Education



We believe electronics is more than a hobby or a career path; it’s a creative medium for advancing teaching and learning. Our curriculum and resources are designed specifically as hands-on learning tools to help today’s students build skills for the creative and digital economy — critical thinking, collaboration, communication, curiosity, problem solving and invention. We recommend checking out the tutorials tagged with education or concepts to start. We also recommend checking out the lesson plans using SparkFun products on WorkBench for ideas.

Getting Started with the micro:bit

September 2, 2021

The BBC micro:bit is a compact, powerful programming tool that requires no software installation. Read on to learn how to use it YOUR way!

micro:bit Breakout Board Hookup Guide

June 17, 2021

How to get started with the micro:bit breakout board.

Wireless Remote Weather Station with micro:bit

May 11, 2020

Monitor the weather without being exposed to it through wireless communication between two micro:bits using the radio blocks! This is useful if your weather station is installed in a location that is difficult to retrieve data from the OpenLog. We will also explore a few different ways to send and receive data.

Working with Qwiic on a Jetson Nano through Jupyter Notebooks

April 23, 2020

We created a few Jupyter Notebooks to make using our Qwiic boards with your Jetson Nano even easier!

micro:bot Kit Experiment Guide

February 20, 2020

Get started with the moto:bit, a carrier board for the micro:bit that allows you to control motors, and create your own robot using this experiment guide for the micro:bot kit.

Getting Started with the Autonomous Kit for the Sphero RVR

December 13, 2019

Want to get started in robotics? Look no further than the SparkFun autonomous kit for the Sphero RVR! Whether you purchased the Basic or Advanced kit, this tutorial will get you rolling...

Basic Autonomous Kit for Sphero RVR Assembly Guide

December 12, 2019

Get your Basic Autonomous Kit for Sphero RVR all hooked up with this guide!

Advanced Autonomous Kit for Sphero RVR Assembly Guide

December 12, 2019

Get your Advanced Autonomous Kit for the Sphero RVR built up with this hookup guide!

Basic LED Animations for Beginners (Arduino)

December 3, 2019

Let's have some fun with LEDs! We'll explore LEDs once again with the SparkFun RedBoard Qwiic, making cool effects, and putting those effects to work using a sensor.

SparkFun gator:log Hookup Guide

September 5, 2019

The gator:log is a serial communication based data logger. This tutorial will get you started using the gator:log with the micro:bit platform.

SparkFun gator:UV Hookup Guide

September 5, 2019

The gator:UV is an I2C based UV sensor. This tutorial will get you started using the gator:UV with the micro:bit platform.

SparkFun gator:RTC Hookup Guide

September 5, 2019

The gator:RTC is an I2C based, real-time clock (RTC) for keeping time while your micro:bit isn't powered. This tutorial will get you started using the gator:RTC with the micro:bit platform.

SparkFun Inventor's Kit Experiment Guide - v4.1

August 8, 2019

The SparkFun Inventor's Kit (SIK) Experiment Guide contains all of the information needed to build all five projects, encompassing 16 circuits, in the latest version of the kit, v4.1.2 and v4.1.

SparkFun gator:microphone Hookup Guide

June 13, 2019

The gator:microphone is an I2C sensor for detecting sound with an electret microphone. This tutorial will get you started using the gator:microphone with the micro:bit platform.

SparkFun gator:environment Hookup Guide

June 13, 2019

The gator:environment combines two I2C sensors for temperature, humidity, pressure, eCO2, and eTVOC values. This tutorial will get you started using the gator:environment with the micro:bit platform.

SparkFun gator:soil Hookup Guide

June 13, 2019

The gator:soil is analog soil moisture sensor. This tutorial will get you started using the gator:soil with the micro:bit platform.

SparkFun gator:particle Hookup Guide

June 13, 2019

The gator:particle is an I2C heart-rate monitor and pulse oximeter that can be used as a particle sensor. This tutorial will get you started using the gator:particle with the micro:bit platform.

LED Gumball Machine

April 24, 2019

Hacking gumball machines to make the world a happier, blinkier place.

