The full course
🗺️Curriculum
6 units, plus a shelf of extras for when something breaks. Every unit builds on the one before it, so start at Unit 0 and go down the list. Side quests are optional. Do them when you feel like pushing further.
Jump to a unit
- Unit 0Getting Started
- Unit 1Intro to Robotics & Circuits
- Unit 2Sensors & Interaction
- Unit 3Motors & Movement
- Unit 4Displays & Communication
- Unit 5Inventor Lab
- Unit ★Extras
- 6 units
- 🚀 5 big builds
- Live help every week
- Ages 6–13
Not started
Unpack the kit, install the software, and figure out how this whole thing works.
Open the box. Meet everything inside. None of it bites.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
A quick look at the fiddly modules. The ones with extra pins and tiny writing on them.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
How this works: watch, wire, run. Plus where the code lives and how to yell for help.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Get the free Arduino app onto your computer and plug the board in for the first time.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Not started
Circuits, breadboards, LEDs, resistors, buttons and buzzers — all before you write a single line of code.
Every computer does three things. Yours does them too, it just doesn't have a screen to brag about it.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Electricity is lazy. It only moves if you give it a loop to run around.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
There is a secret map of connections hiding inside your breadboard. Here it is.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 1.4LED
Light your first LED. Long leg, short leg, and why backwards gets you nothing.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 1.5Resistors
Every LED needs a bodyguard. Meet the resistor, and learn to read its stripes.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 1.6Buttons
Add a button and suddenly you are in charge instead of the circuit.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Your first proper challenge. Two buttons, two LEDs, one puzzle, and no code allowed.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 1.8Buzzers
Time to make noise. Two kinds of buzzer, and you can hear the difference.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
End of Unit 1. Take the LEDs, buttons and buzzer and invent something nobody has built before.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Side quest. How the chip on your Arduino actually gets made. It is wild.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Not started
Your first real code, then eleven sensors: light, heat, tilt, water, magnets and more.
- 2.1LED Blink
The classic first program. Make a light blink. Then make it blink faster. You are a programmer now.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 2.2Police Siren
Two LEDs, flashing back and forth. It is all in the timing.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 2.3Button Input
Teach the Arduino to listen. Press the button, something happens, instantly.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 2.4Light Sensor
A photoresistor lets your robot see how bright the room is. Not on or off. An actual number.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 2.5Light Switch
Turn that light sensor into a night light that switches itself on when it gets dark.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Start of the Unit 2 build. Wire the game up and get the light to say GO.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Now measure how fast you actually are, down to the millisecond.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Add a high score, catch the cheaters, play a victory sound. Then go beat your friends.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 2.9RGB LED
One LED. Sixteen million colours. Mix them yourself out of red, green and blue.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Find out how hot the room really is, using a sensor and somebody else's code library.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Two lessons glued together. The LED goes blue when it is cold and red when it is hot.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 2.12Joystick
Two directions and a click. Read a joystick like a game controller.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 2.13Tilt Sensor
A switch that flips when you tip it. Perfect for alarms and secret traps.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Detect water. Build a rain alarm, or a plant that tells you it is thirsty.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 2.15Magnetic Sensor
Sense a magnet straight through a wall. It is the trick behind every door alarm.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Not started
DC motors, servos and an H-bridge, ending with a knob that controls a real spinning motor.
Electricity that moves things. Meet DC motors and servos, and find out why motors need their own power.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 3.2DC Motor
Spin a real motor with an H-bridge. Forwards, backwards, stop.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 3.3Servo Motor
A motor that goes to an exact angle and stays put. This is the muscle behind arms and turrets.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Wire a knob to a motor. Twist it and the wheel speeds up. Twist back and it slows down.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Side quest. Sixty seconds on the clever pattern hiding inside the knob.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Not started
LCD and OLED screens, your own pixel art, a live sensor dashboard, and typing commands to your board.
Pixels, characters and segments. All the ways a machine can show you something.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 4.2LCD Screen
Put your own words on a real screen. The classic 16x2 LCD, wired up and working.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Draw your own tiny 5x8 pictures. Hearts, faces, whatever you want, and print them.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 4.4OLED Screen
Upgrade to a crisp pixel display. Two wires and it glows.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Lines, circles, rectangles. Then make them move and you have a tiny game screen.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
A live dashboard on the OLED showing temperature and humidity, with a graph that scrolls.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 4.7Serial Input
Talk to your Arduino. Type commands from your computer and watch it obey.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Not started
The five big builds. Everything from the earlier units, put to work on something you get to keep.
How the big projects work, what you need for each, and which one to build first.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Project ARC Car
Screws, wheels, motors, frame. Build the body before it can drive anywhere.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 5A.2RC Car: Wiring
Get both motors talking to the L298N, and give them power that is not your Arduino.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
- 5A.3RC Car: Coding
Make it drive. Forwards, backwards, turns, and then tune out the wobble.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Project BTic-Tac-Toe
Lay out the board. This is the biggest wiring job so far, so take it slow.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Get the grid showing up properly before you worry about the game.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Pick a square, place your mark. It starts to feel like a game.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Take turns, spot the winner, handle a draw. Now go grab a friend.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Write the opponent. Teach it to block you, then teach it to be really annoying.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Not started
Troubleshooting, and the weekly session where I help you unbreak it.
Nothing lighting up? Code will not upload? Start here. These are the problems everybody hits.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
Every week I run an online session. Bring whatever you're stuck on and we'll fix it together.
Sign in to watch this lesson and open its code and wiring.
🙋Stuck on a step?
Nobody wires it right the first time. Send me a photo of your breadboard through the question form, or bring the build to a live session and we will find the loose wire together on screen.
Every lesson lists the parts you need and the code you run, so you can work ahead whenever you want.