Bringing Coding and Electronics to Science Classes

Cranbrook Upper School, MI

When Cranbrook Upper School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan started looking for an easier way to inventory small electrical components, they turned to the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit.

In 2014, Cranbrook Upper School began using physical computing to teach programming, circuit control and measurement using Arduino and other electrical components in their Introduction to Physics and Engineering (IPE) course. Once rolled out to students, it became apparent that the school would need a different option. Their original method involved keep track of a large assortment of small electrical components that often went missing or were returned “looking like a squashed mosquito.”

“I like how there are so many that things you can do and you don’t need to necessarily stick to the actual book that we’re given. We can make our own code and do things.”

Jacob from Cranbrook

Jacob10th Grader

Once Cranbrook educators started looking into options, they quickly realized the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit (SIK) could be used to replace required textbooks. As an independent school, families are required to purchase textbooks for classes, which can often cost more than $200 apiece. The SIK not only costs much less than a standard textbook, but by adding an element of ownership to the electrical components, students inherently take better care of the tiny parts (resistors, LEDs, etc) in the kit.

The transition from a random assortment of parts to the SIK has had a huge impact in the way students and teachers approach the class. About 75% of the freshman class enrolls in the IPE course annually and the students who take the course find incredible value in using the SIK.

“In most of our other classes, we’re just sitting down, taking notes, or doing worksheets,” says 9th grader Emily, “But here, we’re actually building stuff. We’re not just learning about it, but we’re actually doing it and through applying it, we’re learning more and understanding it better. It’s more student-driven so you can really just do it on your own time and understand it yourself so you know when you understand something.”

As another student, Jacob, put it, “I’m a lot more of a kinetic learner, so using the kit really helps me to get more hands-on experience and that’s how I learn. It really helps.”

“If you give kids a project where they are required to think, then they are going to learn. And they’ll learn in a way that stays with them forever.”

Greg MillerHead of Science Department
Cranbrook Upper School

“Using the SparkFun [Inventor’s] Kit has definitely opened up the way I teach, says Carolyn Moss, Physics and Chemistry Teacher at Cranbrook Upper School, “It’s definitely more of a leading them and letting them discover it on their own system, which I really enjoy.”

Fellow teacher, Russ Conner, notes, “I have more fun with this class...because you’re teaching them how to think through problems.”

It’s not just the teachers that have seen a change in student behavior since switching to the SIK. The Assistant Director of Schools, Tom De Craene, stated, “Watching kids work...the level of engagement is so much higher, they work together, you have to kick them out of the lab instead of trying to get them to come in...sometimes we have to make sure they’re doing their other work.”

What started as a way to keep things organized and save families money quickly turned into a course that sets the standard for Cranbrook Upper School. As Tracie Hightower, Educational Technologist at Cranbrook, put it, “The SparkFun kits set the standard in terms of developing our approach and making sure that we’re confident; that we have all the materials we need...SparkFun has done an incredible job in terms of developing those kits for us to have and access those materials that we need.”

Download Activity Worksheets for SparkFun Inventor’s Kit

“Using the SparkFun [Inventor’s] Kit has definitely opened up the way I teach. It’s definitely more of a leading them and letting them discover it on their own system, which I really enjoy.”

Carolyn MossScience Teacher
Cranbrook Schools