Last Wednesday I introduced them to the Arduino using mine that was only blinking. I showed them how to change a variable in the program to speed up or slow down the blinking pattern among the five LED's
It's going to take a lot more to impress them - I realize this, so I asked them to take the initiative and discover what's being done with the Arduino and select something to do that they may have an interest in
This week I plan on creating a very simple interactive device that takes input then provides motion, lights and sound. If they don't have any direction, I'll ask them to reproduce what I've done or have them start at the beginning, blinking the #13 LED on their Uno and moving on from there.
It's funny how so many of them look at something like a simple robot and think it's a five minute project. It's sad how many give up when they realize the activity requires more than five minutes to accomplish AND it requires them to think.
A civilization that allows themselves to be controlled by others deserves the inevitable bondage.
(sigh)