Advancing Your Arduino Game

Abstract

This fun, hands-on workshop will show how to include significant computing concepts in engaging, creative activities that are accessible to students who have completed CS1. Participants will use Arduinos (provided) and experience a studio-style learning environment which can serve as an example for studio-based learning in the classroom. The maker movement is taking off, with accessible microcontrollers, sensors, actuators, and 3-D printing capability enabling do-it-yourself hobbyists of all ages to tinker in ways that previously were unavailable to the general public. At the heart of many maker projects is computer control, yet computer science education (especially in the early years) is primarily centered around traditional computing platforms: desktops, laptops, and servers, not the microcontrollers that are prevalent in the maker community. This workshop introduces curricular materials that can turn amateur makers into professional designers, understanding the underlying principles that drive the artifacts that makers make. The theoretical concepts covered include principles that are often present when computers interact with the physical world, e.g., timing as a functional requirement, physical inputs and outputs, etc. Finite automata are also introduced, in the form of finite-state machines, as an example of a computational formalism that has immediate practical use. The materials for a semester-long course (textbook, lecture videos, studios, assignments) are all freely available. The course expands upon the workshop subjects to also include the concepts of information representation, computer communications, and basic computer organization/architecture.