In the 21st century, science and technology has been playing a very important role in facing the benefits and challenges of both globalization and a knowledge-oriented economy. For the society to succeed in this new information-based and a rapid changing technological society, students (pupils), need to develop their capabilities in STEM to levels beyond what educational systems used to consider acceptable in the past.
STEM education is developed based on four main disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This system aims to develop a scientific interest of students and their problem-solving capabilities. Moreover, students learn to be able to use new technological tools and understand how it affects the surrounding world. Therefore, they are prone to realize the significance of Engineering in real world environment and how all these concepts cope together.
In the other hand concepts from Mathematics/Physics develop students’ abilities for analytical thinking, analysis and logical decision making. This knowledge does not help only in preparing them for a better job position in the future, but also supports them to better understand and respond to everyday life situations.
About the Course
In order to achieve most of the goals that STEM education offers, many robotics kits are commonly used as auxiliary tools in all education levels. Some of these kits include Lego Mindstorms, Activity Bot, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc. We have developed our course based on Arduino, which is a low-cost open source electronic platform. It is intended for students that want to work in interactive projects, learn fundamental programming skills and experience knowledge on electronics. We have developed a three-level course, Beginner, Intermediate and Advance, such that students can register according to their previous knowledge.
Arduino I – Beginner *
This course is for students who are curious and enthusiastic about electronics and programming. No prior requisites are needed, the students are going to gain step by step all the necessary knowledge. This course is very interactive and tends to challenge students to bring the best from their selves and to demonstrate it by building concrete projects. After the first classes, we design exercises such that would encourage student’s creativity to come up with different ideas. Since this is practice-oriented course, learn by doing is our approach, which means that doing it wrong is part of the solution.
1. Unit 1: Introduction to Basic Electronics: What is a circuit?
a. Get familiar with basic electronic elements and their function
b. Building and understanding a simple electronic circuit
c. Building and understanding a more complex circuit
2. Unit 2: Introduction to Arduino and Arduino IDE
a. What is an Arduino?
b. Downloading and Installation of the Arduino IDE
c. Working with Arduino IDE: GUI, Interface, Upload a code to
your Arduino
3. Unit 3: Introduction to Basic Programming concepts
a. Variables
b. Conditions
c. Loops
4. Unit 4: Basic Programming with Arduino:
a. Creating a blinking LED
b. Making different blinking pattern
c. Understanding the difference between digital and analog signals
d. Logic Operations and Conditional Statements:
i. Using while() loop with a push button
ii. Using while() loop with two push buttons and RGB LED
e. Loops, Arrays and creating functions:
i. Make a LED dim
ii. Light up multiple LEDs
iii. Use arrays in Arduino Code
iv. Create your own function
5. Final Project
Each student will come up with an idea to make a small project, based on knowledge gained through out this course. Then the students will make a short presentation and demonstrate their work. It is necessary that apart of knowledge, students need to learn how to express and feel confident about it. Each student will be supervised and helped continuously by the teacher.
Arduino I contains 5 sessions, which will be split into 12 classes, according to ongoing process and the feedback from the students. It is possible that some topics need to be covered more slowly and with more importance, so it is easier to be understood. Also, considering practical implementation of the examples might require different amount of time, depending on the student’s skills.
Arduino II (Intermediate)
This course requires that students have taken Arduino I course or have some
basic knowledge in Electronics, Programming and specifically Arduino board.
It is a continuation of our entry level (Beginner) course, which presents
students with the notion of Robotics. The course is oriented in the concepts
listed below and their combinations together:
1. Sensors – Expanding the design of electronic circuits and understanding
different kind of sensors, such as Light, Distance, Acoustic, Pressure,
Temperature, etc.
2. Understanding configurations of Parallel and Series circuits and why
that is important for functional projects, i.e. a voltage regulator
3. DC Motors – Understanding how we can control the speed and direction
of a motor
4. H-bridge and Servo Motors
5. Final Project
Arduino III (Advanced)
This course requires that students have considerable knowledge in Electronics
(circuit theory, sensors and basic control concepts), and programming skills.
Also is strongly required that one should have been practicing different
projects with Arduino. In this course we don’t explain the functionalities of
Arduino and how to debug different problems. This course is to advance the
knowledge of students and teach them to come up with more complex projects
of Robotics and Computer Networks.
1. Control mechanisms (Feedback loops)
2. Autonomous robots
3. Internet (an introduction to IoT)
4. Project
