Step by Step: Digital Poetry Machine

Prerequisite:  Access to wood workshop and laser cutter 

STEP 1

Step 1: Introduction to Activity, Planning and Task Division

Initial hook: Show video of previous projects
Exploration Concept: Planning, Faraday's Induction Law, Poetry

  • Explanations of the goals of the project and its different parts
  • Divide students in teams of three. Each team will be responsible of creating a word. 
  • Show the five big modules of the project: Laser Cutting, Wood working, Electronics, Programming, and SetUp
  • Explain the theoretical links to Poetry and Electromagnetism 

STEP 2

Step 2: Wood Preparation
Exploration Concept: Proportions, Geometric Shapes, Material Optimization, Workflow planning
Exploration Skills: Wood working, Use of electric wood tools

  • To have all the wood needed ready students should plan on how to optimize the workflow and which tools should be with the different materials and thickness
  • Prepare the wood needed to create the frame of the board. 
  • Depending on the amount of material decide how many words should be laser cutter. Measure the space in the laser cutter and decide on the size of the words, how many words should be in each sheet of cork. 
  • Each word will be attach to a piece of wood. Prepare the wood to be that size.
  • Each word will have a embedded circuit, students will make holes in each word base for the circuit to have space



STEP 3

Step 3: Introduction to Poetry and Words Choosing 
Exploration Concept: Poetry, Poetry Styles, Speech Parts

  • Introduction to American Poetry
  • Show examples of the different poetry styles and poets
  • Students will analyze different poets, their metric and vocabulary use
  • Students will choose a poet and select a subset of words from its poetry
  • Students will print the words and include of 5 of their own, then they will create their own poem with the selection
  • Students will write a reflexion on which type of words are the most frequently use by that poet
  • Students will choose three words to print

STEP 4

Step 4: Vector Graphic Software and Laser Cutting 
Exploration Skill: Laser Cutting, Inkscape
Exploration Concept: Poetry, Poetry Styles, Speech Parts
 
  • Introduction to Vector Graphic Software: Inkscape and CorelDraw
  • Introduction to Laser Cutting
  • Choose three words to cut and write a justification about it based on the previous class   
  • Use the Vector Graphic Software to create the words and cut them in the laser cutter
  • If time allows it students should start painting their wood word base 

STEP 5

Step 5: Words circuit construction and chip programing
 
Exploration Concept: Electrical Circuit, Current, Voltage, Chips
Exploration Skill: Soldering, Basic circuitry  

STEP 6

Step 6: Introduction to electronics and electromagnetism
Exploration Concept: Faraday's Induction Law, Current, voltage, Electromagnetism

  • Introduction to Electricity and Electromagnetism. Current, voltage, resistance. 
  • Explanation of how electric energy converts into mechanical energy
  • Play with the Faraday's induction simulation: What happens when magnets moves through a coil at different speeds and how this affects the magnitude & sign of the voltage.
  • Time to explore the motors prototypes. Guiding questions: How can we convert electrical energy into mechanical energy? How does a motor works?

STEP 7

Step 7: Board Construction and Magnetic Modules Setup
 
Exploration Concept: Electrical Circuit, Electromagnetism
Exploration Skill: Soldering, Basic circuitry  

STEP 8

Step 8: Board and Words Painting
Exploration Concept: Debugging, Testing, Multimeter, Current
Exploration Skill: Soldering, Basic circuitry  

  • Add the circuit with the shapes into the diorama
  • Learn to debug non-working circuits using the multimeter
  • Finish the decoration of the diorama 

STEP 9

Step 9: Introduction to Arduino and Twitter APIs
Exploration Concept: Programing, Inputs, Outputs, Computer Systems
Exploration Skills: Arduino, Breadboards

  • Introduction to Arduino
  • Use the arduino to gather data from the word chips
  • Introduction to Twitter and APIs
  • Use Twitter API to post arduino's data into Twitter 
Step 10: Testing and Debugging

Exploration Concept: Debugging, Testing, Multimeter
Exploration Skills: Voltage measurement, Multimeter Use

  • Test the circuits of each word and each circuit in the board 
Step 11: Setup and Presentation

Exploration Concept: Poetry

  • Each team construct its poem and post it on Twitter