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Spotlight on Kevin Pennucci and Elaine Picard - Create a project that challenges students' problem solving skills!


Current educational trends focus on developing critical thinking and problem solving skills in students, along with  promoting student voice and choice to enhance engagement.


Elaine Picard & Kevin Pennucci designed a brilliant project for their AP Physics course that accomplishes both of these goals!


Like all AP courses, the curriculum is focused and fast leading up to the AP test.  After the test in May,  AP courses offer a few days to plan enriching and engaging projects.  Elaine & Kevin purchased some Arduino circuit boards for use in the project.  (Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software.)

Students were placed in teams and asked to create a project of their choice.  The only stipulation was they needed to use the Arduino hardware and embedded software.

Watch the video of one teams' project presentation:




You can tell from the video that students were engaged and excited about the project they completed! But, there were bumps on the road to success.  During the course of the project, students made statements like 'You haven't taught me this, it isn't fair.' and asked questions like 'What happens to my grade if our project doesn't work?'  For most teams, there were both hardware and software struggles, and students needed to make adjustments to either fix the problem, change their design, or change the outcome they desired.  The following observations were very clear to Elaine & Kevin:

  • Students hadn't had much experience with these types of challenges.
  • As a teacher, you have to be willing to let go of control you may be used to.  You may not know the answer to every question, but you can help guide students to find the answer.

If you are planning to incorporate a project like this, you'll know what to expect!

Below are some of the other projects students created using the Arduino boards:

Pong (old school video game)



Clock with Hours/Minutes/Seconds 



Shoe that plays Music when you walk (hardware inside)


Song Maker/Player - push buttons on right to play notes, use buttons on left to select pre-programmed songs.



Simon Says (like old game where you push the buttons matching a pattern.  Hardware in box.)


Toy that plays a song when you squeeze his hand


Alarm Clock for Deaf person - wear a small round sensor that vibrates when it is time to wake up.


Shirt for Blind person - hardware embedded would vibrate if person got close to an object or obstacle


Car that turns with dual motors




By the way, this project is now a Q5 Course offering!







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