1
Predict
Students write down what they expect with dry, moist and wet soil.
Project Smart Plants
Build a smart plant meter.
The Smart Plants Project has students measure soil moisture and calibrate a sensor to build a plant monitor.
How does it work?
Build, collect data and make your first report
Students first predict what will happen. Then they build the setup, calibrate their sensor and collect measurements in the browser.
2
Calibrate
The class measures what dry, moist and wet mean for this sensor.
3
Measure
The browser shows live how the sensor value changes during the measurement.
4
Design
Choose when the plant needs water and let an output react.
5
Report
Download the measurement data or create a PDF with graph, conclusion and reflection.
The setup
Get started with sensors
The capacitive sensor measures how the electrical capacitance around it changes. More water in the potting soil changes that value. The Arduino reads the raw value.
- Capacitive soil-moisture sensor, for example AZ-Delivery V1.2.
- Arduino Uno with USB data cable.
- School laptop with Chrome or Edge.
- Plant in potting soil and water for the measurement.
In pictures
All the information at a glance
Students work with real plants, sensors and their microcontroller. They immediately see the measurements and changes on their laptop screen.
What will you learn?
What do students practise?
Measuring with sensors
A sensor gives a number. By measuring dry and wet potting soil, students learn what that number means in their own experiment.
Calibrating
They compare dry, lightly moist and wet soil before choosing a threshold.
IPO thinking
They recognize input, processing and output in their own circuit.
Investigating
They compare measurement series and write a conclusion with their own data.
- Setup
- Arduino and capacitive soil moisture sensor
- Calibration
- Compare dry, moist and wet soil
- Export
- Measurements as CSV or report as PDF
Place in the learning path
From platforms to projects.
The platforms build computational thinking. The projects use that thinking in a cross-curricular assignment in which students build, measure, test and conclude.
Platforms
STEaM projects
Smart Plants
Arduino, soil moisture, calibration and data.
Robotic hand
Arduino, sensors, servos and movement.
Wind
Micro:bit, energy, voltage and current.
Smart bin
AI, image recognition, data and microcontrollers.
Self-learning games
Getting started with machine learning
Particulate matter
Arduino, air quality, data and poster session.
For teachers
Ready to use in class.
The assignment is made for students around 13-14 years old. Start with demo mode, then connect the hardware and let students finish with a CSV file or PDF report.
- Suitable for short research moments in Computer Science or STEM.
- Usable with Arduino, micro:bit code or demo mode only.
- PDF export bundles hypothesis, calibration, measurement series, graph, conclusion and reflection.
- No backend needed: the folder can run as a static site on GitHub Pages.
Privacy and licence
Privacy
This project does not use its own analytics or advertising cookies. Input, progress and measurement data are processed in the browser and may be stored locally on the device. A download or export occurs only when the user initiates it. Connected hardware is accessed only after permission is given in the browser. GitHub Pages logs visitors’ IP addresses for security purposes; external services are governed by their provider’s privacy policy.
License
Original project material by Robbe Wulgaert may be used, copied and adapted free of charge for education, provided that ‘Robbe Wulgaert – AI in de Klas’ is clearly displayed, where reasonably practical with a link to the original project. Commercial sale, paid distribution, sublicensing or repackaging as a commercial product is not permitted without prior written permission. Other uses outside education also require prior written permission. Third-party components remain subject to their own licences.
Open the research platform.
Start demo mode, connect Arduino or let students compare and report their measurement series.