04 Mission Instructions
Your mission is to create a robot that reacts to how loud the environment is around it.
1. Problem
Ears are very sensitive organs. They translate sound waves in the world around us into electrical signals for our brains to process. But unlike skin, ears don’t have any way to heal themselves. If you lose your hearing, there isn’t a way to get it back. That means we all have to be extra careful to protect our hearing.
One cause of hearing loss is listening to sounds that are too loud for too long. Things like sirens and motorcycles are known to be too loud for human ears, but did you know that concerts, movie theaters, and even school cafeterias can sometimes get so loud that they could cause permanent hearing loss to some students and teachers?
In this Mission, you will create a robot that reacts to how loud the environment is around it. You’ll practice setting multiple thresholds and designing different reactions for each one.
**Note: all the sound sensors are slightly different from each other, so we will not be using decibels in our program itself. BUT, you can learn more about how loud everyday noises are using this chart, if you're curious. Source: National Institute of Health.
Source: National Institute of Health