Awesome Shield teaches hands-on coding with Arduino

If you learn by doing and want to start coding, the hardware kit known as Awesome Shield may be for you. The kit brings together video tutorials, simple coding exercises, and hardware to make projects. At the center of it all is a shield that fits over an Arduino Uno, which can attach to components to build different devices to teach programming and invention. 

Image source: Atmel.

Two ports, an LED, a knob, a toggle switch, a button, a buzzer, a light sensor, and wire ports are included on the shield itself. The idea behind Awesome Shield is for young makers to develop skills while having fun creating their projects. Makers can learn to write code that controls objects, whether it’s by manipulating lights, buzzers, or sensors, to bring the hands-on experience of coding to life.

Makers can learn to build a burglar alarm by programming the sensors and coding logic, make a paper candle while learning about color theory and advanced programming concepts, or create a light-sensor theremin, an electronic instrument that makes sounds without any physical contact. 

Image source: Awesome Shield.

Ready to use right out of the box, Awesome Shield comes with customized hardware, the Arduino Uno, a USB cable, and a library of tutorial videos and code. The company has previously tested its desktop-based programming app over the last two years with more than 400 users. Designed to be simple, just about anyone can use the code library, and better yet, the code library, along with the hardware design, are both open source and available on GitHub.

The project is dedicated to developing future generations of programmers, engineers, and inventors. After receiving positive feedback at Maker Faires in Rome and Berlin, the Awesome Shield team is ready to share their creation. For more information, head to the team’s Kickstarter page, where it has surpassed its goal of $14,031.

Be prepared to get your hands-on experience in December 2016, when the first batch of units are expected to ship.