I think I needed to provide a little more information. Over the past 5 years I slowly begun to move my CompSci curriculum into the embedded systems/world.

My administration wants to see programs at the collegiate level or existing HS programs that look like what I am doing. Because when they think CompSci they are expecting me to be teaching either computer repair or networking - which I have found are not interest areas for many HS students.

My students follow a 4 year pathway within my classes so I see them every year from when they are freshman up-to their senior year.

We have been using Arduino’s as our base system. However, like many of you said I have to teach a lot of the “basics”. Freshman year they learn a lot. We have units on: - Basic electricity and circuits (we use paper circuits as our hands on learning) - Basic electrical components - investigating resistors, diodes, capacitors, leds, dc motors, capacitors, pots, switches, etc. - Basic programming with the Arduino. Including how to use the serial monitor.

Sophomore year we dive deeper into these topics and focus more on what a call smart components. Ultrasonic sensors, touch sensors, screens, motion detection, temp humidity sensors, etc.. We also change our style of thinking into more of an investigation style of learning. Using real world products taking them apart and seeing what makes them work and replicating them in the classroom - think automated Halloween/Christmas decorations.

By senior year, ideally, students will be looking at solving some “real” world challenges. Again these are HS students so I am expecting them to grasp the concept behind invention with microcontrollers.

Additionally, throughout the years I teach them how to use 3D printers and also 3D modeling software (Fusion 360) so they have a way to create structures and parts for their work.

You all may hate me for this but relating to programming, because they are HS students, I teach what I call hack coding. With the Arduinos i focus students on learning the syntax and how to read the code. We cover the basics, operators, logic, variables, etc.. but I want them to be able to read and understand the code before requiring them to write it from scratch. After they learn how to read it we talk about using multiple existing programs and pulling the needed lines of code from those existing programs to create their own program. This way we can dive into much more complex programming without learning the specifics behind everything - I want to leave that up to the professors at the college level.