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STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics, it is a successor of STEM. According to ‘All Education Schools.com, 2019. STEAM is a new vision to promote student critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and collective being through transdisciplinary consciousness and conscience. The shifting from STEM to STEAM is an integrative approach for life-long holistic education to bring the much-needed paradigm shift. Further, Quigley & Herro, 2019 said that “The arts in STEAM not only cements the disciplines together as one with a broader scope and disciplinary identity, but it also fences the essential characteristics of the whole to mimic the real-world issues and problems.” Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math are similar fields of study as that they all intricately connected and involve imagination and none relies on just one method for inquiry and investigation. Why STEAM? Today’s era is fast changing rather than evolving, every minute, every second some or the other technological advancement is being born. Therefore, in this fast paced technologically advancing world there is a need to teach relevant, in-demand skills that will prepare students to become innovators, job creators not only for their future but for the future of the country & make a DENT in GOBAL MAKER'S MOVEMENT. STEAM IN EDUCATION Education has always been under tremendous pressure to respond to this dynamic, fluid and ever-changing world. In lieu of this Buczynski and her co-authors say "The parallel spaces of science and art are pulled towards each other by the education needs of the 21st century ". STEAM is a pedagogy approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics as focal points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking. It is much more than just an instructional strategy is developing an ingenuity for innovation and transforming the traditional school education in such a manner that community development is also supported. As per Connor et al., 2015; Quigley et al., 2019 “STEAM education serves as a model to create a new interface between theory and practice breaking/crossing the disciplinary boundary”. It facilitates a learning environment in which all students can engage and contribute. It offers holistic development of students where they can exercise both sides of their brain at once. As opposed to traditional models of teaching, STEAM education has the most profound benefits at schools and higher education institutions. It empowers the student to employ project-based learning that is transdisciplinary as well as inclusive i.e., it dissolves the boundaries between the conventional disciplines and gives rise to learning based on finding a solution to real-world problems. It is important to note that students who are taught under such a framework are not just taught the subject matter but are taught how to learn, how to ask questions, how to experiment and how to create. It prepares students to work in fields that are poised for growth, the skills students gain from such education can be translated into almost any career. #education #STEAM #Science #technology #engineering #Arts #maths #TechKnowSkola #Hands_on_learning #DIY #learn #the_technology_school #engineers #innovators #elearning

Back Interfacing with MQ-3 Alcohol Sensor Module MQ-3 gas sensor has high sensitivity to alcohol, and has good resistance to disturbances of gasoline, smoke and vapor. The sensor could be used to detect alcohol with different concentration; it is with low cost and suitable for different application. Sensitive material of MQ-3 gas sensor is SnO2, which with lower conductivity in clean air. When the target alcohol gas exists, sensor’s conductivity is proportional to the gas concentration. Description: 1. Model No: MQ-3. 2. Heater voltage: 5±0.2V. 3. Loop voltage: ≤24V (DC) 4. Load resistance: Adjustable. 5. Heating Resistance: 31Ω±3Ω (Room temperature). 6. Heating Power: ≤ 900mW. 7. Surface thermal resistance: 2Kohm-20Kohm (0.4mg/L alcohol). 