Hands-On SparkFun Activities Are Now Available in the TeachEngineering Library!

Free, fun hands-on K-12 activities from SparkFun Electronics are now available in the TeachEngineering Digital Library! SparkFun offers curriculum, projects, training and online tutorials designed to make the world of electronics more accessible. Their materials are extensively teacher-tested via SparkFun teacher trainings, ensuring high-quality, innovative K-12 projects and challenges.

As part of a semester-long project, CU Boulder Engineering doctoral student, Sabina Schill, along with undergraduate engineering students Morgan Ulrich and Katie Dudley, have tested and prepped the SparkFun curricula for publication in the TeachEngineering (TE) collection.

So far, the team has published six Sparkfun activities and one “Maker Challenge”, with another 12 in the publication queue. In the most recently published activity, LilyTiny Plush Monsters Are Alive!, students use microcontroller units to enhance a product’s functionality and personality.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the TeachEngineering Digital Library provides more than 1,500 free, standards-aligned engineering lessons and activities for K-12 educators to help make applied science and math come alive through hands-on, engineering design. This year, TE added Maker Challenges, which are open-ended project ideas and problems for students to solve in a self-directed, hands-on way. Through these challenges, students tinker and create as they work through the engineering design process.

Check-in with TeachEngineering often to find newly published curriculum from our new Sparkfun partnership!