Arduino Education Starter Kit

COMPONENTS

Arduino UNO rev 3 x 4

Starter Kit mounting base Easy-to-assemble plastic base x 4

Battery Snap 9v x 4

Battery 9v x 8

Breadboard 400 points x 4

Capacitor – 100uF x 4

Female-male Jumper Wires (red) x 4

Female-male Jumper Wires (black) x 4

LED (red) x 20

LED (green) x 20

LED (yellow) x 20

LED (blue) x 20

Multimeter x 4

Piezo Buzzer [PKM17EPP-4001-B0] x 4

Phototransistor x 4

Potentiometer 10kOhms x 8

Push Button x 20

Resistor - 1 kOhms x 4

Resistor - 10 kOhms x 20

Resistor - 220 Ohms x 20

Resistor - 560 Ohms x20

Jumper Wires x 70

Stranded jumper wires (red) x 4

Servo Motor x 4

Temperature sensor [TMP36] x 4

USB Cable x 4

M3 Screw x 12

M3 Bolts x 12

ONLINE PLATFORM

•        Basic concepts of electricity
•        Safety in class
•        Schematics
•        Writing code
•        Controlling a circuit
•        Coding concepts
•        Controlling a servo motor
•        Producing sounds, tones, and music
•        Measuring the intensity of light

Two open-ended group projects: design, build and program a climate-control system for  greenhouse; build a holiday light circuit

LOGBOOK

CHROMEBOOK EDUCATION

Getting Started

30 min

What Is in the Kit, Software Setup, Your First Program – Blink, Electrical Safety

Electricity Fundamentals

90 min

Explores some of the basic concepts of electricity, including where electricity comes from, how electricity flows through a circuit, and how various materials can affect the flow of electricity. They build a simple circuit and use it to learn about the components that make up the circuit.

Ohm´s Law    

90 min

Explores some of the physical laws that govern how electricity flows through different types of circuits. Students learn about Ohm’s law and how it can be used to calculate voltage, resistance, or current in a circuit. They also build series and parallel circuits and use a multimeter to determine how voltage behaves in these circuits. Students also investigate how circuits can be represented by schematic diagrams and relate schematic diagrams to the circuits they build.

Trafic Signals             

90 min

Introduces the Arduino Software (IDE), writing code to upload to the Arduino board. The lesson starts with a basic introduction to the Arduino board, the Arduino Software (IDE), and using pseudocode to outline the beginning of a new program (called a sketch in the Arduino IDE). Students build a traffic light circuit, write a sketch that controls how the circuit operates, upload the sketch to the board, and debug their code until the circuit functions correctly. When the circuit is complete, students use their multimeter to determine how the board controls the circuit and use Ohm’s law to calculate LED resistance values in the circuit.

Dimmer Switch

90 min             

Introduces to potentiometers and how they can be used to manually control a circuit. Students build an LED circuit where the Arduino board controls the brightness of the LEDs based on the position of a potentiometer. As students code their circuit, they are introduced to concepts such as variables, conditional statements, reading and using analog input signals, and serial communication. After their circuit and sketch are complete, students will use a multimeter to further investigate how the potentiometer controls the LEDs in the circuit.

Project Holiday Lights             

90 min

Students complete an open-ended project to design, build, and program their own holiday light circuit. There are seven objectives that must be completed in the project. As students complete these objectives, they must meet a given list of criteria and constraints. At the end, students deliver a short presentation to discuss and demonstrate their working circuit.

Sports Robot

90 min

Learn to control a servo motor with their Arduino board. Students build a circuit that allows the position of the servo to be controlled by a potentiometer. Several new coding concepts are presented such as code libraries, classes and objects, constants, and the map function for scaling one data range to another. Students decide what kind of sports robot to make and create an attachment for their servo that they can use to hit, kick, or throw a ball. Students then use the potentiometer to adjust the angle of rotation for their attachment and add a push button to the circuit so that the robot can perform the hit, kick, or throw. Finally, students use their robot to perform an experiment on how adjusting the angle of rotation affects the distance the ball travels.

Windshield Wipers

90 min             

Continues to work with a servo motor, push-button switch, and potentiometer. Because no new electronics components are presented, the focus of this lesson is on coding. Several new coding concepts are presented such as the switch-case conditional structure, nested conditionals, while loops, and for loops. Students create a windshield wiper circuit that uses a push button to toggle between four different modes – off, on, intermittent, and washer mode.

Musical Keyboard    

90 min

Introduces to piezo buzzers and how they can produce sounds, tones, and music. Students start by building a simple circuit with a piezo buzzer. Students explore how the buzzer creates sound by vibrating back and forth and how the Arduino board can control the rate of vibration to produce different pitches. Students then create a keyboard instrument using the buzzer, push buttons, and a circuit configuration called a resistor ladder. After programming the keyboard to play specific notes, students investigate how the resistor ladder produces different analog signals and use this information to tweak their keyboard so it performs consistently.

