Lesson plan
Starter kit companion: the 33-lesson kit lesson plan
Follows the lessons in the Elegoo Uno R3 Most Complete Starter Kit tutorial, in its order, each one running in your browser.
The unit
Objectives and materials
By the end, students can
- Print, blink, light an LED, mix colors and read a button.
- Two kinds of buzzer, a tilt switch and a servo.
- Distance, a keypad, temperature, a joystick, a remote and an LED matrix.
- Tilt, motion, water, time, sound and RFID cards.
- An LCD, a shift register, the serial monitor and seven-segment digits.
- A DC motor, a relay and a stepper, on a remote and on a knob.
Materials for the whole unit
- 74HC595 shift register
- Accelerometer and gyroscope, MPU6050
- Arduino Uno R3
- Buzzer
- Character LCD, 16x2
- DC motor
- Diode
- DPDT relay
- Four-digit seven segment, multiplexed
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- Infrared receiver, VS1838B
- Infrared remote, 21 buttons
- Keypad, 4x4
- LED x 8
- LED matrix, 8x8
- Light sensor
- Logic analyzer, four channels
- Motion sensor
- Motor driver, L293D
- Piezo speaker
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton
- Real-time clock, DS1307
- Relay module
- Resistor x 9
- RFID reader, MFRC522
- RGB LED
- Rotary encoder, KY-040
- Seven segment display
- Sound sensor, KY-038
- Stepper motor, 28BYJ-48 with ULN2003
- Temperature and humidity, DHT22
- Thermistor, 10k NTC
- Thumb stick
- Tilt switch
- Transistor (NPN or PNP)
- Ultrasonic ranger
- Water level sensor
Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too.
Chapter 1. About 3 h 25 min
First steps
Print, blink, light an LED, mix colors and read a button.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Making the board talkPrinting is how you find out what a board thinks. What Serial.begin does, what a baud rate really costs, and how to print a number without lying about it. | 55 min |
|
| Make it blink with an UnoTwo wires from an Arduino Uno to the LED you already know, then press Run and let a program do the switching. Four steps, no code to write. | 35 min |
|
| Build your first circuitStart with the parts in place. Draw every wire yourself, close the loop, press Run and light the LED. | 45 min |
|
| Kit: mixing colors with an RGB LEDThree LEDs under one lens. Fade red, green and blue with analogWrite and watch the colors in between appear. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a button that lights an LEDRead a pushbutton with the chip’s own pull-up resistor and light an LED only while it is held. | 35 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Full-size breadboard
- LED
- Pushbutton
- Resistor x 3
- RGB LED
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: a button that lights an LED" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Build it on your bench".
Chapter 2. About 2 h 20 min
Sound and motion
Two kinds of buzzer, a tilt switch and a servo.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Kit: an active buzzerA buzzer with its own oscillator: power it and it sounds. The sketch only decides when. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: playing notes on a passive buzzerA passive buzzer makes no sound on its own. tone() switches the pin at a note’s frequency and plays a tune. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a ball tilt switchA little ball that closes a contact while it stands up. Read it, filter its bounce, and light an LED when it tips. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: sweeping a servoA servo turns to an angle and holds it. Send it to 0, 90 and 180 degrees, then sweep it back one degree at a time. | 35 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Buzzer
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- LED
- Piezo speaker
- Resistor
- Tilt switch
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: sweeping a servo" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Build it on your bench".
Chapter 3. About 3 h 30 min
Sensors and modules
Distance, a keypad, temperature, a joystick, a remote and an LED matrix.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Kit: measuring distance with soundThe HC-SR04 times an echo. Turn the time into centimeters, then beep faster as something comes closer. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a keypad lockScan a 4x4 membrane keypad row by row, collect a code, and open a relay when it is right. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: temperature and humidity with a DHT11A sensor with its own little chip, read over one wire. Print the temperature and the humidity every two seconds. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: reading a thumb joystickA joystick is two knobs and a button. Read both axes with analogRead and draw the position on a bar of LEDs. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: decoding an IR remoteThe receiver turns flashes of infrared into pulses, and the IRremote library turns the pulses into a button’s code. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: an 8x8 LED matrix on a MAX7219Sixty-four LEDs on three wires. The MAX7219 scans the rows itself; the sketch only draws. | 35 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Buzzer
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Infrared receiver, VS1838B
- Infrared remote, 21 buttons
- Keypad, 4x4
- LED x 8
- LED matrix, 8x8
- Relay module
- Resistor x 8
- RGB LED
- Temperature and humidity, DHT22
- Thumb stick
- Ultrasonic ranger
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: an 8x8 LED matrix on a MAX7219" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Build it on your bench".
