Introduction
Answering three questions:
Why - because we believe any student and basically anybody must have a basic understanding of how electronic works. This course gives us the chance to present it and to move forward to better and smarter robots.
How - we do videos, we set tasks. You solve them.
What - we are using Arduino. Because it is popular, it is easy and we like it.
One of the tasks that we would solve is to construct a device. With the device we can play Rock-Paper-Scissors. A popular game in the whole world. For playing the game we use a few diodes and a few buttons along with resistors and the Arduino Microcontroller
Who is it for?
This is a course for beginners, but the tasks would be interesting and for more intermediate students. We do not expect any previous knowledge from you except for how to divide numbers and use a computer.
If you have previous experience with Mindstorms EV3 or VEX or other robotics sets you could learn a lot from the tasks provided.
How to use it with students
The course is designed for classes of students, but it could also be used personally. Each module should take you about 20 minutes and depending on how long your student hours are and how much time you will leave the students to experiment and solve tasks you could include different numbers of modules in your class.
If you finish the modules for the classes you can continue to the next one or stop and experiment further. The course offers a structure. It is completely find to do improvisations. Listen to what the student are asking and what they would like to do. Share the ideas with us. Ask us tough questions. We are here to help you.
What parts are needed
It is a hardware/software related course. You need a set with parts. And you need a number of sets for a class of students. You can buy the set from us, from other vendors, from online retailers. It doesn`t matter actually as long as you have the needed parts for the course. We have tried to create a very lean set, but if you can afford to buy additional parts you could create more complex and probably more interesting devices.
This are the parts that need to be bought:
Main set:
Arduino Uno controller, USB cable, Breadboard 840 pin holes, Jumnpers - 140pcs, Resistors - 220Ω - 10pcs, Resistors - 10kΩ - 10pcs, LEDs - Red - 2pcs, LEDs - Wellow - 2pcs, LEDs - Green - 2pcs, Buttons 6х6 - 3pcs
Expansion Set:
Buzzer, Speaker, Potentiometer - 3pcs, Photo resistor - LDR, RGB sensor - TCS34725, Infrared sensor - GP2Y0A21YK (10 - 80 см), Ultrasonic sensor - Maxbotix LV-EZ2, Relay, Motor, Motor driver
How to use the sets in the classroom
The course is very suitable for students and you don't have to buy a new set for each student. You can group them, divide them, organize the use of the sets and you could technically work with 70-80 student with only 6 sets.
Working in groups
Just divide the studens in groups of 12 and each two students work with a single set. After they've completed their work, they deconstruct the device and it is ready for the next group where it is constructed again.
All the students get to work on a devices and construct them. Everybody get the chance to program them.