Light Wave Radar

90 min

Use a phototransistor as a sensor to measure the intensity of light. Measure the ambient light in the room and explore how the analog value output by the Arduino board relates to the brightness of the light in the room. Students then investigate how the light is used in fiber optics to communicate large amounts of information at high speeds. See the basic principle of how a photo transmitter sends information through light waves to a photo receiver that detects and interprets the information. Use their light sensor as a radar that maps the light intensity of the room. Then, students code the radar to automatically sweep the room while outputting data to both the serial monitor and the serial plotter.

Project Greenhouse Control System

180 min

Complete an open-ended project to design, build, and program a climate-control system for a greenhouse. There are seven objectives that must be completed in the project. As students complete these objectives, they must meet a list of criteria and constraints. At the end of the project, students deliver a short presentation to discuss and demonstrate their working circuit on a model greenhouse.

GENERAL

How is the Education Starter Kit  structured?

The Arduino Education Starter Starter Kit is divided into nine step-by-step lessons and two open-ended group projects. The kit contains boards, a collection of sensors and actuators, access to an online platform, extra resources, and teacher notes.

Each lesson is designed to be completed by a pair of students working with one Arduino Education Starter Kit and one computer.

How many students can use the kit?

The Arduino Education Starter Kit is meant for eight students. The kit includes all the components required to assemble one lesson at a time.

What is the recommended age for this kit?

This kit is intended for ages 11 to 14.

What grade level are your materials appropriate for?

The Arduino Education Starter Kit is meant for middle school classes.

Is previous electronics and programming knowledge required?

We start from the basics so previous knowledge is not necessary.

What languages are currently available?

English (EN)

What operating system is required?

Windows 7 or higher, Linux, Mac OS, and Chrome.

Is this the best kit for a beginner to get started with Arduino in schools?

Yes, this the beginner level kit that will help you get started with Arduino in a classroom.

What topics do the Education Starter Kit covers?

The Education Starter Kit covers nine main categories:

•      Electricity Understanding concepts such as resistance, voltage, power and capacitance, being able to measure and calculate them.
•      Reading circuits and schematics Understanding how electronics are represented visually, and the ability to read and analyze electronic circuits.
•      Arduino IDE Understanding the functionality of the Arduino development environment, serial communication, libraries, and errors.
•      Arduino boards  Understanding the constitution and capabilities of an Arduino board and the functions of its different parts.
•      Frequency and duty cycle Understanding the concepts of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and frequency, being able to calculate duty cycle.
•      Electronic components Understanding how various electronic components such as LEDs, sensors, buttons and motors work, and how to use them in a circuit.
•      Programming syntax and semantics Understanding the building blocks of Arduino programming language such as functions, arguments, variables and loops.
•      Programming logic  Ability to program various electronic components, read, analyze, and troubleshoot Arduino code.

What is included in the box?

•      4 Arduino UNO  rev 3
•      4 Starter Kit mounting pieces - an easy-to-assemble plastic base
•      4 Battery Snap  9v
•      8 Batteries 9v
•      4 Breadboard 400 points
•      4 Capacitor – 100uF
•      4 Female-male Jumper Wires (red)
•      4 Female-male Jumper Wires  (black)
•      20 LEDs (red)
•      20 LEDs (green)
•      20 LEDs (yellow)
•      20 LEDs (blue)
•      4 Multimeters
•      4  Piezo Buzzer [PKM17EPP-4001-B0]
•      4 Phototransistors
•      8 Potentiometer 10kOhms
•      20 Push Button
•      4 Resistors - 1 kOhms
•      20 Resistors - 10 kOhms
•      20 Resistors - 220 Ohms
•      20 Resistors -  560 Ohms
•      4 Stranded jumper wires (black)
•      4 Stranded jumper wires (red)
•      4 Servo Motor
•      4 Temperature sensor  [TMP36]
•      4 USB Cable

•      Access to an online platform which helps students take their first steps into the world of electronics and invention
•      Specific online content for teachers
•      9 step-by-step lessons with up to 25 hours of class time, covering:
• Basic concepts of electricity
• Safety in class
• Schematics
• Writing code
• Controlling a circuit
• Coding concepts
• Controlling a servo motor
• Producing sounds, tones, and music
• Measuring the intensity of light
•    Two open-ended group projects: design, build and program a climate-control system for  greenhouse; build a holiday light circuit
•    An Engineering Notebook for students to annotate their observations and experiments
•    A version of the Engineering Notebook with teacher solutions
•    30-day trial access to the Chromebook Education app

Do I need any prior experience with coding?

