Understanding Mind+ and Arduino for Beginners

“Together Towards the Future” Jianghua No. 2 Middle School Team – Qingjiang Shenghua, consists of 8 students from various classes in the Department of Electronic Engineering. This socially beneficial practice aims to transform the knowledge and ideas learned in university classrooms into a technology teaching workshop for students with no background, taking into account the knowledge reserve of middle school students. It avoids complicated coding and uses entry-level graphical programming languages like Mind+ or Mixly, based on Arduino microcontroller development, to lead students to complete interesting and manageable small experiments.

First Lecture

On the morning of July 26, the “Together Towards the Future” Qingjiang Shenghua team held the first class of the summer camp course at Jianghua No. 2 Middle School – “Introduction to Arduino – Understanding Programs.” To prepare students for hardware programming based on Arduino UNO, team members introduced the concepts of computers and programming and general methods based on students’ understanding of computers and programming, and guided students to try hands-on operation of Mind+ software. Mind+ integrates various hardware and allows software-level programming like Scratch. Its visual and modular design reduces programming difficulty and stimulates students’ strong interest.

During the class, students carefully listened, actively asked questions, explored, and attempted innovations in accordance with the carefully prepared handouts and courseware by team members. Faced with the guidance of their seniors, new first-year students showed a positive and enthusiastic side, creating a very pleasant and harmonious classroom atmosphere.

After the theoretical part, we left a lot of hands-on practice time for students to complete the given tasks. Students quickly mastered the methods and techniques of programming using Mind+ and completed the basic parts quickly. Many students actively asked questions about problems they didn’t understand.

By the end of the morning course, most students had completed the coding for the “Cat Catching Mouse” game; some students started to attempt additional requirements, and many students made clever improvements based on this, adding new features like a two-player battle mode. The enthusiasm and interest of students in programming inspired the team members and laid the groundwork for the upcoming hardware explanation.

Second Lecture

After a morning of study, students had a preliminary understanding of Arduino UNO microcontroller and programming, and in the afternoon, the team members conducted the second class – “Input and Output.”

During the afternoon class, the two main speakers, Sun Yuqi and Liu Min, introduced in depth the ultrasonic sensors, infrared sensors, servos, LCDs, buzzers, and other modules that students would use in their hands-on practice.

Students are just starting high school and have a relatively weak foundation. During the learning and practice process, they also encountered issues such as poor computer configuration, insufficient understanding of programming, and not knowing how to solve strange problems that arise in programs. In response, both the students responsible for this lecture and other team members patiently helped students solve the problems they encountered.

After the explanation, we assigned students a small assignment suitable for beginners. Most students also actively completed this assignment. Students gained a preliminary understanding of various software and hardware operations during the practice, laying the foundation for further understanding of Mind+ & Arduino.

Thus, the content of the first day’s teaching concluded successfully!

The Electronic Engineering Department Youth League Committee Practice Group

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