8. Sensitivity: Rs (in air)/Rs (0.4mg/L alcohol) ≥ 5. Application Example with Arduino Uno: Connect the MQ-3 alcohol sensor module to Arduino Uno board as shown below: Programming Code /* MQ-3 Alcohol Sensor Circuit with Arduino */ const int AOUTpin=A0; //the AOUT pin of the alcohol sensor goes into analog pin A0 of the arduino const int DOUTpin=8; //the DOUT pin of the alcohol sensor goes into digital pin D8 of the arduino const int ledPin=13; //the anode of the LED connects to digital pin D13 of the arduino int limit; int value; void setup() { Serial.begin(115200); pinMode(DOUTpin, INPUT); pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); } void loop() { value= analogRead(AOUTpin); //reads the analaog value from the alcohol sensor's AOUT pin limit= digitalRead(DOUTpin); //reads the digital value from the alcohol sensor's DOUT pin Serial.print(" Alcohol value: "); Serial.println(value); //prints the alcohol value Serial.print("Limit: "); Serial.print(limit); //prints the limit reached as either LOW or HIGH (above or underneath) delay(100); if (limit == HIGH) { digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);//if limit has been reached, LED turns on as status indicator } else{ digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); //if threshold not reached, LED remains off } } Result: Open up the Serial Monitor with Baud rate of 115200, the alcohol level detected will be shown as analog value. The alcohol limit value can be set with sensitivity potentiometer: if the alcohol level detected is below the set limit, the D0 green indicator will be off. If detected alcohol level is beyond the set limit, the DO LED will light up. Reference URL GET IN TOUCH We'd love to hear from you Contact Us

Back Interfacing of 28BYJ Stepper Driver with Arduino. What is so special about steppers? A stepper motor can move in accurate, fixed angle increments known as steps. For practical purposes, a stepper motor is a bit like a servo: you can tell it to move to a pre-defined position and can count on getting fairly consistent results with multiple repetitions. Servos though, are usually limited to a 0-180 degree range, while a stepper motor can rotate continuously, similar to a regular DC motor. The advantage of steppers over DC motors is that you can achieve much higher precision and control over the movement. The downside of using steppers is that they are a bit more complex to control than servos and DC motors . The 28BYJ-48 Stepper Motor Datasheet The 28BYJ-48 is a small, cheap, 5 volt geared stepping motors. These stepping motors are apparently widely used to control things like automated blinds, A/C units and are mass produced. Due to the gear reduction ratio of *approximately* 64:1 it offers decent torque for its size at speeds of about 15 rotations per minute (RPM). With some software “trickery” to accelerate gradually and a higher voltage power source (I tested them with 12 volts DC) I was able to get about 25+ RPM. These little steppers can be purchased together with a small breakout board for the Arduino compatible ULN2003 stepper motor driver for less than $5. Quite a bargain, compared to the price of a geared DC motor, a DC motor controller and a wheel encoder! The low cost and small size makes the 28BYJ-48 an ideal option for small robotic applications, and an excellent introduction to stepper motor control with Arduino. Here are the detailed specs of the 28BYJ-48 stepper motor. Motor Type Unipolar stepper motor Connection Type 5 Wire Connection (to the motor controller) Voltage 5-12 Volts DC Frequency 100 Hz Step mode Half-step mode recommended(8 step control signal sequence) Half-step mode: 8 step control signal sequence (recommended) 5.625 degrees per step / 64 steps per one revolution of the internal motor shaft Full Step mode: 4 step control signal Step angle sequence 11.25 degrees per step / 32 steps per one revolution of the internal motor shaft Manufacturer specifies 64:1 . Some patient and diligent people on the Arduino forums have disassembled the gear train of these little motors and determined that the exact gear ratio is in fact 63.68395:1 . My observations confirm their findings. These means that in the recommended half-step mode we will have:64 steps per motor rotation x 63.684 gear ratio = Gear ratio 4076 steps per full revolution (approximately). Wiring to the ULN2003 controller A (Blue), B (Pink), C (Yellow), D (Orange), E (Red, Mid- Point) Weight 30g Material Required: Material Quantity Arduino Uno 1 Stepper Driver 1 Jumper cables 6 Stepper Motor 1 Pinout Diagram: The motor has 4 coils of wire that are powered in a sequence to make the magnetic motor shaft spin. When using the full-step method, 2 of the 4 coils are powered at each step. The default stepper library that comes pre-installed with the Arduino IDE uses this method. The 28BYH-48 datasheet specifies that the preferred method for driving this stepper is using the half-step method, where we first power coil 1 only, then coil 1 and 2 together, then coil 2 only and so on…With 4 coils, this means 8 different signals, like in the table below. Circuit Diagram: Wiring the ULN2003 stepper motor driver to Arduino Uno : The ULN2003 stepper motor driver board allows you to easily control the 28BYJ-48 stepper motor from a microcontroller, like the Arduino Uno. One side of the board side has a 5 wire socket where the cable from the stepper motor hooks up and 4 LEDs to indicate which coil is currently powered. The motor cable only goes in one way, which always helps. On the side you have a motor on / off jumper (keep it on to enable power to the stepper). The two pins below the 4 resistors, is where you provide power to the stepper. Note that powering the stepper from the 5 V rail of the Arduino is not recommended. A separate 5-12 V 1 Amp power supply or battery pack should be used, as the motor may drain more current than the microcontroller can handle and could potentially damage it. In the middle of the board we have the ULN2003 chip. At the bottom are the 4 control inputs that should be connected to four Arduino digital pins . Hooking it up to the Arduino Connect the ULN2003 driver IN1, IN2, IN3 and IN4 to digital pin 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively on the Arduino Uno. Connect the positive lead from a decent 5-12V battery pack to the “+” pin of the ULN2003 driver and the ground to the “-” pin. Make sure that the “on/off” jumper next to the “-” pin is on. If you power the Arduino from a different battery pack, connect the grounds together. Arduino stepper code and the AccelStepper library The default stepper library that comes pre-installed with the Arduino IDE supports the full-step method only and has limited features. It does not run the 28BYJ-48 motors very efficiently and getting two of them running at the same time for a differential drive robot is a bit more difficult. I came across example sketch by 4tronix that used the half-step method with no additional libraries. Their code worked well and I was able to modify it, so that I can run two steppers at the same time. Still, I was only able to get my stepper motor spinning fairly slow and it was getting quite warm, for some reason. Additionally, that sample code uses delays for the steps and that will cause some issues when we start adding more complex functions in the loop and hook up various sensors. Then I came across the AccelStepper library. It runs the 28BYJ-48 steppers very efficiently (they never go as hot as with the other options I tried) and also supports acceleration (which allows the stepper to get to a higher speed). The library uses non blocking code for the steps and has quite a few other nice features. After some messing around with the documentation and the examples I got everything up and running. Below is the code that will slowly accelerate the 28BYJ-48 in one direction, then decelerate to a stop and accelerate in the opposite direction. Naturally, make sure you download and install the AccelStepper library first! #include #define HALFSTEP 8 // Motor pin definitions #define motorPin1 3 // IN1 on the ULN2003 driver 1 #define motorPin2 4 // IN2 on the ULN2003 driver 1 #define motorPin3 5 // IN3 on the ULN2003 driver 1 #define motorPin4 6 // IN4 on the ULN2003 driver 1 // Initialize with pin sequence IN1-IN3-IN2-IN4 for using the AccelStepper with 28BYJ-48 AccelStepper stepper1 ( HALFSTEP , motorPin1 , motorPin3 , motorPin2 , motorPin4 ); void setup () { stepper1 . setMaxSpeed ( 1000.0 ); stepper1 . setAcceleration ( 100.0 ); stepper1 . setSpeed ( 200 ); stepper1 . moveTo ( 20000 ); } //--(end setup )--- void loop () { //Change direction when the stepper reaches the target position if ( stepper1 . distanceToGo () == 0 ) { stepper1 . moveTo (- stepper1 . currentPosition ()); } stepper1 . run (); } The code above will not push this motor to its limit. You can experiment with the acceleration and speed settings to see what is the best you can squeeze out. Note that for nigher speeds, you will likely need a higher voltage DC source. If you got your stepper running, here is the code that the StepperBot from the video above is running. You will need to adjust the speed, as well variables based on your base and wheel sizes, if you want to have your bot moving in a square path. #include #define HALFSTEP 8 // motor pins #define motorPin1 3 // IN1 on the ULN2003 driver 1 #define motorPin2 4 // IN2 on the ULN2003 driver 1 #define motorPin3 5 // IN3 on the ULN2003 driver 1 #define motorPin4 6 // IN4 on the ULN2003 driver 1 #define motorPin5 8 // IN1 on the ULN2003 driver 2 #define motorPin6 9 // IN2 on the ULN2003 driver 2 #define motorPin7 10 // IN3 on the ULN2003 driver 2 #define motorPin8 11 // IN4 on the ULN2003 driver 2 // Initialize with pin sequence IN1-IN3-IN2-IN4 for using the AccelStepper with 28BYJ-48 AccelStepper stepper1 ( HALFSTEP , motorPin1 , motorPin3 , motorPin2 , motorPin4 ); AccelStepper stepper2 ( HALFSTEP , motorPin5 , motorPin7 , motorPin6 , motorPin8 ); // variables int turnSteps = 2100 ; // number of steps for a 90 degree turn int lineSteps = - 6600 ; //number of steps to drive straight int stepperSpeed = 1000 ; //speed of the stepper (steps per second) int steps1 = 0 ; // keep track of the step count for motor 1 int steps2 = 0 ; // keep track of the step count for motor 2 boolean turn1 = false ; //keep track if we are turning or going straight next boolean turn2 = false ; //keep track if we are turning or going straight next void setup () { delay ( 3000 ); //sime time to put the robot down after swithing it on stepper1 . setMaxSpeed ( 2000.0 ); stepper1 . move ( 1 ); // I found this necessary stepper1 . setSpeed ( stepperSpeed ); stepper2 . setMaxSpeed ( 2000.0 ); stepper2 . move (- 1 ); // I found this necessary stepper2 . setSpeed ( stepperSpeed ); } void loop () { if ( steps1 == 0 ) { int target = 0 ; if ( turn1 == true ) { target = turnSteps ; } else { target = lineSteps ; } stepper1 . move ( target ); stepper1 . setSpeed ( stepperSpeed ); turn1 = ! turn1 ; } if ( steps2 == 0 ) { int target = 0 ; if ( turn2 == true ) { target = turnSteps ; } else { target = - lineSteps ; } stepper2 . move ( target ); stepper2 . setSpeed ( stepperSpeed ); turn2 = ! turn2 ; } steps1 = stepper1 . distanceToGo (); steps2 = stepper2 . distanceToGo (); stepper1 . runSpeedToPosition (); stepper2 . runSpeedToPosition (); } Tested Programming Code: #define IN1 3 #define IN2 4 #define IN3 5 #define IN4 6 int Steps = 4096; //4096 or 768 int cstep = 0; void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); pinMode(IN1, OUTPUT); pinMode(IN2, OUTPUT); pinMode(IN3, OUTPUT); pinMode(IN4, OUTPUT); } void loop() { for(int x=0;x

LAB Resources At TechKnowSkola, we are your reliable partner in education. As an abbreviation for our commitment, "We" stands for TechKnowSkola. We offer diverse lab resources aligned with your educational institution's lab setup, providing comprehensive support. From curriculums and teaching materials to activity sheets and beyond, we ensure all lab-related resources are included in our service support model. With us, you can rest assured that you'll have everything you need to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment for your students. Together, let's unlock the potential of tomorrow's innovators! Curriculums Activity Sheets Training Materials Guidelines by AIM Teaching Materials Project Guides Safety Guidelines ​ Reference Books FREE Resources Techknowskola's Free resources have got you covered! Enjoy AIM's guidelines and curriculum, plus access to Activities and TKS developed projects. A treasure trove of innovation awaits you! Click Here Guidelines by AIM Activity & Project Sheet PFMS & GeM Curriculum Informative Videos Paid Resources Techknowskola's Paid resources, a treasure trove of materials designed for your Labs. Project Guides, Ebooks, Activity Sheets, Curriculum alinged with Textbook & NEP 2020 and a lot more to unlock endless learning possibilities! Click Here E-Book Teachers Resources Project Guide Video Library Curriculum