I started my college life as a Computer Science Engineering major, for about 3 or 4 years, before finishing with a B.S. in Engineering Physics-Nuclear. I did a bunch of coding in college and even did some as a Nuclear Engineer. So it is no wonder that I am interested in coding and robotics. I follow the trends and jump on some things to experiment with them (spending WAY too much $$$) and share with students these awesome devices available to them.
I don't know if I agree that all students need to take Computer Science, but I do think all need to experience some programming and computational thinking and some some physical computing (getting it off the screen to interact with the physical world). Some experience with robotics is also good ; there are so many things in our world that are automated/robotic that everyone really should have an understanding of them. The robotics comes from adding servos and motors and sensors (a whole plethora of external devices) to microcontrollers (Arduino, RaspberryPi, Gemma, Flora, microbit.... endless away of microcotrollers) and writing a program to make them do something. Plan ~$100 to put together a "kit" or to buy a pre-made one. This would cover 1-2 students. Yes they get more expensive than that. When you start wiring things up, you can never have too many jumper cables. And yes, you need all three kinds (M-M, M-F, F-F) even some with alligator clips on one end , probably even double alligator clips.
I started with Arduino and Raspberry Pi many years ago (still have some of them). I love shopping at Adafruit and Microcenter. LED's and neopixels (YES!) belong in any build (who DOESN'T want a light up tiara????). Most recently I have been playing with the microbit from the BBC and makecode from Microsoft (the only thing I like from MS) and the Circuit Playground Express from Adafruit.
I don't know if I agree that all students need to take Computer Science, but I do think all need to experience some programming and computational thinking and some some physical computing (getting it off the screen to interact with the physical world). Some experience with robotics is also good ; there are so many things in our world that are automated/robotic that everyone really should have an understanding of them. The robotics comes from adding servos and motors and sensors (a whole plethora of external devices) to microcontrollers (Arduino, RaspberryPi, Gemma, Flora, microbit.... endless away of microcotrollers) and writing a program to make them do something. Plan ~$100 to put together a "kit" or to buy a pre-made one. This would cover 1-2 students. Yes they get more expensive than that. When you start wiring things up, you can never have too many jumper cables. And yes, you need all three kinds (M-M, M-F, F-F) even some with alligator clips on one end , probably even double alligator clips.
I started with Arduino and Raspberry Pi many years ago (still have some of them). I love shopping at Adafruit and Microcenter. LED's and neopixels (YES!) belong in any build (who DOESN'T want a light up tiara????). Most recently I have been playing with the microbit from the BBC and makecode from Microsoft (the only thing I like from MS) and the Circuit Playground Express from Adafruit.
makecode microbit Makerbit bit:booster CRICKIT CircuitPlaygroundExpress
Edison VEXRobotics
(links to pages)
some fun with neopixels :