Explore the Arduino board

1. Notice the different types of pins and the numbers and symbols next to them on the Arduino board.

STEM Connections

An Arduino board is a tool that professional engineers as well as beginners can use. An Arduino board is a circuit board that contains a microcontroller, or a small computer, that can be used to control electronic devices. There are many types of devices like this. An Arduino board can often be thought of as the brain of a device.

Components are connected to the Arduino board by plugging wires into holes on the board called pins. Pins that are similar to each other are located together. There is a set of pins called power pins that are located on one side of the Arduino board. These pins are like the ends of batteries; forming an electrical circuit using these pins can cause electric current to flow through the circuit and make things happen. There is a set of pins on the other side of the Arduino board that are called digital pins. These pins can be used to control electronics and make the electronics behave in different ways.

My Arduino Uno doesn't look exactly like that

1. Arduino Uno boards can look different
2. Does it say "Arduino Uno"? There are different models of Arduino.
3. There are also different brands that function the same as the Arduino Uno.

There’s a wire stuck in the Arduino

1. A teacher can carefully use a box cutter or pliers to get it out
2. Or, replace the Arduino

Can’t find a particular pin

1. All boards have the pin name next to the black strip and some boards have the pin name on the outside of the black strip as well. Teacher Notes

We like to point out the specific pins that will be used throughout all the exercises at this point. We go through all of them because we go through all the activities in one day. We broke it up according to activity in case you break up the activities.

LED Circuits

• 5V – stands for 5 volts, it’s the positive side of power, it’s always 5 volts so long as the voltage supplied to the board is at least 5 volts
• GND – stands for Ground, it’s the negative side of power
• Notice there are 3 total on the board
• All GND pins are the same

LED Blink

• GND – stands for Ground, it’s the negative side of power
• Again, there are 3 total on the board and they are all the same
• Digital Pins 2-13 – these are the pins that can be programmed to control different electrical components.

Servo

• Vin – stands for Voltage Input, it’s the positive side of power, the voltage input equals whatever voltage is supplied to the board.
• GND – stands for Ground, it’s the negative side of power
• Digital Pins 2-13 – these are the pins that can be programmed to control different electrical components.
• The pins with the ~ next to the number are called PWM pins. PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation. We like to call the PWM pins bilingual because they speak more than one language. Ask your students how many of them speak more than one language. All of the pins on the digital rail give a digital output, but the PWM pins can also give analog output. Digital has only 2 options: on or off, high or low; like a light switch. Analog has many options, or a range of values, like a dimmer on lights like you might see at the movies.