Sweet 16! Arduino is turning 16 on Saturday, March 27 – it’s Arduino Day! As partners of Arduino Education, we couldn’t be more pumped to celebrate making technology accessible to everyone, including students and educators. (Plus, March is Pitsco’s birthday month too!)

From virtual to community events, there are celebrations across the globe, and you can be part of them. Be sure to tune in at 10 a.m. CT (or 4 p.m. CET) to Arduino’s online channels for some interviews and conversations.

The 2021 Theme

Arduino shares:

“Undistancing: open makes us close

“In a year of social distancing, we realized (even more) the magnitude of the Arduino open-source community. Connecting us all, our community has broken down the barriers of physical distances and self-isolation. While the pandemic has made us feel further apart, Arduino has brought us a bit closer. 

“For this reason, Arduino Day 2021 will be titled ‘Undistancing: Open Makes Us Close’ — a phrase that embodies the power of the open source community to shorten any physical distance through new opportunities to collaborate, innovate, and get (virtually) closer.

“UNDISTANCING conveys the disruptive power of Arduino users to unite in a time when it’s needed more than ever.

“OPEN MAKES US CLOSE represents the ability of our community to transform a burden into a chance to connect, collaborate, and create as one. It’s a call to shorten as many distances as possible and to explore new ideas and technologies, together.”

Ideas and Inspiration

To get you started, we’ve rounded up a few project ideas and places for inspiration.

• Arduino Education Activities Preview: Here you can find lesson samples for each of Arduino’s education kits.
  
• Official Arduino YouTube Channel: Watch videos of projects, EduVision sessions, past Arduino Day celebrations, and more.
• Arduino Maker Week Projects: Pitsco staffers share simple projects to inspire your making.
• Arduino Project Hub: Explore a variety of Arduino projects designed by people from all over the world.
• Arduino Subreddit: A community for all things Arduino is just a few clicks away.

Code for Good Challenge

In June 2020, we launched the Code for Good Challenge, a competition that aimed to encourage students to explore and take ownership in solving both big and small problems. From June through October, students completed projects in the hopes of coding a solution for a project they cared about. Participants used Arduino electronics, in conjunction with any other household items, to develop their solution.  

We had some awesome entries. The top project, from Kyzo Robotics, focused on a solution to prevent pipes from freezing in homes. Watch it here. Arduino cofounder David Cuartielles created a congratulatory video to celebrate their accomplishment. He was proud of their fun and practical project. Super cool, right?

Though the contest is over, check out the challenge brief for some inspiration.

Happy Birthday, Arduino!

We couldn’t resist the chance to make something for the celebration. Using the Arduino Education Student Kit, Curriculum Specialist Aaron Locke created the musical keyboard and code so we could play “Happy Birthday.” Sweet 16 is indeed sweet!

So, are you ready? Let’s get closer and program something awesome!

Bonus resource: Arduino Day blog post: “Join us for the Official Arduino Day live stream on March 27th”

Need to stock up? Visit: Pitsco.com/Shop/Coding/Arduino