For this project I broke my students into teams of three with the following job titles, "Coder, Checker, and Electrician." Of coarse all members worked as a team to accomplish the coding of the cameras, but the specializations helped to differentiate the lesson.

The "Coder's" job is to type the code that the team agrees. The "Checker's" job is that of editor-n-chief, if one misspelling, incorrect capitalization, or other error, the code will not run. The "Electrician's" job is to make sure all the wiring is correct. I actually put on a 10 minute timer, when the timer goes off, the students rotate jobs. This keeps students from becoming jealous of their group mates.

The code is divided into two parts. The first is for the camera time lapse, the second is for a motion activated time lapse. The students and I spent about 2 weeks perfecting the code, and used many sources to piecemeal the final code together. If I just gave them the code, it would probably cut this time to two class days. This part takes time if you truly want your students to explore.

Time Lapse (All grammar and syntax matters)
from picamera import PiCamera #Pulls PiCamera from library
from time import sleep #Pulls sleep timer from library
from datetime import datetime #Pulls date and time to save files do not overlap

camera = PiCamera() #Redefines PiCamera to camera so it is more simple

while True:
     camera.start_preview(alpha=192) #starts preview alpha makes preview transparent
     path=datetime.now().strftime("/home/pi/Pictures/camtrap/%m.%d.%y_%H.%M.%S.jpg")
     camera.capture(path) #takes picture saves to file in line above
     camera.stop_preview()
     sleep(60) #Insert the number of seconds you want between shots

Motion Activated Camera Trap
from picamera import PiCamera #Pulls PiCamera from library
from gpiozero import MotionSensor
from time import sleep #Pulls sleep timer from library
from datetime import datetime #Pulls date and time to save files do not overlap

camera = PiCamera() #Redefines PiCamera to camera so it is more simple
pir = MotionSensor(4) #4 tells the GPIOzero pin the output is, pir renames MotionSensor

while True:
     camera.start_preview(alpha=192) #starts preview alpha makes preview transparent
     pir.wait_for_motion()
     path=datetime.now().strftime("/home/pi/Pictures/camtrap/%m.%d.%y_%H.%M.%S.jpg")
     camera.capture(path) #takes picture saves to file in line above
     camera.stop_preview()
     sleep(6) #This allows the motion sensor to reset

​

Raspberry Pi is the main ingredient for the project. The cost of the board is $35 and can be purchased at many places. I received mine through the Kano Kits that Best Buy donated, but have also purchased the chips through Amazon. You can also buy starter packs that includes the charger, microSD, HDMI cords, and a case for around $50-$60. Before spending on the whole kit, I recommend using a micro-usb phone charger lying around the house, and purchasing a cheap microSD card, at least 8gb in size.

A Picam. I learned the hard way on this one, the cheap comes out expensive. Please do yourself a favor and buy the officially licensed Picam. I purchased mine for $25 a camera on Amazon. I have also seen them at Micro Center for the same price. I initially bought 13 cheaper cameras at half the cost, but out of the 13, only 6 were functional after the first day.

Passive infrared sensors (PIR) are needed if you plan on building a motion activated camera trap. These are cheap, usually costing around $5-$8 for packs of 5. You can find them on Amazon, but Adafruit has a great tutorial of how they work, and how to adjust the sensitive and time delay. This Adafruit article really helped my students understand the how-to more in depth.

Three female to female jumper cables per trap are needed if you plan on building a motion activated camera trap. The ones on Amazon come in packs of 120, so one box covered the 12 traps my students built. These are needed to connect the PIR to the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi board. You can find these at almost any electronics store.

A strong power source is key to running the Raspberry Pi for a sufficient amount of time for data gathering. What I have found is 1,000mah = 1 hour of run time. Spell Foundry has a great calculator to help you with calculating run times on a charge, but it is a fun exercise to have students calculate their camera's run times during the testing phase of the project. I fully recommend the ExpertPower 20,000mah battery pack, this thing holds a charge through rain or shine and provides 20 to 24 hours of run time per charge at around $17 per pack.

Large photo and craft keeper from Michaels (unfortunately no link, so I took a picture). Originally $40, I used a 40% Michaels coupon to bring down the cost to $24. These are the water proof-cases for the camera traps, and work fantastic! If not possible to purchase, some kind of plastic case that encloses the Raspberry Pi and keeps the water out.

Other components include a drill, X-Acto knife, hot glue gun, and at least one 8GB microSD card per trap. 

This is an investment for a big project. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, or leave a comment below. Part III, the coding will be posted tomorrow...

This past summer I had the honor to be accepted into Picademy. Picademy is an amazing place where you get hands on, peer and open based learning from professionals within all fields of education. Before this, I had experience teaching open based with Arduino and some Raspberry Pi, but by the end felt much more comfortable to share with my students and colleagues. If you are interested, click on the links or picture, I really hope you apply.

So now it is thinking time, technology is meaningless without meaningful, real-world, application. How do I apply this to science and NGSS?

We discussed ideas when the idea of a camera trap, or time lapse system, came into play. The plan was for the students to build and program camera traps out of Raspberry Pi based  Kano Kits, that Best Buy so generously donated. The objective would be to monitor a local nature reserve for two weeks, document the animals captured by the cameras, and then sort and analyze the photographical data into different visual representations. The students would then present the data, visual representations, and final reports with the hope of educating the El Dorado Nature Center staff on the flow of energy through the local food chains, and webs of the animals the students' traps photographed.

The how-to building of the traps will be part II tomorrow...

Students explaining and showing off the trap they built and coded.

Hi I'm Brian,
This is my 11th year teaching. I taught five years bouncing between grades 4 and 5 in Los Angeles Unified, and six in my current district as a 7th grade Science teacher in Norwalk. 

Throughout my years teaching, I have had the pleasure to learn from many great teachers, administrators, TOSA's, etc . . . Each of these people I "stole" ideas from. I always have to laugh when I hear and read "Teach Like a Pirate," because to become in effective teacher, in my opinion, you must learn how to steal pieces from other amazing educators. It is with this idea in mind that I give you full authority to steal from me, and I hope you leave comments, so I may steal from you as well.

This blog is designed as a exploration and musing, to openly discuss ideas and debate in a friendly atmosphere. If you do not agree with me, great! If you do agree with me, great! Let's hear it! I also hope to post projects from my room, as well as lesson plans. Here's to "stealing" from each other for our professional growth.