Chapter 4. About 3 h 30 min
More sensors
Tilt, motion, water, time, sound and RFID cards.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Kit: tilt with the GY-521 accelerometerThe MPU6050 measures gravity on three axes. Turn that into an angle and light a lamp for each way it tips. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a PIR motion sensorThe HC-SR501 sees warm things move and holds its output high. Copy it onto an LED. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a water level sensorBare copper traces read deeper water as a higher voltage. Sort the reading into dry, low, half and full. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a real-time clockThe DS1307 keeps the date and time on its own crystal. Read it over I2C once a second. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a clap switch with the sound sensorThe sound sensor’s digital output fires on a loud noise. Toggle a lamp on each clap, and ignore the echoes. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: an RFID card readerThe RC522 reads a card’s ID over SPI. Check it against a list and open the door for the right ones. | 35 min |
|
Materials
- Accelerometer and gyroscope, MPU6050
- Arduino Uno R3
- Half breadboard
- LED x 3
- Motion sensor
- Real-time clock, DS1307
- Resistor x 3
- RFID reader, MFRC522
- Sound sensor, KY-038
- Water level sensor
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: an RFID card reader" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Build it on your bench".
Chapter 5. About 4 h 25 min
Displays
An LCD, a shift register, the serial monitor and seven-segment digits.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Kit: hello on a 16x2 LCDWire the character display with six signal lines and the LiquidCrystal library, then count the seconds on it. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a thermistor thermometerA resistor that changes with temperature, a voltage divider, and the beta equation: degrees on the LCD. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: eight LEDs from three pinsThe 74HC595 shift register takes a byte one bit at a time and shows all eight bits at once. | 35 min |
|
| Taking commandsThe monitor is an input too. Read characters without blocking, act on them, and answer everything, including the things you do not understand. | 55 min |
|
| Kit: a photocell light meterA resistor that changes with light, read on A0, shown as a bar of LEDs on the shift register. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a countdown on a seven-segment digitDrive a one-digit display from the 74HC595, one bit per segment, and count down from 9 to 0. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: four digits by multiplexingFour digits share their segment pins and take turns, four milliseconds each, faster than your eye can follow. | 35 min |
|
Materials
- 74HC595 shift register
- Arduino Uno R3
- Character LCD, 16x2
- Four-digit seven segment, multiplexed
- Full-size breadboard
- LED x 8
- Light sensor
- Resistor x 9
- Seven segment display
- Thermistor, 10k NTC
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: four digits by multiplexing" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Build it on your bench".
Chapter 6. About 2 h 55 min
Motors
A DC motor, a relay and a stepper, on a remote and on a knob.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Kit: a DC motor both ways with the L293DAn H-bridge chip turns a motor forward, backward and off, with the speed set by PWM. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: switching a motor with a relayA transistor drives the relay coil, a diode protects it, and the relay’s contacts switch a separate circuit. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a stepper motor that follows a knobA stepper turns a precise number of steps. Drive the 28BYJ-48 from its ULN2003 board and point it with a knob. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a stepper on the IR remotePut two lessons together: VOL+ and VOL- on the remote turn the stepper a quarter turn each way. | 35 min |
|
| Kit: a stepper on a rotary encoderAn encoder counts clicks in either direction. Steer the stepper click for click, with interrupts doing the counting. | 35 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- DC motor
- Diode
- DPDT relay
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Infrared receiver, VS1838B
- Infrared remote, 21 buttons
- LED x 2
- Logic analyzer, four channels
- Motor driver, L293D
- Potentiometer
- Resistor x 3
- Rotary encoder, KY-040
- Stepper motor, 28BYJ-48 with ULN2003
- Transistor (NPN or PNP)
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: a stepper on a rotary encoder" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Build it on your bench".
Your class
Teach this unit as a class
Start a class from this course and its 33 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you.
The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way.
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