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SparkFun Inventor's Kit with Arduino – Curriculum Exchange

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Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Curriculum Exchange

Tagged Division

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

Page Count

2

Page Numbers

26.1388.1 - 26.1388.2

DOI

10.18260/p.24725

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/24725

Download Count

487

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Paper Authors

biography

Brian Huang Sparkfun Electronics

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Brian Huang is an Education Engineer for SparkFun Electronics, a cutting edge open-source hardware and electronics education company. Brian started his career in engineering with wireless transport technologies for ADC Telecommunications in Minneapolis, MN. While working at ADC, Brian volunteered at the Science Museum of Minnesota and quickly discovered a passion for teaching and working with students - especially in an environment that fostered and supported the “wow” factor associated with inquiry and discovery. In 2007, Brian left the world of engineering to pursue a career in education. For the past 5 years, Brian has taught various levels of high school physics, mathematics, applied technology, and robotics.

Brian joined Sparkfun Electronics to help integrate “tinkering,” electronics, and computational thinking into the classroom. One of his goals is to help teachers to de-mystify how household consumer electronics work. With a few simple tools, classrooms can excite and encourage students to explore the possibilities of microcontrollers, electronics, and physical computing.

Brian Huang has a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Masters in Education from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

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Abstract

Sparkfun Inventors Kit: Teaching Physical Computing with Arduino   Brief 100 word description  The SparkFun Inventor’s Kit (SIK) is a great way to get started with programming and hardware interaction with the Arduino programming language. The SIK includes everything you need to complete 16 circuits that will teach you how to read sensors, display information on an LCD, drive motors, and more. You don’t need any previous programming or electronics experience to use this kit. This kit and the accompanying materials are used widely in schools from middle school to high school and beyond.   Description of materials: The full­color SIK Guidebook (included) contains step by step instructions of how to connect each circuit with the included parts. Full example code is provided and explained and even includes troubleshooting tips if something goes wrong.  Using Arduino as our building platform, our curriculum walks students through 16 individual experiments. These 16 experiments include: 1) Blink, 2) Reading a Potentiometer, 3) Color Mixing an RGB LED, 4) Blinking Multiple LEDs, 5) Using Push Buttons, 6) Reading a Light Sensor, 7) Reading Temperature, 8) Motion with a Servo, 9) Flex Sensors, 10) Interfacing a Touch Soft Potentiometer, 11) Making Sounds with a Buzzer, 12) Lifting Heavy Loads ­ Spinning a Motor, 13) Relays, 14) Driving Multiple Outputs with a Shift Register, 15) Liquid Crystal Displays, 16) Building a Full Simon Game 

Huang, B. (2015, June), SparkFun Inventor's Kit with Arduino – Curriculum Exchange Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24725

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2015 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015