notes.
How Eyes See Color Video, What is Sound Video, What is Light Video and use the Electromagnetic Radiation Thinking Organizer to take “I notice/I wonder” notes.
Have a class discussion about what they noticed and what they wondered. Also go over the vocabulary. (The vocabulary is directly from the videos and at this grade level, Ss just need to understand the words.)
Agenda (lesson time)
Day 4- Electromagnetic Playground
Have Ss reference back to their notes to add as they play and notice differences with amplitude, frequency, and sound on the following sites:
PBS Amplitude & Frequency simulator
Have a class discussion about what Ss noticed and wondered.
Day 5- How do radio waves work?
Have Ss watch videos re: electromagnetic radiation, how radios work, and signal processing. Have Ss refer back to their notes to write what connections they can make between the different types of electromagnetic radiation.
(This can be broken up and discussed as Ss watch the videos. This can be a flipped classroom and Ss can do this at home. There are many possibilities for your own style and classroom.)
Have a class discussion about what Ss noticed and the connections they make.
Agenda (lesson time)
Day 6- Intro to Micro:Bit
Have Ss check out a Micro:Bit (I assign numbers.) Go over the structure of the Micro:Bit and it’s parts.
Have Ss go to makecode.microbit.org and go through the Morse Chat tutorial.
You may want your students to take a screenshot of their code and save it if they share devices.
Day 7
Have Ss encode their own 3 word Morse Code secret message.
With a partner, code the radio frequency to the same number.
Transmit their encoded message to their partner who will decode their message.
Driving Question
Driving Question:
How can messages be sent from one location to another secretly and quickly?
Hands-on Activity Instructions
Assessment
Students will transmit and receive Morse Code messages via the programmed Micro:Bit.
Differentiation
Students who may need help understanding how electromagnetic waves work, use a slinky. Have one student hold one end of the slinky and another student hold the other end. Then, have one of those students start a wave. Ask students what they notice is happening.
Students can work with a partner.
Remediation
Extension/Enrichment
Have students think of another way they could send secret messages. Perhaps they can explore quantum key distribution.
Students can use the Micro:Bit to send messages a different way.