Get ready to Explore IoT with Arduino Education
This week we are launching our Arduino Explore IoT Kit, which allows high school and college students to take their first steps in building connected devices. Educators can make a complex subject simple — explore the Internet of Things right now with Arduino Education.
Aimed at the beginner, there is a complete set of easy-to-follow online projects providing students with a gateway into the digital world of connected objects and how people work together.
The kit comes complete with a complimentary 12-month subscription to the Arduino Create Maker plan, meaning it’s quicker and easier than ever to learn how to monitor, manage, and control devices using the cloud — with the new Arduino IoT Cloud Remote app you can now do this on the go via your mobile.
We recently spoke to Sara Willner-Giwerc, (a PhD candidate at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts) about her amazing work using the Internet of Things in education — helping to show just how useful the new Explore IoT Kit will be.
“By leveraging the Internet of Things, students are able to build more powerful systems that are no longer limited to only the resources they physically possess. This technological capability presents a cool opportunity for students to experience how they can be more powerful when they connect and collaborate with others than they can be on their own.
Especially now, in this time of social distancing and remote learning, the ability to communicate with devices that aren’t physically near us has become even more essential than it was previously. I’m really excited about the idea of using IoT to help students think about designing for more global systems.”
Read the full article about Willner-Giwerc here.
Here’s what a student had to say about the new Explore IoT Kit, when he got the chance to try out an advanced version:
“I would describe it as a very beginner-friendly way to get started with the Internet of Things, and a kit that you will be able to expand upon with your own ideas and components.
…the getting started section got me really excited to actually get started because it inspired all these thought streams of what I could potentially create with the kit.” — Oliver Kempel, Danish High School Student
The kit features 10 activities for students to develop a complete understanding of IoT:
- Using the IoT Cloud and connected devices: Control physical objects, such as a displays or lights, remotely with the Arduino IoT Cloud.
- Collecting, processing, and storing data: Store data locally, wirelessly, and remotely for analysis and backup.
- Graphing and visualizing data and understanding its meaning: Use different tools and techniques to graph data and interpret the information collected.
- Serial communication, APIs, JSON, and web servers: Learn the essentials of how APIs (application programming interfaces) work, how to access remote web servers, and how to store the incoming data in JSON objects to create devices that can access all sorts of data from all over the world, and display it locally.
- Network security considerations: Understand how software developers protect devices and information from unauthorized access.
- Different sensors and how to use them: Investigate the environment using temperature, humidity, and light sensors, collect data about movement using an accelerometer, pressure, and motion sensors, as well as take care of your plants by following the data from moisture and light sensors.
- Actuators and how to use them: Use lights, sound, display, and relays: electronic components used to activate high power devices, to visualize data, and control external devices.
The Explore IoT Kit is now available for purchase from our local Education Partners or from the Arduino Store for only €99 / $114.
N.B. In addition to the Explore IoT Kit, a second kit the “Oplà IoT Kit” will also be coming soon, targeting makers and professionals alike who are after an out-of-the-box IoT experience. The Oplà IoT Kit will enable users to instantly add connectivity to devices for the home and workplace — available from early October onwards.