No prior experience in coding is needed for the Arduino Education Starter Kit. The kit takes you step-by-step to learn the basics of electronics and programming using practical,  hands-on exercises, and projects.

What are the minimum requirements?

USB port and Arduino IDE  must be installed. Check here to make sure you have installed the most recent version: https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/software.

ACCESS TO ONLINE PLATFORM

How many lessons are included in the kit?

The Arduino Education Starter Kit includes content for nine online lessons and two open-ended group projects. Each lesson builds off the next and gives students the opportunity to apply skills and concepts that were covered previously.

Each lesson comes with exercises from a logbook that students complete as they work through the lessons.

How long does a lesson last?

Each lesson is designed to last 90 minutes. The lessons are planned to make them possible to divide into two parts.

The basics of electronics in the entire content takes around 17 hours to cover. Extra material such as Resources, Inventions Spotlight and extension information are included in the online content. If the teacher decides to include these materials, the total time will be up to 25 hrs.

Do I need to follow the activities in the order provided?

Yes, each lesson builds off the next and gives students the opportunity to apply skills and concepts that were covered previously - therefore, we recommend you to follow the order of the lessons.

Can I use this kit in my STEM after-school club?

Yes, but we recommend doing it with a teacher.

How do I access the online content?

How many educators and students can be added to the platform?

The Arduino Education Starter Kit allows one educator and 8 students to be added to the platform.

What are the open-ended projects?

The Arduino Education Starter Kit comes with two open-ended projects. An open-ended project is  a lesson where the students apply concepts learned in previous lessons in a free way,  guided by the criteria, objectives, and consideration from the teacher to build a project. At the end the students can demonstrate their projects in the class.

What are the teacher notes?

The Arduino Education Starter Kit is designed to provide a more in-depth step-by-step learning experience to both students and teachers, therefore, the kit provides guidance to the teachers while implementing the lessons. In the teacher notes, teachers will find extra information in relation to the lessons, activities, exercises as well as tips and ideas on how to enrich the learning experience for the students.

Are  the teacher notes visible to students?

The teacher notes are hidden from the students and only teachers have access to it. Teacher notes are accessed through the teacher account and can be made visible  by clicking on the eye icon at the bottom of the screen.

Where can I find the logbooks?

The logbooks can be found in two different locations.

• For students: The logbook is located on the landing page right before the lessons
• For teachers: The logbook is located on the landing page right before the lessons inside the teacher notes. To access the teacher notes click on the eye icon at the bottom of the screen.

What is the resource tab?

The resource tab is a section for students with extra hints such as after-class research, ideas to develop intecurricula studies, presentations, and short information that helps to provide the class with a more comprehensive experience.

The content inside the resource tab is not included in the basic electronic hours that lasts 17 hours, but teachers can use it for the extended version of the class that lasts 25 hours.

What is the difference between the open-ended projects and the exercises inside the lessons?

The difference between the open-ended projects and the exercises inside the lessons is that the exercises are focused on making sure the concepts have been understood. They provide a hands-on way of learning.

The open-ended projects are lessons where the students apply and demonstrate the  different concepts and skills learned previously in a practical way.

What are the Inventions Spotlights?

In the Invention Spotlights, students learn more about the invention and facts behind the topics and lessons they are going through. The purpose is to provide a broader view and historical insight.

I have trouble registering a kit, what should I do?

If you have trouble registering your kit, please contact us at education@arduino.cc

I forgot my Arduino account passwords, how can I recover it?

You can reset your password on: https://auth.arduino.cc/reset by submitting your username or email address.

SUPPORT

A component is not working, what should I do?

If a component is not working, please contact us at education@arduino.cc

My kit is missing a part and I cannot perform the experiments. What should I do?

If you are missing a part in your kit, please contact us at education@arduino.cc

If I have a suggestion for a product or product improvement, who should I contact?

We are always grateful for your feedback! Please send your ideas to education@arduino.cc

The 220 Ohm resistors appear to be missing and cannot be found within the components of the kit.

Look for 5 band-version of the 220 Ohm resistor in your kit. There are both 4 and 5 band resistors in the Starter kit, which means that the same resistor value of 220 Ohm can be found in two different looks. Below is the picture of 5 band 220 Ohm resistors.

I can’t locate the temperature sensor.

The temperature sensor has three legs and looks similar to a transistor. If you look closely, you will see TMP written on the flat side.

I have issues with the board.

Make sure the board is being detected by the computer and the right board is selected under the tools section in the IDE, and that the driver for the board is properly installed.

I cannot locate plastic holders.

The plastic holders need to be removed from the base piece.

I cannot find the screws.

The screws are included in the electronics component box which comes along with the kit.