Would you please advise me on the appropriate starter kit to buy for a new 8th-12th grade school to support a mecha-tronic lab? We want to use Arduino to make a variety of robots and other inventions that combine electronics and mechanical hardware. Our aim is to teach electronics, software programming, robotics, automation by having the students make a variety of inventions, some whimsical, some practical.
What hardware and software should I purchase for a school such as this with about 50 students per grade?
a bag of RC Servos, continuos rotating RC Servos, Steppermotors + Drivers (if you want to do robotics)
some additional Sensors (MPU6050 (ACC+ Gyro), Ultrasonic Sensors, etc.
tons of resistors, LEDs, buttons,... (trust me, they will hide in every gap)
The problem is, it is very hard to tell you what to buy if you don´t know more precisely what you want to teach your students and how your projects look like.
The other side is hardware. I bought some vintage meccano from eBay, but that's probably not an option for schools. Still - something similar might work. I wonder how far you could get with popsicle sticks? They are thin enough that you can punch holes in them with a hole punch and bolt them together.
If you download the content and look at the file titled, "STEM Workshop Order List - Gabriel.xlsx," you'll see that this is all my materials purchased for an Arduino teacher's seminar. It included doing a demonstration with a bunch of sensors, such as light sensors, distance sensors, actuating a servo, etc. In that list you'll see a Vilros kit from Amazon. I highly recommend that kit, as well as buying a bunch of extra servos and things.
Anyway, as a teacher I think you might find these materials useful at the link just above. Let me know what you think. I think teaching a robotics class with Arduino would be a blast!
Also, as far as general-purpose, inexpensive servos go, these are my favorites, at $3 or less a piece (+ shipping, which is quite reasonable). I use them very frequently on radio-control aircraft, for example:
3A UBEC w/ Noise Reduction (ie: a 5V 3A switching DC-DC power supply, to power your servos from a LiPo or other battery)
...And I just glanced at those YourDuino kits posted by econjack (ARDUINO KITS), and I have to say those look fantastic! I'm familiar with YourDuino and I think they have good stuff. Those prices are really good too. That little $45 3-wheeled robot with ultrasonic rangefinder ("ping" sensor) on it too would be a great deal, and a lot of fun for you and your students to program via an Arduino.
Sorry to kick am old topic; but I am in a similar situation. My middle school wants to start a robotics club (after school activity). There is no clear idea of where we want to go.
My plan is to start them with the Lego EV3 kits due to the ease of programming, then to move on tho the Arduinos.
I will be frank, I have no project ideas. I am thinking of an arm followed by a robotic chassis to put the arm on. However, I see step one being to go through one of the tutorial sets (like the examples on this site under "learning"). Then we will try to make something move.
The trouble is this, I am being asked for a parts list to order. I expect about 15 - 20 students to be in the program.
So, like the OP, I am hoping that someone can provide me with something like "parts we used in the first two years of our program."
Over 500 of these went to the University of Connecticut, 100's more to high schools etc.
This kit is designed for Classes and Workshops to learn about Arduino, Sensors, Actuators, Coding and Design. It is also suitable for personal use by people who want to learn a lot about designing things with Arduino.