Python and teaching

Recently at Amity International School I started my Computer science and Robotics club with 15 students. I was startled to know that these kids who are in class 8-10 have no prior programming experience. They don't have any idea of programming. So I thought it would be a good idea to introduce them to the fun of programming concepts. I have started with GWBASIC. A redundant programming language. So redundant that after 1988 there has been no official updation on this. Also being a 16 bit language I find it difficult to install on my Win-7-x64 system. But then it is also a language that will help build the fundamentals of programming.
Next on my agenda is to introduce Python once the kids have understood programming concepts. Python, as I have stated before, is a language to reckon with due to its flexibility. So I am hoping to take my students towards some enlightenment and I hope in the process I will be bestowed with some more knowledge.

The School Bell : Python in Automation

Till last saturday (31-03-2012) I was working with DPS Rajnagar. There I was faced with a unique problem. The person responsible for ringing the bell between the classes was so inefficient that after 3rd Period we sometimes used to have the lunch break instead the 4th period. That created a massive problem for all teachers. So I came out with a solution. AUTOMATION.
The switch to ring the bell was in the control room which was actually the server room in which many computers as well as the server was there. I created a small PYTHON code which would create "beeps" at programmed time. The code would read the console time and compare it with the programmed time and "beep" accordingly.
So it was like at 09:25:00 am the code would compare the time with the console time and since it was the third period beginning (already programmed) the computer will "beep" three time with an interval of 0.5 seconds. But that was only one part.
Initially I thought that I would connect the output of the sound card to a relay circuit which in turn will drive the bell. But after my experiment I got to know that the output voltage was less than 1 V and not good enough to drive th relay.
So I made a sound-operated-relay circuit and hooked it up with the microphone of the sound card. The sound operated relay gets its power from the USB port of the very same computer and at every "beep" the computer would make the circuit would activate the relay which would finally activate the bell.
Unfortunately it remained in testing stage only as I left the school soon after.

But now I am converting it into a reminder cum alarm system for my computer itself.

Present Status: Still working on my personal reminder cum alarm system.

How I wish my previous school could have installed that system. It would have completely cured the problem of belling.