An Arduino curriculum for middle school and high school
The same simulator carries a sixth grader through their first LED and a senior through an ESP32 that serves a web page. What changes is how much the student writes themselves.
- Grades 6 to 8, and 9 to 12
- A unit of 6 to 9 weeks
- Chromebook ready
Projects to open
Each one runs in your browser in one click, with no account. Ages and times are suggestions.
Dimmer
A knob that dims an LED: analog input and PWM in one circuit.
- Grades 6 to 8
- About 45 minutes
WiFi: a lamp on a web page
An ESP32 serving a web page that switches a lamp.
- Grades 10 to 12
- About 60 minutes
Middle school, grades 6 to 8
Start with circuits that need no code, then hand students working sketches and ask them to change one thing at a time. The Intro to Electronics pack fits here, and the first half of Arduino Programming follows it well.
- Circuits, Ohm’s law and the breadboard.
- The 555 timer and logic gates, with no code.
- Blink, buttons and a night light, changing working code.
High school, grades 9 to 12
Students write their own programs: variables, conditions, loops, functions and timing without delay, then sensors, serial data and a final project. The Arduino Programming pack is nine weeks; IoT with ESP32 and Game Design with Microcontrollers follow it for a second semester.
- Arduino Programming: nine weeks on the Uno.
- IoT with ESP32: WiFi, a web page and an API, all simulated.
- Game Design with Microcontrollers: Pong, Snake and a game of their own.
What you need
Nothing but a browser. Mokxi is a web page. The circuit and the code run inside the browser tab, the C++ compiles there too, and nothing is downloaded or installed, so it works on a school Chromebook, a family laptop or a tablet.
Kids’ privacy, plainly
What happens to a child’s information, written from what the code does.
- Every project here opens and runs with no account, so a child never has to give a name or an email to use it.
- Saving work needs an account. A child under 13 can have one only with consent: a parent writes to us from their own email address and we confirm it, or a school gives consent for its classes.
- For a student in a class, no analytics or advertising tag loads on any page, and classmates never see each other’s email addresses.
The details, for parents and schools: Student data privacy, COPPA and FERPA
Run it as a class
A roster with a join code, starters handed to every student, checks that grade each hand-in, a live wall and the curriculum pack answer keys. Classes come with Pro and the Teacher plan.
Questions
Which pack should a middle school start with?
Intro to Electronics. It needs no code for most of its six weeks, and it builds the circuit sense the Arduino packs rely on.
Do the packs need real boards?
No. Everything runs in the browser. If you have boards, the code students write for the Uno moves across, and many teachers simulate first and build the final project for real.
Is there block coding for younger students?
No. Mokxi is typed C++. Younger students work from sketches that are already written and change them.
Try it with your class
Open a project with no account, or start the free 30-day class trial: one class of up to forty students, every class tool, no card.