How to Implement

• Have the girls work in teams of three or four and choose roles, prompting them throughout to switch so that everyone gets a chance to participate at different levels.
• Pass out the LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus board and USB cord. Have them connect the board to their laptop.
  • Connect the USB cable to the LilyPad USB Plus Micro-controller and plug it into the laptop.
  • On the LilyPad, make sure the on/off switch is turned ON.
  • You can have them charge the battery by plugging it into the LilyPad USB Plus. With a charged battery, they can run their uploaded programs without being plugged into the computer.
• Tell the girls to open the software program Arduino IDE. This is the development environment, which they should remember from their work with the Hummingbird. It is called an integrated development environment (IDE) because it contains all the tools needed to program an Arduino, like the LilyPad. Compare this to Thunkable, which was also an IDE.
• Now they will select the appropriate board and serial port. To set up the LilyPad, go to
  • Tools > Board > LilyPad USB Plus
  • Tools > Port > Com # (LilyPad USB Plus)
• Show the girls how to open an example file (a.k.a. sketch) and upload it to the LilyPad USB Plus.
  • Go to File>Examples>LilyPadProtosnapPlus>LPP_01_Blink.
  • Have them do a “Save As” so that they do not alter the original file in case they need to come back to it. Use camel case and label using this convention:
    • TeamName_BlinkBuiltInLED_V1.ino
  • Next have them upload the example program (sketch) by clicking the upload button.
  • Ask the girls what is happening on the board. (The yellow LEDs connected to A5 should be blinking.)
  • Some of the girls may not see the blinking lights—that’s to be expected. They may have not set up the board properly. Have the girls work together to troubleshoot why it didn't work and try again, they may need to look at the error message for clues.
• Now is a good time to explain in more detail how the program gets to the board. You can give them an orientation to the IDE and discuss basic elements of the code.
• You can use the one page Arduino IDE Overview to help guide the conversation.
• Ask girls what steps they just took to get the program working on the LilyPad. As a group, make a list (refer to pg 47-50 in Sew Electric for a more detailed explanation).
  • The programmer "writes" the program (in this case we used a pre-written example).
  • The programmer clicks the verify button. This checks to see if errors are present before sending to the Lilypad so that it doesn't loose it's working code while the programmer is still working out bugs.
  • The program is compiled (the status bar displays "compiling sketch").
    • If the program is successful the status bar briefly displays "Done Compiling".
    • If the program is not successful the status bar displays a Compile Error and a hint of what went wrong in the status bar to help the programmer fix the problem.
  • The programmer clicks the Upload button.
    • If the upload is successful, the program will begin to run on the LilyPad and the status bar displays "Done Uploading."
    • If the upload is not successful, the status bar displays an error message.
• Next have the girls review the code in their teams and see if they can determine how it works. What does each line of code mean?
• Can they make the light blink faster? Where in the code do they need to make a change? Encourage them to test it out. (pg 51 of Sew Electric)
• Discuss the basic elements of the arduino programming language (pg 52-58 of Sew Electric). Explain that the Arduino language is based on a programming language called C (or C++).
  • Talk about comments. Comments are not read by the computer and are a great way to annotate code.
  • Here's how to make comments ("comment out") in Arduino:
    • //this is a comment line-but good for only one line
    • /* if you have more than one line of comment text you'll need to put it all between these symbols */
  • When troubleshooting, you may want to "comment out" some code (add two slashes at the start of the line) so that the computer doesn't read that line, but you don't have to delete it.
  • Variables are a big part of the Arduino programming language and are one of the first things the girls will write or "declare" in the program. Here's an example:
    • int led = 13;
    • Here you are declaring that pin 13 is called "led" in the code you write.
    • This line of code is called a variable declaration and initializes variables to specific pins on the board.
    • "int" refers to the variable type, an integer. Almost all variables in Arduino will be integers.
  • Simple statements are essentially computer sentences or lines of code that tell the computer to do something. Here's an example:
    • digitalWrite(led, HIGH);
    • In Arduino, statements end with a semicolon (;).
    • Have the girls delete a semicolon from their program and then run the code. They should get a compiling error. Give them a heads up that this error is one of the most common, so they need to keep an eye out for it when troubleshooting.
• Have the girls experiment with writing simple statements by creating an uneven blink pattern in the code. Ask the girls to program the LED to:
  • turn on for 1 second
  • turn off for 1 second
  • turn on for half a second
  • turn off for half a second
  • The girls should be able to get clues from the code to write the four statements they need (the solution is on pg 55 of Sew Electric).
  • You may want to have the girls save a new version of the sketch they are working with.
• Go Over the Structure of an Arduino Program (56-58 in Sew Electric), which has sections on Variable Declaration, Setup, and Looping.
• Now challenge the girls to remix this code. Can they get the light to change after three seconds rather than one? Can they get the light to stay on for five seconds and then off for one? How fast can they get the light to blink while still seeing it blink?
• Using what they know, can they change the code to add another pin and make an additional LED blink? Maybe with a different pattern?
• Have the girls explore additional tutorials (linked on the "for the girls" page) and example files.
  • This is also a good time to review If … Else … Statements (conditionals), as most sensors require this to work properly (pp. 95 and 143 in Sew Electric). Remember the activity: Conditionals with Cards from Mobile App Development strand?
  • Encourage them to take notes in their design journals of what they discover.
• To end this activity, have groups share:
  • which program(s) they modified
  • one thing they struggled with
  • one thing they found interesting