NodeMCU projects for youth camps

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Hi All,

I run youth camps for a living and as part of them we do lots of craft/building activities. I have been trying to think of an activity for the more STEM focused of our kids. So I am thinking of a project based off an NodeMCU or a Wemos.

Now budget is of concern, I need to keep the activity between $5-$10 and it would be good if it could have some sort of physical interaction as a finishing activity. It would work better if the sketch could be pre loaded as we have limited computers. So the build would need to be part of the fun. Soldering isn’t out of the question.

What do people think could be done?

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I would be interested in helping out.

If you want soldering, I’d suggest something LED related because they are the best bang for buck. Any project with an RGB LED is pretty fun to make imo.

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I think a bit more info could help,

How much time should it take?
when do you need it by?
How old/skill are the participants?

a psudo-car thing that runs around until it bumps into something would be cool.
but $5-10 is pretty tight.

Inspired by what I understand @Paul and @crashman39 are doing, but cut down a lot
A laser cut base plate
2 phone vibrator motors
9v battery + battery clip
micro switch - bump sensor
cheep micro processor
H-bridge
dupoint cables
cable ties - to hold everything together

if you really want to include soldering may need to join some connectors

One of the cheaper processors I know of is

H-bridge

Motors

3v regulator

I’m not sure what the price sums to.
This is just one option, moving things are always fun.

Happy to talk more but not tonight.

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For reasons of my own I just started working on this very same thing for some projects that I’d like to do for next year.

I’m personally self-taught and I know that many of the Electronics and Computing courses are delayed in our Education system until University - that’s fine.

In this space, there are at least 7 topics where you could group $10 1-hour sessions:

  • Basic soldering
  • Voltage, Current and Resistance
  • Motors and Electric Fields
  • Light and Displays
  • Mechatronics and Robotics
  • Computer Networking, the Internet and Cloud Computing

Everywhere around the world, there are teachers and students looking to fill in time whilst learning something. $AUD10 is a good pricepoint.

It’s an interesting area that’s for sure.

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They are all good questions.

I run camps from year 5 to 12, though not at the same time. So I am sure I could find the right demographic for any project.

Timing isn’t important, I have camps in January however there will always be more. As for the session it needs to go for some time between 1 to 2 hours. Having said that a project that goes over multiable session isn’t out of the question either.

Thanks for thinking about this.

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