STEMLabs

     One feature of the Arduino board is that it does so much and there are so many possible projects, it's a bit intimidating.  For younger or newer programmers, a good introduction to the Arduino is through the Snapino Snap Circuits kit.      The Snapino links Snap Circuits components to an Arduino.  The set is relatively inexpensive (about $50.00) and is available on Amazon.com. The Arduino is mounted on a Snap Circuits adapter and can easily be plugged into any Snap Circuits project.    An Arduino board and several Snap Circuits blocks, including a light sensor, are included.      The project below, taken from the Snap Circuits manual included with the kit, is for a simple light monitor.  The manual provides clear, helpful instructions for building the circuit, downloading the software, and running the program.  The program and the circuit setup are well-documented.  And, since students have access to the program and the environment, they can easily change the program, add in

Data Collection      Microbit.org has provided a great resource for using the Microbit for data collection.  They have an excellent introduction, complete with video tutorial and sample code, for Data Collection, and a number of suggested experiments involving collecting data.  Each experiment has an Overview, Setup, and Procedure section - again with video tutorials and sample code.  The experiment topics are: Population Traits, Temperature, Soil Moisture, Gravity, Motion and Waves, Body, Electrical and Waves, Electricity, and Rocket Acceleration.  Material needs are minimal, usually a microbit, batteries, cable, copper wire, and access to a spreadsheet program for data analysis.  Some of the experiments make use of two Microbits and the Radio code blocks that allow Microbits to communicate with one another.      The overview is here (there are links to all the experiments in a sidebar): https://makecode.microbit.org/courses/ucp-science/data-collection Online Learning      Micro