• The situation: 2 to 3 sentences (who needs this, what problem, why it matters) Hospitals and clinics do not always have enough monitoring equipment, especially in remote places. Your task is to prototype a low cost heart rate monitor using a microcontroller and a sensor so a caregiver can quickly check a patient’s pulse.
• Your user: who this is for (patient, homeowner, small business, commuter, etc.) a nurse or EMT doing fast triage
• Success today: one clear outcome (what “done” looks like) Your device can read a pulse signal from a finger and can show “beats per minute” (BPM) data in a clear way

Share the Goal Let’s wake up the Heartrate sensor

• Fast win in 15 to 30 minutes
• Image heavy
• Focus on confidence and baseline function.
• Wire the sensor to power, ground, and signal

(Add 2-3 annotated images/video)

• Upload starter code that reads raw sensor values

(Add a sample code)

• Open the serial monitor and watch the numbers change when you touch the sensor
• Checkpoint:
• You should see the signal change when you place a finger on the sensor. If it looks flat, something is off. (Add images/video)
• Common pitfalls:
• sensor not sharing ground with the board
• signal wire in the wrong pin
• finger not placed consistently on the sensor

Goal: turn the raw signal into BPM (Add images/video as needed)

• Goal-oriented steps
• Checkpoints (do not proceed until X is true)
• Watch the raw data on the computer screen and identify peaks (try to jump around or so things that can increase your heartbeat.
• Notice when the reading gets higher at peak and when it gets lower )observe the actions. What is the person wearing the sensor doing now)
• Count beats over a time window and calculate BPM
• Detect the pattern (example: average the last few readings)

(Add images/video as needed)

• Open-ended extension rooted in the same skills. You can add 1-3 pathways
• Requires a plan first: sketch, pseudocode, or CAD mock
• Pick one path. You choose how to do it.
• You must: plan first, then show it, then improve it once.
• Option A: Comfort + fit (Human Factors)
• Make a wearable holder for the sensor.
• Must have: fits 2 finger sizes, stays in place 30 seconds, wires do not get yanked.
• Show it: 2 photos (wearing it) + a 1 sentence note on what you fixed after testing.
• Option B: Smarter alert (Reliability Engineering)
• Make an alert that does not trigger from one bad reading.
• Must have: only alerts if BPM is low for 10 seconds, ignores 1 glitch.
• Show it: a short demo or video OR 2 screenshots of serial output (glitch included) + 1 to 2 sentence explanation.
• Option C: Cleaner signal (Signal Processing)
• Make the BPM less jumpy.
• Must have: try 2 methods, pick a stability score, name the tradeoff (steady vs slow).
• how it: a tiny before/after table (10 readings) + 2 sentence conclusion.

• Symptom, possible cause, fix, what I learned
• Start with sharing 1-2 examples of common issues/bugs students might face
• Scenario 1: “It’s dead” (flat line or the same number forever)
• Try this in order: check power and ground, then make sure the signal wire is on the pin your code is reading.
• Scenario 2: “It’s alive but messy” (BPM is 0 or it jumps all over the place)
• Tune your threshold and hold your finger steady. If it’s still jumpy, add a tiny smoothing step (average a few readings).
• Then encourage students to reflect and share where they feel stuck and what they did to feel unstuck
• Dealing with additional issues? Share with us: What happened:
• What I tried:
• What fixed it (or what I’ll try next):

• 1 to 3 other related job titles where this skill applies
• "If you liked this, explore…"
• Where this shows up in real jobs:
• Biomedical Equipment Technician: They test and fix hospital equipment. What you did today is the same vibe: make sure the sensor works, check the reading, and troubleshoot when it doesn’t.
• Embedded Systems Technician: They make devices that use sensors. You did that: you took a messy signal and turned it into something useful (BPM).
• Medical Device Designer: They think about people, not just parts. If you cared about comfort, fit, and “can someone understand this fast,” you were doing real design work.