I-Corps: Modular Microcontroller Prototyping Tools to Facilitate Learning and Collaboration

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to make it easier for novices to learn electronics and computing concepts making these disciplines more available, accessible, and inclusive. The prevalence and advances in embedded technology are spurring increasing need for trained STEM employees to create Internet of Things (IoT) devices. However, electronics and computing are difficult to learn and the interventions that exist often result in an underrepresentation of women and minorities. The educational technology in this project addresses these needs through learning materials designed to engage a diversity of students through experiential educational experiences that can integrate into a variety of contexts to educate students through design of computational objects. The project focuses on broadening participation and improving student learning outcomes through curriculum, technology, and a support system that provides tools that account for the needs of students with varying skill levels, while offering students non-traditional pathways into computing and engineering.This I-Corps project builds on work in physical computing education, focusing on the design and development of tools to facilitate learning about electronics and computing concepts as students build engaging projects. The literature in physical computing is dominated by informal educational interventions and has yet to understand how to improve the tools and learning activities to address the needs of teachers and students. This project will begin to investigate the needs of the various stakeholders within formal education to understand how to reach the broad range of students in public high schools. Furthermore, our modular educational technology brings clarity to the programmable electronics by focusing on visibility of the signals within the circuits, while promoting interactions that focus the learner to encounter important concepts. By shedding light on the interactions between the hardware and software, the tools facilitate students in understanding how the embedded Internet of Things (IoT) technology works.