Overview

Science Concept

Soil, Moisture, Ecosystems, Electricity, and Analog vs Digital

Water also moves through the living organisms. Plants soak up large amounts of water through their roots. The water then moves up the plant and evaporates from the leaves in a process called transpiration. Another name for transpiration is evapotranspiration. The process of transpiration, like evaporation, returns water back into the atmosphere (ck12.org - Processes of the Water Cycle). This project uses electricity to measure how dry soil has become because of evaporation and transpiration.

Project Goal

Give students real world experience with coding, collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting results using MakeCode’s block programming and a micro:bit with its sensors.

Prior Knowledge

Students need to have a basic knowledge of how to code using block style programming (micro:bit using the Windows 10 MakeCode app) and download a program to a micro:bit.

Student Outcomes

Students will:

• create experiments to collect data using microbits and reading the voltage on pin(0).
• setup different experiments to observe the moisture in soil.
• analyze the data collected.
• report on the experiment and the data collected.

Materials Needed

• 1 micro:bit with batteries connected
• Wires to make or connect to soil probes
• Spreadsheet for data analysis
• Word processor for reporting results

Adapted from “Soil Moisture Tester“ by C Lyman