Starter kit companion: the project book lesson plan
Follows the fifteen projects in the official Arduino Starter Kit book, in its order, each one running in your browser.
Objectives and materials
By the end, students can
- Wire a loop, read a button and a sensor, and mix colors.
- Point a servo, play light as a note, and build a keyboard on one pin.
- Switch a motor with a MOSFET, then run one both ways with an H-bridge.
- An answer ball, a knock lock, a touch lamp, and talking to other things.
Materials for the whole unit
- Arduino Uno R3
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- Character LCD, 16x2
- DC motor
- Diode
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- LED x 6
- MOSFET
- Motor driver, L293D
- Optocoupler, 4N35
- Phototransistor x 3
- Piezo speaker
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton x 4
- Resistor x 7
- RGB LED
- Temperature sensor
- Tilt switch
- Touch foil
- Vibration sensor, SW-420
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.
First lights
Wire a loop, read a button and a sensor, and mix colors.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Build your first circuitStart with the parts in place. Draw every wire yourself, close the loop, press Run and light the LED. | 50 min |
|
| Kit: a starship control panelA green lamp waits, and two red lamps flash while you hold the button. Your first if and else, and a pull-down resistor. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: a warm-hands meterA TMP36 temperature sensor, three LEDs and some floating-point math: squeeze the sensor and watch the lights climb. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: a color-mixing lampThree light sensors behind colored gels set the red, green and blue of one LED. | 40 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Full-size breadboard
- LED x 3
- Phototransistor x 3
- Pushbutton
- Resistor x 6
- RGB LED
- Temperature sensor
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: a color-mixing lamp" 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".
Motion and sound
Point a servo, play light as a note, and build a keyboard on one pin.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Kit: a mood dialTurn a potentiometer and a servo points to match. map() turns one range of numbers into another. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: a light thereminLight on a phototransistor becomes a pitch on a piezo. Wave your hand over it to play. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: a four-key keyboardFour buttons share one analog pin through a ladder of resistors, and a piezo plays a note for each. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: a tilt hourglassSix LEDs light on a millis() timer while the sketch keeps watching a tilt switch to start again. | 40 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- LED x 6
- Phototransistor
- Piezo speaker
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton x 4
- Resistor x 7
- Tilt switch
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: a tilt hourglass" 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".
Motors
Switch a motor with a MOSFET, then run one both ways with an H-bridge.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Kit: a motor pinwheelA MOSFET lets a pin switch a motor on a 9 V battery, and a diode catches the motor’s kick. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: a spinning zoetropeThe L293D H-bridge runs the motor either way, a button starts and stops it, and a knob sets the speed. | 40 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- DC motor
- Diode
- Full-size breadboard
- MOSFET
- Motor driver, L293D
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton x 2
- Resistor x 2
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: a spinning zoetrope" 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".
Bigger builds
An answer ball, a knock lock, a touch lamp, and talking to other things.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Kit: an answer ballAsk a question, tip the tilt switch, and the LCD shows an answer picked with random(). | 40 min |
|
| Kit: a secret knock lockListen for a rhythm of knocks and slide a servo bolt open only for the right one. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: a touch lampA piece of foil and a 1 megohm resistor make a touch sensor, read with the CapacitiveSensor library. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: sending a knob to your computerRead a potentiometer and send the number over serial, the board’s half of talking to a program on your computer. | 40 min |
|
| Kit: pressing a button with an optocouplerAn LED and a light sensor in one chip let the board press another gadget’s button without sharing a wire. | 40 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- Character LCD, 16x2
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- LED x 2
- Optocoupler, 4N35
- Potentiometer
- Resistor x 2
- Tilt switch
- Touch foil
- Vibration sensor, SW-420
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Kit: pressing a button with an optocoupler" 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".
Teach this unit as a class
Start a class from this course and its 15 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.