Via Discord: Middle School students make teacher “escape rooms” #CircuitPlaygroundExpress #CircuitPython @MSMakeCode @Adafruit

Teacher Daniel, on the Adafruit Discord chat, writes about his Middle School students’ projects:

I wanted to show some pictures of my Middle School students who made an “escape room” (really a number of puzzles) based on the Adafruit Circuit Playground Express board. They did an awesome job of coming up with all sorts of fun puzzles, all of which used the Circuit Playground in some form or fashion. We created a number of puzzles that, when they are all solved, lead to the key to a treasure chest full of candy.

We took the puzzles to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms, where the teachers would try to solve the puzzles in 30 minutes, with all of their students cheering them on. If they could solve all the puzzles and unlock the treasure chest, their students would get candy! These are just a few of the students and their puzzles. I had 14 students, 10 puzzles/projects, and a ton of fun!

Check out all these puzzles using Circuit Playground Express!

Self locking/unlocking box
Self locking/unlocking box
Students talking about their projects
Students talking about their projects
The Simon Says box!
The Simon Says box!
5th grade teachers trying to solve the puzzles.
5th grade teachers trying to solve the puzzles.
3rd grade teachers trying to solve the puzzles.
3rd grade teachers trying to solve the puzzles.

Daniel further writes:

I started the students out with the Drag and Drop MakeCode to show them the basic concepts. Then transferred those concepts to CircuitPython. So I’d go over a particular concept (like loops) in MakeCode (so intuitive!) and then go over that same concept in Python. I had a number of kids say that they preferred Python over MakeCode once they got into a bit more complicated code and saw how much easier it actually was to program, debug, and change code in text rather than graphically.

Great job to both the students and the teachers from the Adafruit Team!

Would your school be interested in teaching coding with hardware? It’s easy with the Adafruit Circuit Playground Express. It’s programmable in a number of ways, affordable, and there are many free resources for learning. Find out more.


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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.

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