In January 2023, I was invited to Brunei to deliver my Micro:bit flood detector workshop with a youth group and international school students.
The workshop started with participants getting familiar with the Micro:bit and the MakeCode editor through some playful exercises using the LEDs, accelerometer and buttons. Then the students began assembling the flood detector. We used small takeaway containers filled with water to simulate a flood and aluminium foil on either end to detect the water levels. The Micro:bit ports were connected to these pieces of foil. When the water was high enough, it would complete the circuit between the two aluminium pieces of foil and the Micro:bit would detect the current and display a warning and an alarm.
The code involved a forever loop which checked if the Pin 0 on the micro:bit detected a current and if it did, the LEDs would be lit up and the speaker would sound an alarm. Some of the attendees also added their own customised sounds and images.
However, one of the challenges was that the water wasn't always completing the circuit as the aluminium foil and the water weren't conductive enough. To solve this problem, in the later workshops, I added salt to the water to make it more conductive and also attempted to use copper in place of the aluminium as it is a better electrical conductor.
