Название: Basic Course on Arduino: Electronics, Robotics and Coding for Kids
Автор: Roberto Francavilla
Издательство: Be Maker
Год: 2024
Страниц: 414
Язык: английский
Формат: epub
Размер: 48.4 MB

The “Basic Course on Arduino” is the gateway to the discovery of the new paradigm due to Industry 4.0. This Course fits perfectly in that new area of teaching that lately, especially internationally, is spreading and in Italy we are just at the beginning. More and more resources are being invested in this, which has now even become a course of study that starts in elementary school until it takes students all the way to graduation. This new area, which encompasses multiple disciplines, is called STEM.

STEM is an acronym and stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This acronym, of course, should be read in the broadest sense of its meaning, in fact, although the basic subjects are science, in this multidisciplinary area there is quiet room for Art so much so that, again internationally, the new acronym STEAM has spread. Consequently, with the introduction of Art, all those associated humanities disciplines are also involved (History, Literature, Philosophy, etc...).

Arduino is a kind of small PC, it has a processor (a microcontroller to be exact), memory (like the RAM and Hard Disk of a PC), a motherboard, and connectors for signal inputs and outputs that go to external peripherals which can be sensors, actuator modules such as electric motors, etc. There are different types of boards, depending on certain features, for example, there are boards that already have WiFi module built in, those that have GPS, etc.. among the most popular is the Arduino UNO R.3, a basic development board that can be integrated with any type of module. Because the Arduino project is open source, many other manufacturers have made their own UNO R.3 board. Some manufacturers, seeing the potential of this board, have also developed it further by adding features and making it even easier to use. So many projects can be made with this Maker Development Board, the only limit is our imagination. Using the supplied USB cable, it is possible to connect the Development Board to the USB port of the PC from which the board itself draws the power necessary for its operation and interfaces with the PC to be programmed.

What is the Arduino IDE? First, let's start with the name: IDE which is an acronym and stands for Integrated Development Environment i.e., a set of applications that aggregates common development tools into a single graphical user interface. The IDE is an environment consisting essentially of:
- Editor: a text editor that facilitates the writing of software code that is called a sketch. The programming language used is based on C++.
- Monitor and Serial Plotter: where numeric variables can be represented, or textual, but also graphically and is also useful for debugger (searching for errors in sketches)
- Libraries: are a collection of functions and instructions that simplify the use of certain devices (sensors, modules, etc.)

The Basic Course on Arduino represents the perfect synthesis of the new model of study, where all STEM disciplines are involved and recalled in a homogeneous and coordinated way. Obviously, this is a first building block....
The Course has been divided into LESSONS (chapters) with theory and exercises of increasing difficulty.The Basic Course Study Plan is rich and varied and is based on four main science topics: ELECTRICITY, LIGHT, SOUND and MAGNETISM.
All the projects, which are also created for fun purposes (in fact, if there is no fun there is no interest either), are nothing but didactic applications of the theoretical parts covered.

The suggested minimum age is 12/14, but it depends a lot on the student's desire to learn new things. As for the maximum age, there is no limit...in fact, the Course creates the foundation of knowledge of the use of the development platform.... what will then limit the implementation of the projects, will only be the imagination and the desire to engage in learning new things...so there is no upper age limit for the students of the Course. In the Book, at the end of the individual exercise project and after the explanation of the sketch, you can find the link to the relevant video project and the link to download the sketch used in the exercise.