Introduction
This project is centered around our unit on electricity. We have been working hard on coming up with an innovative and theoretical circuit, or micro: bit, to solve a problem in the world, big or small. My group has chosen to focus on overfishing in rivers. This is a problem that not a lot of people are aware of, and it can greatly impact the ecosystem. Using websites and information that we know about circuits and micro: bits, we must solve our problem.
Solution
The way that we decided to solve our problem was by coding a micro: bit, so that when a boat comes into the river, a sound is sent out, and people can monitor the fisher, making sure that they don’t over fish. In our micro: bit, we had to make it a temperature sensor, as there was not a way to make a sound sensor. The reason that we did a micro: bit to sense the boats was because fish can come and go through the river, so it would be hard to track them.
How this micro: bit works is when a boat passes through the way of the micro: bit (which would be water proof) it will sense that movement and play a sound to alert the people who would monitor it, that a boat had entered the river. this way, we could track how many boats are in the river, and check in with the fishers periodically so we know how much fish they are taking.
Define
The challenge that we have been given was to find a problem that is happening in the world and come up with a solution for it using a simple scale circuit or micro: bit.
Discover
https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing
Overfishing happens when one area of an ocean or river is fished in so much and so often, that the natural process of replenishing fish cannot happen. Overfishing is a big problem, and it will continue to be if we do not do something about it. One way that the WWF is helping overfishing is by creating new protected wildlife areas and expanding existing ones. This will help to ensure that the ocean has enough time to replenish its stores, so that overfishing does not happen.
Dream
Some of our ideas for fixing the overfishing problem were…
-make a circuit that senses fish coming into the rivers and tallying them up daily (this would be during salmon season, when they are coming in and there is lots of fishing)
-a circuit that senses the boats entering rivers and if there is an unhealthy amount of fish taken that day, they can track the boats that came in.
Deliver
Our solution to the overfishing problem was to create a micro: bit that senses when someone come into the river, and sends an alert so that people can monitor them while their fishing, to see how much fish they take. In our micro: bit, we had to make it a temperature sensor, in place of a sound sensor.
Debrief
In conclusion, we had some bumps along the way, like not having the supplies to make a real micro: bit, but we found a solution that would still get our idea across. I enjoyed coming up with solutions to the problem, as it allowed me to be creative, although it was difficult not having to much class time to work in our groups. I understand that this isn’t something that can really happen, as we have to move quickly through each subject. Overall, I am glad that I got to bond with a couple of my classmates, and be creative in an innovative project.