The snow and ice have arrived. And for a lot of the country that means the season of shoveling, salting, and suiting up before going outside. But rather than seeing all that extra effort as wasted, why not see it as a reason to get to know ice, salt, and snow a little bit better? If the winter break has your budding scientist itching for things to fill their time, consider this experiment as a break from the movies and hot chocolate.
Why do we salt the driveway?
A snowy lawn is a great excuse to build a fort, make a snowman, or wage a snow battle with the neighbors. Icy roads and driveways? Those are a lot less fun. Cities put a lot of work into trying to keep the roads clear enough that cars won’t keep going when they are supposed to stop, stay put when they are supposed to go, or run into things that they aren’t supposed to run into.
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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 and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Open Hardware is In, New CircuitPython and Pi 5 16GB, and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey