An Humble maker has asked on another Topic if DMS teachers would be willing to teach at their makerspace. I’m starting this topic in Electronics to explore the possibility of delivering some of my electronics classes by Zoom. (A more careful writer would have said, “A maker from Humble,Tx…”, but I could not resist this.)
@Larry_O_Connor - I teach occasional classes on microcontrollers like Arduino Nano, ESP8266 Wemos D1 Mini and the Raspberry Pi Pico W. I aim the class at those with no programming or electronics experience. More experienced students are always welcome also. We start with some slides, wire up circuits, download and modify programs to explore sensors and other components. I’m interested in checking if it would be reasonable to use Zoom to share a class with your folks. Requirements would be for a volunteer to help host at your facility and a few kits of microcontrollers and accessories. If someone has a Zoom subscription, it would avoid a restart every forty minutes.
Your local host does not need to be an expert on this. Someone with some hobby level programming or electronics background would be excellent. I could give them a class by Zoom and have several conversations and bring them up to speed.
Five parts kits, reusable for many classes, at $20.00 would be minimal but work fine. A little over $30.00 each and more kits would be awesome. I’m moving to using a custom printed circuit board for.future classes with just enough breadboarding so they know how it works. If this comes together, I’ll donate ten boards to the cause. That may sound magnanamous but, my cost would be under $10.00. You would need someone to do soldering on the breadboards and components.
You could order all parts except Pico W’s from AliExpress.com. I’m in the process of ordering five kits for teenagers in a robot club that I run. In a week or so, I can be more specific on parts and costs.
Here’s a link to a previous class that I am currently updating.
https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org/events/view/20598
This posting and a few following give an idea of what I have going on.
Brady W5LH