Teaching Electronics and Programming in Norwegian Schools Using the air: bit Sensor Kit
We describe lessons learned from using the air:bit project to introduce more than 150 students in the Norwegian upper secondary school to computer programming, engineering and environmental sciences. In the air:bit project, students build and code a portable air quality sensor kit, and use their air:bit to collect data to investigate patterns in air quality in their local environment. When the project ended students had collected more than 400,000 measurements with their air:bit kits, and could describe local patterns in air quality. Students participate in all parts of the project, from soldering components and programming the sensors, to analyzing the air quality measurements. Following the project we conducted a survey to investigate the satisfaction of participating in the project, as well as learning outcomes in the different parts of the project to improve future versions. The results show that both teachers and students were very satisfied with participating in the project. While the students showed positive learning outcomes in electronics and simple programming parts of the project, there is room for improvement regarding more advanced programming tasks. We believe that our work provides insight for other similar maker-inspired projects, and guidelines for educators to incorporate computer programming in traditional science experiments.