Approximately 30 people attended the Arduino/Microcontroller workshop for Educators workshop held on August 3rd and 4th at IT-oLogy. The majority of attendees were educators, but students and local IT professionals also participated. The purpose of the workshop was to train educators and other IT leaders on the skills needed to understand and teach basic microcontroller programming as well as the circuits in the Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit (SIK). This content is important because it teaches basic engineering principles vital in education. It will now be taught and implemented in a classroom environment in high schools, middle schools and even elementary schools. Linz Craig, Educational Outreach Coordinator for Sparkfun Electronics, conducted both workshops and did an outstanding job.

For more information on upcoming workshops and the Open IT Lab go to www.open-it-lab.com or www.it-ology.org.

Here are a few pictures for you!

The OpenIT Lab at IT-oLogy offered a Basics of the Microcontroller/Arduino workshop for the first time to the general public on Saturday, July 14. The response was so overwhelming approximately 15-20 people had to be turned away and directed to a second offering.

Attendees were given hands-on experience with building and designing Arduino-based electronics projects. The Italian-designed Arduino is a low cost microcontroller and one of the leading technologies in the new open hardware movement.

Projects included getting started with the simple Blink circuit, Arduino’s version of “Hello World”, then exploring how to customize the blink rate and brightness by tweaking the source code and how to make the microcontroller aware of its surroundings by using photoresistors and pushbuttons. Participants also learned about electronic circuits, digital and analog signals and basic programming using the Arduino software.

The second Microcontroller/Arduino workshop is being planned now with a tentative delivery date scheduled for September.

For more information about upcoming workshops or the Open IT Lab please visit the IT-oLogy website or www.open-it-lab.com. Questions can be directed to Todd Lewis at todd@palmettocomputerlabs.com or 803-240-1213.