LabVIEW Example For Younger Crowd.

[MSATLAB]

Hello,

     I am giving a presentation for a group of younger kids this friday, June 29th and I need a LabVIEW example that I can show them and talk about.  So I need something that younger kids, ages 5-13 can understand.  Its ok if its too boring for the older kids and too confusing for the younger and vise versa.  I can adjust how I talk to compensate.  So far I have a bouncing cube demo, but that is not complex enough to talk about for a length of time.  I would also like the example to relate to engineering as much as possible and is not just a game like Tic Tac Toe. Thank you for your suggestions.

Michael Boyd

[_S_G]

Whenever I have done this in the past, I've always used atleast 2 examples.  One really simple one (to get newbies interested and involved and prevent them from getting intimidated), and one more complex one (to give them a taste of the complexities involved with bigger, applications and to keep the non-newbies interested.)

[smercurio_fc]

If you open up the Example Finder (Help->Find Examples) you'll find a number of examples that should fit the bill. A couple of possibilities within there:

• Robot - uses the Picture Control to manipulate a robot arm
• Solar System - uses the 3D Picture Control to simulate Earth/Sun/Moon (probably OK for the younger kids)

You can also take a look at the Traffic Light [link removed; example no longer available] example that's actually an example CLAD question. I know it's probably over their heads, but you would be a better judge.

Did you take a look at the examples in the NI Developer Zone? Might find something there.

[Paul M.]

Michael,

You might be more successful showing the Lego Mindstorms NXT environment for a younger crowd. It abstracts a lot more of the details of LabVIEW that would confuse most younger kids... And you can program the NXT robot. Robots are cool.

[MSATLAB]

Hello,

     Thank you for the three members who have already answered my request.  I will have to try those out tomorrow, since I am not at work at the moment.  The robot and the solar system seem like a good tpoic and skill level to show the kids that I am giving this presentation to.  Thank you for your answers, and if anyone has any else, send them my way.  Thanks again!!!

Michael

[MSATLAB]

Hello again,

Where can I find that Solar System Demo. I looked in the Find Examples part of LabVIEW but I couldn't find the VI.  Do you have to have a specific toolkit or add-on to run that or to find it?

Michael

[smercurio_fc]

Switch to the "Search" tab and enter "picture" in the search box. It's near the bottom of the list, and called "solarsystem.vi". Its exact location (on my computer) is "C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 8.2\examples\picture\3D Picture Control\solarsystem.vi".

[PJS]

I have done some Parent Career days.  In the examples I have shown, I have found that Camera demos work very well, especially if you use a crude pattern (person) regonition thing... But I never tried to explain the code behind it... Only how I make a career at testing things... And how important learning how to use computers is... always has been elementry schools.

[MSATLAB]

Thank you all again for your help.  You definately made this task a lot easier! 

Michael

[altenbach]

It is always good to do something where the students can be involved during execution. For example you could fill two parallel tanks with random numbers and take bets which one fills first. (learn about loops, shift registers, comparison (see if it is full), decision, etc.)

You might also do some real DAQ with the soundcard. Again do a "race" where the two tanks fill according to sound volume. Do a FFT and tie one to the high frequency (girls!) and one to a lower frequency (boys!) and let the class scream their heart out to advance each tank/slider. 🙂

Other soundcard things would be a simple voice scrambler or changer (doesn't work that well without RT). SImply record some sentences, do some digital signal processing, then play it back. See how the sound changes depending on settings (double/half the frequency, low-pass, hi-pass, etc.)

If you have more time, you could also e.g. test batteries and see what brand is best. See:
http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=107032#M107032