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Arduino Pop-Up Course

Sometimes there’s a skill or content area you want your students to have, but it doesn’t represent a full course’s worth of material. Or, it’s an as-you-need-it skill to apply to a particular project or situation. Already utilized in several disciplines, the pop-up course is just as applicable to physics education.

The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has prototyped a number of pop-ups that bring skills to students. Need your students to gain basic electronic assembly skills? Build Arduino-based projects? Learn a 3D CAD program? A short, one- to few-day experience may be all you need to achieve the learning goals. Taught outside of the “usual” course structure, pop-ups let you enhance student learning without, necessarily, complicating course scheduling and teaching loads.

A person connecting wires to an Arduino

Pop-Up Course on Arduinos

Arduinos are an extremely powerful and versatile way for students to create hardware-based solutions to problems. Arduino pop-up courses developed at the Rochester Institute of Technology teach students important hardware- and software- related skills. Depending on the topic or skill being covered, online or asynchronous approaches may be suitable for Pop-ups.
Source: Rochester Institute of Technology

Activity Description

Short intro course on Arduinos

Learning Objectives

  • Students gain familiarity with microprocessors and electronic components
  • Students learn simple coding in hard typed compiled language
  • Students learn (in second session) control of higher power devices

Duration

120 - 180 Minutes

Target audience

Sophomore physics majors or higher; no prior electronics or coding

Suggested context for implementation

Could be associated with any electronics or laboratory course, or introduction to makerspaces using arduinos.