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Notes for teachers

This lesson was designed for a 5th grade gifted enrichment class, to create a holiday ugly sweater, utilizing e-textiles and coding of the Circuit Playground Express.

Students work individually.

This lesson could be four weeks for students in a regularly scheduled daily class.

This lesson incorporates circuits, art, sewing (e-textiles), coding and music.

The CPX Ugly Sweater Lesson Slides include step-by-step instructions aligned to the Engineering Design Process.

List of Materials

Sweatshirts (provided by students)
felt or yards of colored fabric for decorating
Class set of Circuit Playground Express boards (found individually here or a class set here at Adafruit).
Conductive thread (each student will need ~2 feet)
embroidery thread (floss) & needles for decorative sewing
thin needles if using NeoJewel (only thin needles fit through)
Optional class set of NeoJewel pixels (found here at Adafruit).
Optional bells, fluffy fabric, snaps
Optional pencil boxes to organize individual student materials (CPX, NeoJewel, usb cord, battery pack, conductive thread). Number the boxes and assign each student a number to keep track of materials.

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Standards

AZ Technology Standards

Standard 4. Innovative Designer - Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

6-8.4.c. Students engage in a design process to develop, test, and revise prototypes, embrace the iterative process of trial and error, and understand setbacks as potential opportunities for improvement.

6-8.4.d. Students demonstrate an ability to persevere and handle greater ambiguity as they work to solve open-ended problems.

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.

6-8.5.a. Students practice defining and solving problems by selecting technology for data analysis, modeling, and algorithmic thinking.

AZ Engineering Standards

Standard 2.0 Create engineering solutions by applying a structured problem-solving/decision-making process.

Standards

AZ Science Standards

4.P4U1.2

Develop and use a model that explains how energy is moved from place to place through electric currents.

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Standards

AZ Music Standards

MU.PR.6.6a

a. Perform music with appropriate expression, technique, and interpretation.

AZ Art Standards

5.1 Generate and Conceptualize Artistic Ideas a. Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for art making.

b. Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation (e.g., researching subject matter, techniques, the work of other artists) to choose an approach for beginning a work of art.

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Objectives:

I Can:

Utilize the engineering design process to plan, create and share a unique, functioning illuminating e-textile sweater using a Circuit Playground Express (CPX).
Design and hand sew a planned out ugly sweater.
Create a functioning circuit that illuminates LEDs with the CPX.
Create a coded algorithm including an input (sensor) and output (light sequence, music).

Extension: include a conditional and loops

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Agenda

Day 1

Introduce Project:

Introduce project to students, including challenge, criteria, constraints and champion (slide 3). Show students MakeFashion Edu Tucson 2019 video (5min19sec) and the Ugly Sweater slideshow for examples. Note: These examples are not e-textiles, but may provide some inspiration.

Days 2-3

Sweater Design:

Have students use Google Drawing or Google Canvas to draw out their idea. (Students may choose to copy and paste the sweater outline from slide 6.)

Have students use the Student EDP Guide to plan out their steps. Note: This is an individual project and students will not need to assign jobs.

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Agenda (lesson time)

Days 4-5

Get to Know Tools:

Have students go to makecode.adafruit.com and go through the tutorials to learn how to code the CPX and learn the possibilities (such as lighting, sound, and sensors).

Introduce the CPX to students and have them download their codes from the tutorials.

Days 6-7

Return to Sweater Design:

Now that students have learned the possibilities of the CPX, have them return to their sweater design (saved in Google Drawing or Google Canvas) to indicate where they want the CPX and additional LED lights. They will also need to incorporate a pocket or door to easily remove the CPX at the end of the project and for the battery pack.

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Agenda (lesson time)

Day 8

Get to Know Tools & Circuitry:

Show students the parts of the CPX and NeoJewel (slides 16 and 17).

Tap Prior Knowledge: Ask students how a circuit works. This can be a class discussion or students can draw this out and do a gallery walk.

Remind students that negative goes to ground and positive goes to a power source.

Show slide 18. Point out that the dotted lines represent sewn conductive thread. Emphasize that the conductive thread cannot cross!

Day 9

Return to Sweater Design:

Have students go back to their sweater design (saved in Google Drawing or Google Canvas) and indicate where their conductive thread (wires) will be sewn in.

Note: Students many want to make an additional drawing drawing for this so it is zoomed in.

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Agenda (lesson time)

Day 10-13

Write Your Code:

Note: The timing on this be determined by the teacher. The more code to be written, the more time students will need.

Have students create their code & test it.

Have students share their code in a class spreadsheet. Example Spreadsheet

Note: Students will want to copy and paste the url of their code regularly because their code will disappear if their Chromebook restarts

Day 14

Return to Sweater Design:

Have students go back to their sweater design (saved in Google Drawing or Google Canvas) and indicate where their conductive thread (wires) will be sewn in.

Note: Students many want to make an additional drawing drawing for this so it is zoomed in.

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Agenda (lesson time)

Day 15-19

Sew Your Sweater:

Have students complete their project, including testing and making improvements.

Day 20

Fashion Show:

Have students show off their finished product. Have a fashion show or a holiday festivity.

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Challenge

You are applying for a job in the fashion industry. To be considered for any position at any fashion company, they first want to see your design skills and ingenuity by creating an ugly holiday sweater for the holiday recruitment gala.

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Students design, learn, and return to their design throughout the project.
Students use Google Drawing or Google Canvas to design and plan their sweater (This also enriches utilization of technology standards. SAMR Modification)
Students sew design on sweater
Students sew conductive thread to create circuit.
Students create code on CPX.
Students share code and

reflect on their learning.

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Assessment

Engineering Design Process Reflection

Have students reflect on their process and learning. Teachers may want to create a class Google slide presentation and students can add their pictures and reflections.

Here is an example template of EDP Class Reflections.

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Differentiation

Students can choose the level of complexity for their design.

Provide students with extra time.

Students will have access to the step by step instructions provided in the class LMS.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Students can choose the level of complexity for their design.