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Course curriculum

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Introduction to Reaction Time

    • Let's get to know you!

    • Mission and Mission Objectives

    • Background
  • 2

    Part 1A - Setting up Your Reaction Time Tester

    • Microcontroller Board and Components

    • Envisioning the Board

    • Breadboard Basics

    • What's the Voltage?

    • Setting Up the Board

    • Two Complete Circuits

    • Downloading Arduino IDE for MACs and PCs

    • Chromebook Instructions for Downloading Arduino Create
  • 3

    Part 1B - Programming Inputs and Outputs

    • Setting Up the Pins

    • Defining Inputs and Outputs in Our Code

    • Variables Are Your Friends

    • Better with Variables

    • Reading from a Digital Pin - Video

    • Reading from a Digital Pin

    • Using the Input in Our Output?!

    • Experimenting with Inputs and Outputs

    • What's Wrong with Our Circuit? - Video

    • What's Wrong with Our Circuit?
  • 4

    Part 1C - Designing and Coding Your Sketch

    • Break it Down

    • Program Design with Pseudocode

    • How to "Print" to the Screen

    • Creating a User-friendly Program

    • Avoiding the Infinite Loop

    • While Loops

    • Creating a Random Delay

    • We Need Random Numbers!
  • 5

    Part 1D - Finish Coding Your Sketch

    • Keeping Track of Time

    • Estimating the Reaction Time

    • The "Do...While" Challenge

    • Waiting for the Button Press

    • The Last Few Steps

    • Turning Off the LED and Calculating the Elapsed Time
  • 6

    Part 1E - Test Your Reaction Time

    • Test Run! - Video

    • Test Run!

    • You Did It!
  • 7

    Part 2 - Test Your Reaction with Light Sensors

    • Introduction to Light Sensors

    • A New Mission and Circuit Revisions

    • Finding Your Threshold - Video

    • Choosing a Threshold

    • Updating Your Sketch

    • Code Revisions

    • Congratulations! Part 2 Complete!
  • 8

    Part 3 - A Two-player Reaction Time Game

    • Introduction to the Two-player Game

    • A New Mission and Board Setup

    • Interrupting Is Okay - Sometimes

    • Interrupts and the Winner

    • Code for Part 3 - Two Player Game

    • Congratulations and Introduction to Challenges

    • Coding Challenges

    • We're excited for you to join us next time!

  • 9

    Reference Materials

    • Glossary

    • Appendix 1 - Sketch for Reaction Time Part 2

    • Appendix 2 - Using the Ultrasonic Sensor