From Zero to Blink: My First Arduino Adventure in ETEC-568


When I began my journey in the Educational Technology program, I knew we’d be exploring everything technology, but I didn’t anticipate diving into something as hands-on as circuit building. This first project (Circuit #1: Blinking a LED) with an Arduino board was an eye opener for me. Having no prior experience in either coding or circuits, I really didn’t know what to expect, and honestly, I was a bit nervous on how this was going to go. I thought this would take me days to figure out, and I didn’t know if I was even going to be successful in this project. My mindset for this project was first negative because I already told myself that I “couldn’t” do it. I was excited but yet intimidated. 

The goal of this project was pretty straightforward: to make an LED blink on and off. Now this sounds pretty simple, but I knew it was more than just plugging things in. For a first-timer like me, I’m going to have to be honest; even setting up the circuit was challenging. It was like looking at a puzzle with so many pieces. All of the parts seemed so fragile and unsteady that I was afraid to attach and detach the resistors and jump wires. However, after screwing down the breadboard to the platform, I felt a little bit more comfortable working. I had to learn how to use a breadboard, learn how to place each component in the correct rows, and learn how to make sure the connections lined up correctly. It most definitely took some trial and error and a lot of double checking to make sure that everything worked. Once I had the LED and resistors set, I used jumper wires to connect it all to the Arduino board, and seeing it physically come together was most rewarding. I started to believe that I could do anything 😂 haha!!

Now it was time for the coding. This was the part I dreaded the most. I opened up the Arduino IDE, and for someone like me with no coding experience, it was a little overwhelming, and I instantly wanted to close my laptop. Luckily, I learned that Arduino had a “Blink” code pre-written, but I also had the code given to us by our professor, which made it a little bit easier as I had an example to work from. When I saw the LED start to blink, there was excitement and a sigh of relief. That little blinking light represented more than just a simple circuit. It felt like I had overcome my initial hesitation with something totally new to me.




Reflection:

As someone completely new to both coding and circuits, I did face a few challenges along the way that did cause a lot of frustration at times. Starting off, I was so nervous about damaging the tools needed, like the resistors, LED, and board, by connecting things the wrong way that I constantly rechecked things. Doing this took a lot of time away from me actually playing and exploring with the Arduino board. I would have to say the hardest part was understanding the structure of coding and how each command worked. It took some time for me to understand how changing certain things affected the output of the board, especially during the extension challenge of the project. When it was time to add a 2nd LED to the board, I was completely lost. I tried looking at YouTube videos, asking my husband for help, and everything you could think of. When my husband couldn’t figure it out, I knew I was in trouble, as he was the expert in figuring things out. It took me some time to think about what to do, but then a lightbulb came on. I decided to just copy the same steps as I did for the first LED. With the same steps and code, the second light started blinking! Now that was a real accomplishment! Overall, each challenge taught me something valuable about problem solving and patience, especially when learning new technology. Looking back, this project was the perfect introduction to working with Arduino. It most definitely forced me to step out of my comfort zone and explore a hands-on creative side of educational technology that I didn't expect. I’m excited and still a little nervous about where this experience will take me in ETEC-568 and beyond.


Challenges:

Here is a quick video with the codes of all the extension challenges that I was able to explore.


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