I've been spending a lot of time with AppInventor (more about that later), but I finally got back to the adventures (chapters) in my new Arduino book. Adventure #2 involves controlling a set of 3 LEDs with a potentiometer. This book is setup really well for students in that it takes you through the project in little steps. First, I connected 3 LEDs and lit them up in series (similar to chapter 1, but in triplicate). Then I hooked up the potentiometer by itself and played around with the different position settings. The final activity was to control the illumination of individual LEDs based on the position of the potentiometer. This book is great, because it not only teaches Arduino programming, but basic electronic circuitry. Chapter 2 also describes how to print status messages in the Serial Monitor on the computer screen - a really handy feature when you're trying to debug a program.
The final challenge in this adventure was to build a little electronic sign. This brings in the creative aspect for kids, and I would have constructed my own sign if I would have had a set of markers and some poster board handy. Next time.
