STEM club ideas: a term of electronics and coding
Intermediate
Or see every lesson.
- 455parts on the bench
- 43boards running now
- 1.00xreal time, on every board
An after school club is not a class. Members come because they want to, attendance changes week to week, and every session has to end with something that works. Electronics and coding are a great fit, as long as nobody spends the hour untangling wires or waiting for a kit to come back from another room.
This page is a term of club sessions that run in the browser, so every member can build and play from the first minute on a school Chromebook or their own laptop. The circuit above is the one to open on day one: a reaction duel. Two players, two buttons, three lamps and a piezo. The Uno lights the middle lamp, and the first to press wins. Press Run and try it.
What makes a club session work
Something to play in the first five minutes. Open a working project, play it, then change it. Starting from a blank screen loses the newcomers.
One change per session, visible to everyone. A faster blink, a new tune, a harder level. Members show each other, and the show and tell is the best part.
A way to drop in and catch up. A share link to the starting project means a member who missed last week starts from the same place as everyone else.
No setup. A web page that opens on any laptop beats an install that needs IT, and it means members can carry on at home.
Weeks 1 to 4: first circuits and first code
Week 1, reaction duel. Play it, then change who wins on a tie, or add a best of five. It is the hook for the whole term.
Week 2, a traffic light. Three LEDs and a crossing button on an Uno. Members change the timings, then add a walk signal. It teaches sequences and timing.
Week 3, a tune. A piezo and a list of notes; members rewrite it into a song they know. Nothing fills a room with energy faster.
Week 4, a light that turns on in the dark. A light sensor and an if statement, and the first time a circuit makes a decision.
Weeks 5 to 8: a game jam
Four weeks of games, which members will happily work on at home. Start with Simon says (four lamps, four buttons, a sequence that grows), then whack-a-mole (lamps, buttons, a buzzer and a score display). In week 7, pairs pick a game to remix: snake on LED matrices, the arcade stacker or pong. Week 8 is the arcade: everyone plays everyone else’s game.
The games guide lists every built-in game from easiest to hardest, with what each one teaches. Each is a real Arduino sketch, so a member who wants to take one further can build it with real parts.
Weeks 9 to 11: build something real
Robots. An obstacle-avoiding car drives on the screen with a sonar that sees walls. Members change how it turns, or make it follow a line. The robotics unit on this site has the full sequence.
Connected things. On an ESP32, a web page that switches a lamp, or a room sensor that reports temperature, light and motion. This is where older members light up.
Escape room puzzles. Each team builds a puzzle lock, such as a keypad, an RFID tag or a knock pattern, then teams swap and try to open each other’s. The escape room page has working keypad, RFID and knock locks to start from.
Week 12: show night
End the term with a show: projects on a screen, families invited, each member explaining one thing they changed and why. Because everything runs in the browser, a project from week 2 opens as easily as one from week 11.
Running it with Mokxi
Members can open and run every project on this page without an account. For a club that meets every week, an account lets members save work. A class in Mokxi gives the leader a join code, starter projects to hand out, a live view of each member’s work and a wall to show finished projects; that is useful but not required.
Kits are welcome too. A club with a box of Arduinos can build the week’s project in the browser first and wire it on the bench second, which cuts the time lost to wiring mistakes.
Ideas for different ages
Middle school: keep to weeks 1 to 8, with the leader making the code changes on the projector and members choosing what to change. Games and tunes carry the room.
High school: let members write the changes themselves, add the robots and the ESP32 projects, and finish with a team project chosen by the members. A science fair or engineering competition entry is a natural next step.
Elementary: start with circuits that need no code, a switch and an LED or a 555 that blinks by itself, before any programming.
Questions
What are good STEM club activities for middle school?
Things members can play with in the first five minutes and change in the next forty: a reaction game, a traffic light, a tune on a buzzer, then a game jam with Simon and whack-a-mole. All of them run in the browser.
Do we need to buy kits to run an electronics club?
No. Every session on this page runs in Mokxi in the browser, free, on Chromebooks or laptops. Kits are a good addition later, not a requirement.
Can members carry on at home?
Yes. It is a web page, so anything they can open at school they can open at home, and with an account their work is saved.
What if attendance changes every week?
Share a link to each week’s starting project. A member who missed a week opens it and catches up in a few minutes.
Keep going
Build this for real
Open the editor, change a value and watch the number move with it. Nothing to install, and no account needed.