Visual programming with a real Arduino (1/4): first visual program
Students use Blockly with a real Arduino to turn an LED on, wait, and connect block order with observable board behavior.
- Embedded systems
- Secondary (ages 14–15)
- 50 min
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LabsLand
Arduino Board (visual)
Program a real Arduino Uno board with blocks and use peripherals
- Real-time labs
- Codeide
- University & College
- Middle School
- High School
- Elementary
Laboratory information
With this laboratory, you can program a real Arduino Uno board. It also includes several input and output peripherals, similar to those that are often included in Arduino starter kits.
Those peripherals include LEDs, switches, buttons, an OLED display, a servo motor, etc.
What students do
Operate real equipment and reason from the measurements.
- Recommended level
- University & College, Middle School, High School, Elementary
- Typical access model
- Real-time labs, Codeide
- Works on
- Modern web browsers on school, university, and home computers.
- Teaching use
- Suitable for assignments, demonstrations, LMS-linked activities, and remote practical work.
Ready lesson plans
Teach lessons using this laboratory
Preview classroom-ready activities that guide students through the real laboratory.
Visual programming with a real Arduino (2/4): sequences and loops
Students build LED sequences with visual blocks, replace repeated copies with loops, and test timing on a real Arduino board.
- Embedded systems
- Secondary (ages 14–15)
- 55 min
Visual programming with a real Arduino (3/4): inputs and decisions
Students use visual blocks to read an input, make a decision with a threshold, and verify LED behavior on a real Arduino board.
- Embedded systems
- Secondary (ages 14–15)
- 55 min
Video
Available experiments
Use the real laboratory from the browser.
Arduino Blocks
Program your robot using blocks!
Teaching resources
Public laboratory contents
Practice 1 - LEDs and serial terminal
Learn how to use the LEDs and how to print into the serial terminal.
Open resourcePractice 2 - Conditionals, buttons and LEDs
Learn how to detect button presses and use conditionals to react to them.
Open resourceBasic Arduino: Solved introductory exercises and activities
Contains some basic exercises along with solutions, which can be used by instructors as a starting point to their own courses and activities.
Read more
The provided DOCX contains several proposed activities, along with their visual-code solutions.
The activities and exercises that it includes are the following:
- Blinking a LED
- Writing to the serial terminal
- Detecting button presses and using conditionals
- Reading analog input
While the first activities are very introductory, the last ones are relatively complete.