Arduino Bootcamp for Teachers

GETTING STARTED GUIDE

Thank you for joining me in the Arduino Bootcamp for Teachers!

Before we kick-off that there’s a few things you will need to do.

In this page, I list your action items and ask that you complete them before the start date for your Bootcamp. This way, you can hit the road running and concentrate on the daily tasks instead of the logistics.

Here we go:

0. Confirm your Bootcamp start and end dates.

You can customise the Bootcamp to start and finish on days that work for you, as long as they are within a 90-day period. Please discuss these days in your first meeting with Peter, and confirm them via completing the Asana task.

1. How to get the most out of this bootcamp.

Each day you must work on three types of activities.

The main types of activities are:

1. Learn: Review instructional videos lectures. These may take up to 30 minutes per day.
2. Test: After you complete watching the lectures, take the revision quiz. This may take up to 10 minutes per day.
3. Do: Work on 1 or 2 mini-projects. This activity may take up to 2 hours.
4. Document: You must document all your project work. Without this documentation, you will only think that you know - there will be no proof. Commiting your learnings to a document also reinforces this learning, and makes it possible to communicate your work. And of course, if you don't document your project work, we will not be able to help you through feedback. Use Google Docs or Notion.io to document your project work, and share your work with the instructors

If at all possible, we will schedule group coaching session per week. Use these sessions to ask for help on the lectures, quizzes or mini-projects. Apart from your questions, I will be reviewing your mini-project work and offering feedback. The option to schedule a coaching session depends on the participant and coaches timezones and availabilities. If it isn't possible to setup a weekly coaching session, we will record our feedback to your project work as you submit it, and then share it with the participants.

Here is an example of what to expect:

2. Commit to the work

Please bring up your calendar.

Put aside at least 1 hour per work day, dedicated to the Bootcamp, for the next 30 days (weekends excluded).

Some days you will need more time, some others you will need less. It is critical that this work is done as part of your daily routine otherwise the risk is high that "life" will get in the way of your progress.

3. Help Desk

The best way to get in touch with Peter and the Team is through the Asana project management tool. You will have access to Asana a few days prior to the Bootcamp start.

The Help Desk is also available.

Please type in your question as clearly as possible. If you wish to provide us with files such as Arduino sketch code, schematics, photos etc, please upload them to a cloud file service, like codeshare.io, Dropbox or Google Drive, and include the public URL to the file in your message.

If you have multiple questions, please create one Asana post per question, in the task concerned. 

4. Gather the hardware you will need

A list of those items is here.

In regards to the Arduino board, I recommend getting a Genuine Arduino Uno, especially if you have not used an Arduino before. Genuine boards have top build quality so you will not have any operational problems that are common with cheaper clones.

However, in my lists part, I also link to a cheaper branded Arduino Uno clone which is a good alternative to the genuine board.

I have designed a PCB that replaced the breadboard for the first 8 mini projects. If you are keen to do a bit of soldering, you can get the breadboard from Oshpark. To populate it, you will need the parts in the list. We are putting together a kit to make it easier to source the board and the parts.

I also list a few optional components in case you which to continue with the optional lecture after the end of the Bootcamp.

5. Ensure you can access the course curriculum on the Tech Explorations school

You should already have access to the Arduino Bootcamp online course. Please ensure you do. If you don't, please raise a ticket on the Help Desk and we'll sort it out right away.

This course contains all the video lectures, quizes, mini-projects, PDF notes and links to curated external resources that you will need as you go through the Bootcamp.

6. How to submit work for evaluation or feedback

If you want to ask a question at any time, you may want to also provide things such as a screenshot image, source code, a document, etc.

You may also want to submit your work for evaluation and feedback (i.e. mini projects).

The best way to submit a file is to upload it to a Cloud file service, like Google Drive or Dropbpox, get the URL for the file, and paste it in Asana, with your question.

Some tasks also have specific deliverables that will not allow you to complete them unless you have submitted a URL. Again, you can complete such requirements by copying the URL of a file that you have uploaded to a Cloud file service into an Asana comment.

Our response time may vary due to time zones, and we are offline during the weekend.

7. Weekends

Weekends are off! No work is scheduled. Use them to rest.

This covers all the prerequisites. I am looking forward to getting started on Monday! If you have any questions before then, please email me.

Peter, Bootcamp for Teachers Instructor