As seen from space, Earth looks quiet, and a bit lonely, during the day. Our blue marble is interspersed with the lush green of forests, but that’s about the only sign of life. It’s impossible to tell anyone is home, especially anyone who thinks, and moves around, and builds things. There are no political borders. There are no cities or ports or bridges.
But look at night, and you will see a very different planet. The world’s metropolises glow yellow-white, as if someone sprinkled the continents with a dusting of tiny stars. You can follow rivers, railroads, and highways by the communities that cropped up along them. You can see boats in the open ocean. Artificial light is arguably the clearest sign that Earth is an inhabited planet. And it is one of the best ways to see changes in how we inhabit it.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
