Critical thinking is the most connected core competency to my project. I chose critical thinking because my project required a lot of designing, problem solving, and critiquing, which all fall under the core competency of critical thinking. I was quite new to coding, so the whole process of creating a working code for the project was difficult. I showed my partner everything to make sure there were no mistakes in the coding, which there usually were. There was one big problem with the code where it only gave points to one player, even if you scored. With some frustration, investigation, and problem solving my partner and I fixed it. My partner did the majority of the coding work, but my main job for the project was to build the mini hockey rink. I ran into a few problems when working on the rink though. One problem is the scissors I had were very dull, so they didn’t cut the cardboard very effectively. I brought my own scissors from home; they were much sharper and cut the cardboard better. Another issue is I had no mesh netting for the back of the hockey nets. I fixed this by using tape on the back of the net, it stopped the ball from going through and as a bonus it gave the net frame more strength. This took lots of investigating, problem solving and designing that made me use my critical thinking.
Something I learnt from the assignment was how to code. I have coded in the past, but I haven’t done very much coding. I learnt a lot of new things about coding, as well as connecting a micro bit to the code. I Also learnt how circuits work. Using the 2 conductive pieces of tinfoil and the metal ball to see how you can send signals through the cords. Connecting the tinfoil to the micro bit with alligator clips was new to me. It allowed the micro bit to show something when I touched the tinfoil with the metal ball.
The information I learnt from this project will be very useful to me in the future. I have electronics & robotics for one of my electives next semester, so knowing how to make a circuit and how to make a simple code will be helpful. Having knowledge on how micro bits work and how to use the software will also probably come in handy sometime in the future.