Wireless RC Robot with Arduino and XBees

March 12, 2019

In this tutorial, we will expand on the SIK for RedBot to control the robot wirelessly with XBee radios! We'll explore a different microcontroller and wirelessly control the RedBot at a distance.

SparkFun gator:bit v2 Hookup Guide

January 31, 2019

The gator:bit v2 is a breakout board for the BBC micro:bit. The gator:bit exposes almost every pin on the micro:bit to clippable pad with circuit protection. It also has as built-in addressable LEDs and a built-in buzzer.

Wireless Remote Control with micro:bit

January 21, 2019

In this tutorial, we will utilize the MakeCode radio blocks to have the one micro:bit transmit a signal to a receiving micro:bit on the same channel. Eventually, we will control a micro:bot wirelessly using parts from the arcade:kit!

Gator:color ProtoSnap Hookup Guide

October 18, 2018

Clip some LED's onto your gator:bit with the gator:color.

Gator:starter ProtoSnap Hookup Guide

October 18, 2018

Get started clipping sensors and lights to the micro:bit with the gator:starter gator:board from SparkFun!

Gator:control ProtoSnap Hookup Guide

October 17, 2018

Buttons and switches and inputs oh my! Start adding more control to your gator:bit with the SparkFun gator:control.

How to Load MicroPython on a Microcontroller Board

September 4, 2018

This tutorial will show you how to load the MicroPython interpreter onto a variety of development boards.

micro:bit Educator Lab Pack Experiment Guide

May 8, 2018

A quickstart guide for the micro:bit educator lab pack.

Clap On Lamp

November 28, 2017

Modify a simple desk lamp to respond to a double clap (or other sharp noise) using parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0.

Endless Runner Game

November 28, 2017

We make a simple side-scrolling endless runner game using parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0.

Light-Seeking Robot

November 28, 2017

We use parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0 to create a light-seeking robot that mimics the behavior of single-celled organisms.

SparkFun Inventor's Kit Experiment Guide - v4.0

November 15, 2017

The SparkFun Inventor's Kit (SIK) Experiment Guide contains all of the information needed to build all five projects, encompassing 16 circuits, in the latest version of the kit, v4.0a.

micro:climate Kit Experiment Guide

July 21, 2017

A weather station kit that is built on top of the inexpensive, easy-to-use micro:bit and Microsoft MakeCode.

SparkFun Inventor's Kit for micro:bit Experiment Guide

July 21, 2017

This guide contains all the information you will need to explore the twelve circuits of the SparkFun Inventors Kit for micro:bit.

micro:arcade Kit Experiment Guide

July 21, 2017

We love games! We love writing games, building games and yes, even building game consoles. So we want to introduce to you the micro:arcade kit for the micro:bit!

Measuring Internal Resistance of Batteries

May 5, 2016

Classroom STEM activity that has students build a battery from a lemon, measure the open and closed circuit voltages, and determine the battery's internal resistance.

SIK Keyboard Instrument

April 15, 2016

We can use the parts and concepts in the SparkFun Invetor's Kit to make a primitive keyboard instrument.

Experiment Guide for RedBot with Shadow Chassis

May 28, 2015

This Experiment Guide offers nine experiments to get you started with the SparkFun RedBot. This guide is designed for those who are familiar with our SparkFun Inventor's Kit and want to take their robotics knowledge to the next level.

Using the SparkFun PicoBoard and Scratch

November 11, 2014

Here are a few tips in using the PicoBoard with Scratch v1.4. The PicoBoard allows us to write Scratch programs that interact with a variety of sensors on the PicoBoard. These sensors include: sound, light, a slider, a push button, and 4 external sensors (A, B, C, and D).

DigitalSandbox PicoBoard

August 15, 2014

This tutorial walks through how to upload code to your Digital Sandbox to emulate the functionality of the PicoBoard with Scratch.
Viewing 41 Education Tutorials. View All Tutorials.

Old Tutorials

Looking for the old, archived tutorials? Head on over to the archived tutorials on the main SparkFun site.
Please be aware that the tutorials you find there are no longer actively maintained.