Arduino for Basic Electronics
just one LED
Arduinos are terrific for teaching some elementary electronics and coding! We have all sorts of learners who need all sorts of instructions so I usually make a drawing as well as written instructions and (sometimes) a brief video about what pin goes where.
My experience is that students are wary of anything that looks like it plugs into a wall but isn’t a phone or laptop. Arduinos can look complicated although every attempt was made to make them friendly and simple.
If you haven’t tried them, I highly recommend Arduinos and the Arduino Projects Book published by the Arduino company with no author.
From picture to irl
Some students had a pretty easy time going from the drawing to real life Arduino. Again, this requires 3D thinking and, I’m sure you have noticed, our students lack experience in this realm. Other students struggled to connect what they see in the drawing (or real-life pictures) to what they needed to build in real life.
You might be experiencing more of this phenomena since COVID sent us all home. We taught our Engineering classes out of a box and on Zoom. As you might imagine, engaged students engaged and other students did not. It’s been a difficult 2 years for all of us and I spend a great deal of time researching and thinking about how we can get students caught up…or if that’s even a thing we can do.
In this case, my Engineering 1 class stepped up, worked hard, and connected all of the jumper wires, resistors, and LEDs in the right place.
code the led
The code is simple, but it’s still code and the majority of my Engineering 1 students have never seen code or had the opportunity to examine what each line means. It’s worth the time to spend on this first one so I walked line by line and explained what each word and line means.
Be sure to tell your students that you are not a proofreader. They will ask Arduino to compile the code and then start shouting your name. I made the mistake of not explaining to one of my classes that the compiler tells you what’s wrong with the code…all you have to do is go back into your code and do what it says to do (add that semi-colon or delete that curly brace). On the second day I started the lesson with error codes and was relieved when my name was not called nearly as many times.
I also asked students to switch seats with another student and check where everything is plugged in. “Don’t touch what you think is not correct; just leave a stickie note with your advice.” This was a fun activity that allowed students to see different ways of accomplishing the same task.