Connect the Red Wire

1. Plug one end of the red wire into the pin on the Arduino board labeled 5V on the power rail.
2. Plug the other end of the same red wire into any hole in the red row of the breadboard.
3. Use the red marker to mark this on your schematic as shown in the video.

STEM Connections

The 5V pin is attached to the positive terminal of the power source. Remember, electric current flows through a circuit beginning at the positive terminal of the power source. You are building your electrical circuit beginning from the positive terminal.

Engineers use breadboards to design electrical circuits. Plugging the red wire into the breadboard electrically connects all the other pins in the red row of that breadboard to the red wire. Now you can access the electric current from the Arduino board’s 5V pin using the four remaining pins in the red row of the breadboard.

The label 5V stands for 5 volts. Volts are a measurement of the voltage, or how much force the power source has to move electric current through the circuit.

I don't have a red wire

1. 1The actual color of the wire does not matter, but it makes it easier to use for instruction and red it's typically used to indicate the positive side of a power source.

There’s a wire stuck in 5V

1. 1A Teacher, or adult, can use a boxcutter or pliers to dig out the wire
2. Or, replace the Arduino
3. Or, use Vin

Explanation: Vin stands for volts in, or voltage input. In other words, it takes the voltage being input by the USB cable from the computer and gives it out through any wire connected here. A computers’ USB port gives around 5 volts of electricity, so using Vin should have the same effect as 5V.

Wire doesn’t fit in the breadboard or Arduino

1. We recommend 22 gauge wire 3.
2. Try a different hole of the same row in the breadboard

1. Using the red marker on the schematic from the positive side of power to the resistor is a way to visualize which row in the breadboard those components go into. I like to remind them each time I make a mark that it’s just for us to know where it belongs in the breadboard.
2. I like to also write out the instruction of “Red Wire: 5V – Red Row” so the students have multiple ways of sensing what to do next. (a schematic, verbally saying it out loud, and written out).
3. Have their table mates double check the red wire is in 5V and not just 5 on the digital side
4. Remind them that any of the 5 holes in the red row works.

Thinkabit Companion Notebook: have students fill in the blank on page 4 after “red wire” with “5V to red row”.