Arduino's and their fellow travelers (Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, and others) are widely supported tools for getting people into the world of microcontrollers. Typically students arrive at a course like this (whether a traditional credit course, community ed, or makerspace) with a wide range of skills and experiences with electronics. For that reason I want to try to be clear about the outcomes I am intending to foster and support in this course.

In broad strokes I intend for you to leave this class able to continue your learning about Arduino's independently using the vast array of resources available in our modern networked world.

Arduino Outcomes:

• You will be able to power up and write simple code for your Arduino.
• You will understand the general input/output environment of your Arduino -- how it talks and listens to the world.
• You will understand how to use Arduino tutorials, cookbooks, and other instructional resources to teach yourself about other features of this platform. This is very important since it is not possible to dig very deeply into the vast range of capabilities of the Arduino in this short course.
• You will know where to go to find other Arduino enthusiasts to share your explorations with them and learn from others.

Electronic Skills:

• You will understand the basic prototyping skills needed to use a breadboard to construct test circuits and connect them safely to your Arduino
• You will understand the electrical limitations of the Arduino and be able to perform simple Ohm's Law calculations to assure you are not exceeding those limitations.
• You will understand the role of shields in the Arduino ecosystem and how they facilitate the application of Arduino's to a range of possibilities from wireless communication to data collection and motor control.
• You will have some basic experience with soldering and prototype assembly.