As the first semester draws to a close, the 11 students in Kehillah’s Engineering-1 course shared their projects. The course uses Arduino as the basic building block and leverages the resources of Kehillah’s Laboratory for Engineering Arts to incorporate hands-on 3D printing. Students start by learning the Arduino platform, then interfacing to different external elements (motors, buttons, LEDs and more), and in the process also learn how to read (and create!) an electrical schematic. Some projects require the students to learn how to design and print 3D elements; other projects require the understanding of addressable color LEDs; yet others call for understanding the operation of stepper-motors; and so on.

Some of the projects done this semester included a binary-clock, line-follower robot, ID card locker, theremin, key-pad and motor driver (for a vending machine), and digital signage.

A demonstration for the wider school community will be scheduled for the last week of the semester. Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement.