23 april 2026

What is a Shift Register?

In deze video leer je wat een shift register is en hoe dit geïntegreerde circuit wordt gebruikt om data te verplaatsen, op te slaan en meerdere uitgangen aan te sturen. Daarnaast wordt er dieper ingegaan op het gebruik van datasheets, waaronder pinconfiguraties, timingdiagrammen en de interne werking met logische poorten en flip-flops. Ook leer je hoe kloksignalen invloed hebben op het gedrag van het shift register. Tot slot wordt uitgelegd hoe je meerdere shift registers kunt koppelen (daisy chaining) om nog meer uitgangen te creëren voor toepassingen zoals LED-aansturing en zevensegmentdisplays.

16 december 2025

What is a BCD Decoder?

In deze video leer je wat een BCD-decoder is en hoe je deze gebruikt om een zevensegmentdisplay aan te sturen. Aan de hand van een praktisch voorbeeld wordt uitgelegd hoe een BCD-decoder binaire invoer omzet naar decimale cijfers en hoe dit helpt om het aantal benodigde pinnen van een microcontroller, zoals een Arduino, te verminderen. Daarnaast komt het werken met datasheets aan bod, inclusief pinconfiguraties, logische poorten en functietabellen. Zo krijg je een goed begrip van de werking en toepassingen van BCD-decoders in elektronische schakelingen.

1 september 2024

Learning objectives minor Science, Technology & Innovation: Biomimicry

The learning objectives of the Biomimicry minor blend theoretical understanding with practical skills. Students engage with a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines including chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering, gaining a comprehensive grasp of biomimicry principles. Practical objectives emphasize hands-on experiences, where students apply these principles through advanced prototyping techniques such as CAD, 3D printing, and microcontroller programming. The course aims to enhance students’ abilities to think critically and solve problems creatively, preparing them to design and execute bio-inspired projects. Additionally, the program nurtures team collaboration and communication skills, essential for articulating project insights to diverse audiences, and managing long-term, complex projects effectively.

12 juli 2024

Arduino

De basis van programmeren met met een Arduino (of gelijkwaardige) microcontroller. Ook komt de ESP8266 aan bod.

10 maart 2024

Finder Arduino opta plc (v)mbo

met een aantal eenvoudige presentaties wil ik je leren hoe je de software van opta plc installeert en hoe je een eenvoudig ladderdiagram maakt en kunt testen

1 januari 2024

How to design open inquiry labs

In this article we show how student “open inquiries” in undergraduate labs can be powerful teaching and assessment methods. In such open inquiries it is the students who define the question they want to answer, formulate the hypothesis, search for information, design and carry out experiments to reach their goal, and share their ideas, needs, and results with others. This student agency afforded by open inquiry trains critical thinking, teaches students to learn from failure, and requires effective science communication in authentic contexts. Adapting open inquiry methods for the first time can be especially daunting for instructors who have no examples to draw upon. To address this challenge we explain the findings of a diverse group of five lab instructors and an educational researcher who have compared open inquiry practices in different contexts. As a group, we formed a Community of Practice dedicated to “Supporting students’ scientific Open Inquiries in Labs” (aka SssOIL). The commonalities across our diverse project team suggest some defining features and best practices. By sharing our findings and example course designs and materials, we hope to aid instructors in adapting more open inquiry teaching methods in their own lab courses. Any questions about this article can be addressed to Forrest via: forrestbradbury@gmail.com or to our team via: S3OIL@outlook.com

7 maart 2023

Les 1: Sensing and Perception Introductie

1 januari 2023

Maker Lab Assignment: Tinkercad decoding a signal with Arduino

Before the Maker Lab students begin the open inquiry phases, they first learn and practice some important skills, supported by small assignments. In this assignment they are tasked with decoding a secret message from a ("digital") electronic signal. They do this via a simulated circuit (in Tinkercad) to quickly learn how to control an Arduino without yet worrying about the hardware interfacing of actual devices. This is meant to be a fun experiential way to learn some basic programming skills and syntax. NOTE: Instructors interested in creating similar encoded messages are encouraged reach out to me via forrestbradbury ("AT") gmail.com, and I can share my Python code for generating Arduino commands which encode desired messages as pulse control sequences - and I can additionally explain what all this entails :) Contents: assignment instructions in Powerpoint slides: ArduinoTinkercad-exercise_public.pptx link to Example Circuit in Tinkercad: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/cQkaWSJ4esH a text file containing a function the students should include in their Arduino code for part 4 of the assignment: characterlookupfunction.txt

1 januari 2023

Maker Lab Lecture Slides and Lecture Announcements

This collection of the Maker Lab's Lecture Slides and Lecture Announcements (alongside the Lecture Notes and several Assignments files) detail the learning material and activities that prepare students for the open inquiry phases. Specifically, students learn about experimental design and uncertainty analysis, and learn and practice some important programming skills for controlling sensors and processing and analyzing data. For context of how these lectures fit into the course activities, please see the example course schedule (published as a sub-page of the main "Maker Lab: full course materials" page). The Lecture Slides are .PDF files of the Powerpoint slides, while the .TXT documents are pre- or post-lecture announcements posted to the course's digital learning environment. The course runs over 15 teaching weeks, with two 90 minute class sessions per week ("a" and "b"), which explains the naming system of these files, with names that begin with the week number and session letter. Note that many class sessions (especially after the open inquiry phases begin in session 5b) have no lectures or other materials because they are devoted to students' team presentations or individual meetings between teams and instructor. Additionally, lectures 1b and 2a include exercises and discussions using Arduino code files, with the file extensions .INO, which are also included here. NOTE: These uploads are not yet working. Please reach out if you're interested in the files. NOTE: Instructors interested in having the original powerpoint files of the Lecture Slides are encouraged to reach out to me via forrestbradbury ("AT") gmail.com .

1 januari 2023

Maker Lab course schedule (example)

This example Maker Lab course schedule is meant to help show how the course is structured and implemented. In addition to the full .pdf schedule, a pictoral representation is given to show the basic timeline, starting with skills training and then two open inquiries. Note that this example schedule has benefitted from four previous course iterations, and has been tweaked each time for better and more efficient student support. Instructors implementing open inquiry lab projects for the first time are advised to schedule in a bit extra student contact time until they have a good sense of when and how the students need to be supported.