SparkFun, Drag and Drop Programming for Robotics 

Thursday, April 24, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Room 306)

Come and learn the basics of programming Microcontrollers (Robot brains!) using drag and drop programming so easy that anyone can learn the basics in a short amount of time! During this workshop we’ll be using ArduBlocks, which is very similar to Scratch, to explore the six most important concepts for beginning roboticists.  LEDs will be blinked and twinkled to explore outputs, light sensors and button inputs will be read and we will even tie it all to a buzzer to make the world’s worst dub-step instrument. All of the hardware we will use is part of SparkFun’s LilyPad line and can be sewn into any fabric after programming. 

Learn More and Register: https://learn.sparkfun.com/events/73

SparkFun, Arduino Basics

Thursday, April 24, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Room 306)

Learn how to blink LEDs, read inputs and use a breadboard, all in four hours! This class is for anyone who has never played around with Arduino before and those who have played around a little bit but aren't entirely sure about how the basics work. It's easier than you think! We will put together basic single component electrical circuits, learn about analog and digital, input and output, as well as basic programming concepts. In case you haven't noticed the key word here is basic. Attendees will create three simple circuits highlighting analog and digital forms of input and output. 

Learn More and Register: https://learn.sparkfun.com/events/74

SparkFun, Robotics Social Time

Friday, April 25, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM (Room 150 B)

In this self guided workshop SparkFun will supply a number of stations that participants can use to explore the basic concepts of Arduino in a variety of formats. We will have step by step guides to help beginners learn how to move characters in Scratch, blink an LED, take a sensor reading, communicate between robots and computers and create "if" statements. Each concept will be presented in three different ways, showing how this technology can be a part of any classroom, regardless of the age of the students. Participants are encouraged to migrate between stations as they like and SparkFunions will be on hand to answer questions as they arise. SparkFun will also have teacher friendly resources on hand to illustrate a small portion of the enormous wealth of Open Source educational materials available to teachers for free.

Learn More and Register: https://learn.sparkfun.com/events/75