Follow-on to WAM: BAAD????

Comments

• Andy Lindsay (Parallax) Posts: 1,919

  2005-04-08 07:06 edited 2005-04-08 07:06

  John,
  
  There's kind of a cool flowchart that shows the different directions you can take students after What's a Microcontroller. See www.parallax.com -> Education -> Stamps in Class flowchart. The rest of this post is my take on the books/Kits in this flowchart, BAAD answer included.
  
  BAAD is a fine next step after WAM, and it's compatible with both the Board of Education and the BASIC Stamp HomeWork board. Sequentially, it's probably the best matched to WAM in terms of taking only one step up the difficulty ladder. Most of the concepts are new and different from WAM. Especially since it's the lowest priced kit in the Stamps in Class series, it's pretty easy to justify. On the other side of the coin, it is a bit drier than WAM, and I usually recommend it when the goal is getting more exposure to electronics.
  
  The other kit and text that's really great for students who want to delve further into electronics after WAM is Understanding Signals. With the Parallax USB oscilloscope, it offers a seriously turbo charged learning experience and introduction to a lot of core electronics skills. It's really amazing what a difference it makes, to be able to measure and view the signals the BASIC Stamp sends to and receives from circuits, plotted on an oscilloscope display.
  
  As you mentioned in WhatCertifications? requirements?, the Boe-Bot is also a great next step, especially for high school and 2-hear college students. In many courses, the Boe-Bot is the goal after going through WAM, which makes it a pretty cool motivator. Although Robotics with the Boe-Bot (Robo) can be a starting point unto itself, the learning experience is much more complete if WAM comes before it. The best part of following WAM with Robo is that it provides the moving reward of a robotics application to solidify and expand key concepts first introduced in WAM.
  
  IR Remote for the Boe-Bot (IR) is a few of the extra chapters I couldn't fit into Robotics with the Boe-Bot. I usually think of Chapter 1-3 in the IR text as Chapters 9-11 of Robo. There are more chapters growing on this forum too.
  
  The two books and kits that I personally find to be most interesting and informative are Applied Sensors (Sensors) and Industrial Control (IC). I see these texts and kits used a lot in college and university labs after selected excerpts from WAM. Sensors surveys some really cool techniques from the chemistry, electronics, device physics and BASIC Stamp product design realms and wraps them into a number of earth science measurement projects. IC is a BASIC Stamp assisted introduction into industrial electronics and process control. From monitoring and controlling machinery and conveyer belts, to motor speed sensing and control, to temperature monitoring and regulation to closed loop systems, feedback and PID control, the fundamentals and how-to information are all in IC.
  
  Experiments with Renewable Energy (ERWE or Energy) is survey of the world of energy production, consumption and (microcontroller) management, with the BASIC Stamp. It's got lots of interesting information. If you are interested in this text/kit, consider taking the students through BAAD first, or at least excerpts from it...
  
  Elements of Digital Logic (yes, EODL) is a good hands-on primer with its own BASIC Stamp trainer board for the beginning of a logic course.
  
  Compared to the rest, Advanced Robotics with the Toddler (Toddler) is pretty advanced programming material and the mechanics takes attention to detail. I recommend thorough coverage of WAM, ROBO, and IR to get the students ready for Toddler.
  
  Regards, Andy
  
  Andy Lindsay
  Stamps in Class Applications
  Parallax, Inc.