Exploring Gears Functionality through Music Generation,  and Digital Automatization

A 6 week project based unit for 8th through 12th graders, where students build a music gear driven machine. 

Unit Overwiew

The Basics

Experience: Novice to Advance
Age Group: 12- 18
Group Size: 15-20
Facilitator Radio: 1:4
Hours: 12-15 hours
Keywords: Gears, Ratio and Proportion, Motors, Music, Tempo, Circuits, Arduino
Cost per team: $40 dollars 
Tools: Laser Cutter, Soldering Equipment, Computers
Materials Per team: Arduino, 2 boards of 24 x 12  x 1/8 inches poly wood, stepper motor, , 2" Threaded Rods (50 pack), Hex Nuts (100 pack), Nylon Lock Nuts (100 pack), 10k Potentiometer, Toggle Switch, 12VDC Power Supply (5 pack), 1/4" diameter Shaft Collar (box of 100), paint , circuit board

Learning Objectives

  • To introduce general knowledge regarding how gears work, the mathematical relation of ratio and speed they observe.
  • To experience tempo in music and understand its relationship with composition. 
  • To have a basic working knowledge of a circuits and how a motor works
  • To gain skills including soldering, building circuits, using the laser cutter, and basic arduino programming.

Suggested Steps

  1. Introduction to Polyrhythms and Gears: Understanding the mathematical relationship between ratio and speed
  2. Explore tangible gears: Design of Gears, Laser cut gears. Soldering introduction using 4 multiple photocells.  
  3. Introduction to circuits. Introduction to Arduino (pin 13 LED) in relation to motors, and breadboard. 
  4. Creation of circuits with motor, understanding how a motor works. Motor programing. 
  5. Finish soldering the photocells, and decorating the gears and board. Gears mounting. 
  6. Understanding input/output (potentiometer and photocells) and include it in the circuit. 
  7. Testing and debugging. Introduction to multimeter. 
  8. Music theory, introduction to metronome. Adjustment of parameters of photocell and potentiometer. 
  9. Presentation.