My Interactive Garden

Hi,

I'm really anxious to get some feedback on my project ideas. To give a bit of an insight first: I'm a PhD student at the department of computer science at the University of Potsdam (Germany) and my main research interest is on physical computing in computer science education. In my Master's thesis I developed an Arduino-based physical computing construction kit along with a creative and constructionist learning environment called "My Interactive Garden (MyIG)". This learning environment and resource was piloted with 9th graders as documented on the website - currently in German only - and awarded with the teaching award of the German Informatics Society GI e.V. . Teachers in Germany show great interest in teacher training workshops and are enthusiastic about the hands-on activities, the tinkering approach and most of all of the fact that programming comes off the screen.

I'm currently working on a workshop setup for teachers and education researchers in Germany (sponsored by the Google CS4HS program) where we will come together to share our powerful ideas on physical computing, discuss and develop lesson plans, interactive objects, project themes, etc., especially focusing on classroom use.

The next steps in the project for me are:

• to develop a computer science curriculum with physical computing and provide teachers with teaching materials for different topic areas
• to found a company to distribute our MyIG construction kits
• to continue to develop and improve MyIG
• to research on effects physical computing activities have on students

Then there are some things for which I'm looking for collaborators:

• I'd like to have a interface for using Scratch and/or Snap! with Arduino (instead of being stuck with S4A, which is cool, but a bit buggy)
• I'm always interested in project ideas and I'd love to hear what others are doing

To give you a better idea of what kinds of projects we are doing with MyIG, please watch the following video showing some of the interactive objects students created with MyIG:

It's cool to see the crossover applications, thank you for sharing. What would happen if you used the thermo sensor to run a fan for plants when it gets too hot or a pop up owl when an animal like a rabbit trips a motion sensor? What if your interactive garden had lights to celebrate plants getting to a certain height or weed warning beeps? I think it is neat to build fun things into your garden like a tiny train that delivers water periodically or gnomes that have extending arms for trellis tool, so I hope you give updates about what you come up with next!

Hi @Teryl,

thank you for your comment and your inspiring ideas! I'll add them to our "project ideas"-page on the website. Another next step that I haven't mentioned yet: I'll (have someone?) translate all the website material to English as soon as I find time/someone.