Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | ClassroomClarity: Portable Teacher Support Hub |
Jesse Gruber Kaitlin Gowens Maddie Donku |
Aishee Mondal | proposal1.pdf |
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| # ClassroomClarity: Portable Teacher Support Hub Team Members: - Maddie Donku (mdonku2) - Kaitlin Gowens (kgowens2) - Jesse Gruber (jgruber5) # Problem In the classroom today, students may be reluctant to raise their hands to ask a question, or the professor may not see them. Questions that are critical to understanding the material go unanswered as a result. Asking questions and getting clarification on class material is fundamental to learning, which is why the classroom needs to be more accommodating to students’ questions. While there are tools such as Mentimeter, these platforms require professors to use time outside of class to create slides and also take up screen space on the lectern. Another issue with the variety of sites used for student engagement is that there is no uniformity for the students. Cell phones and laptops can become clogged with numerous bookmarks for these applications for different classes. Lastly, professors may need an easily detectable, portable, physical alert to remind them to look at questions that students have posted, which cannot be provided by online means. Professors and students can benefit from a tool that will easily show them how the class is handling material and any questions that may arise. A hub that is consistent between classes will simplify the learning experience for both students and professors. # Solution Our solution introduces a clarity hub to the classroom. The hub will sit in the sight of a professor with indicator lights, relaying both how the students are absorbing the class material and any questions that have been sent to the hub. The hub will have a “raise-hand” feature which will notify a professor when a student wants to vocally ask their question and host a screen that will display questions that students may send in using an app. The hub will have a specific passcode that must be entered into the app to access the hub. A wearable will vibrate when a question is present to remind the teacher to look at the hub. This could either be worn or sit near the hub for alerts. # Solution Components ## 1) Hub Control System The control system of the hub facilitates communication between each subsystem and allows for user input through tactile means. This system would include the microcontroller as the brain of the device, as well as a series of LEDs, buttons, and dials. The ESP32-PICO-V3 microcontroller was chosen for its built-in Bluetooth, 520 KB SRAM to store student’s questions, ample GPIOs, and is supported by the Arduino IDE. The LEDs can be obtained from the supply center and will be in the colors; green, yellow, orange, and red (606-4302H5-5V, HLMP3401, 39K995, HLMP3301). The buttons to select and resolve questions will be D6C90 F2 LFS to provide tactile input on press. The dial to scroll through the questions will consist of a knob (EH71-1SB2S) connected to a 10k rotary potentiometer (P0915N-FC15BR10K). ## 2) Hub Power System This subsystem provides power to the microcontroller and its peripherals. To power the microcontroller, we believe a LITH-ION 3.7V 850MAH battery (1568-1495-ND) would be the best option. Its voltage and current rating provide enough range to handle the microcontroller in peak active mode (3.3V, 360mA) while reducing wires in the workspace, and increasing portability. The 3.7V is also within range to power the different colored LEDs and other peripherals. To meet the requirements of the different components, a voltage regulator (LM317T (NAT)) will be used with corresponding resistors and 1uF capacitors to step down the voltage. ### 3) Communication System The communication subsystem works as the link between the app, main hub, and the wearable band. As discussed in #1, #4, and #5, we will be using bluetooth to transmit data from the app to the main hub and to send a signal to the band to initiate the vibration. Since we are planning to use the ESP32 microcontrollers in the band and main hub, the bluetooth functionality is already built in. ## 4) App The app is the student interface which will allow students to submit data to the main hub to pose questions to the teacher and indicate their current understanding. We plan to use Android Studio Software to code our own app that will include sliders to rate understanding on a 1-5 scale, question submission through text or “raise hand” modes, and a way to connect to the hub via bluetooth. We want to use Android Studio because it works for both Android and IOS app development and we have worked with it in the past. ## 5) Wearable Band The wearable band acts as a tactile notification system for the teacher. It vibrates when a new question is submitted to subtly notify the teacher. For the same reasons as discussed in #1, we are looking at using an ESP32-PICO-V3 microcontroller to control the vibrations. Similarly, to power the microcontroller, we are currently looking at a LITH-ION 3.7V 850MAH battery (1568-1495-ND). The band vibration would be made using a vibration motor like ROB-08449-ND because it requires low voltage (3V), is small and therefore wearable, and operates within the battery specifications. A voltage regulator like LM317T (NAT) along with resistors and 1uF capacitors will be used to step down the voltage. # Criterion For Success - Students able to send questions wirelessly to the hub through an app - Students able to submit engagement ratings wirelessly to the hub through an app - Hub uses lights to indicate general class understanding based on incoming data - Hub displays questions asked by students or indicates that a student raised their hand - Hub allows anonymous/not anonymous posting when submitting a question - Wearable that vibrates upon a question being posted, will have different modes that allow for repeat vibrations if there is a question on the hub (reminders) - Professor able to clear questions on the hub one by one |
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