Normally there is no need to do the installation steps in the following link, but a couple of important steps you need are only found in the installation section. the steps you need to do are outlined next.
These steps need to be done each time you start the Arduino IDE and after you plug in the Arduino:
Go to the Tools menu, select Board:, then select "Arduino/Genuino Uno"
Go the the Tools menu again, select Port:, then select "COMxx (Arduino/Genuino Uno)" (xx, number of COM will not always be the same.)
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/projects/tags/education
The Engineering Lab has many arduino kits including
6 Sparkfun Tinker Kit using Sparkfun Redboard
Link to activity guide
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/activity-guide-for-sparkfun-tinker-kit/introduction
Link to activity guide: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/lilypad-protosnap-plus-hookup-guide/all
A Scratch like block programming environment called Ardublock is also available instead of text based programming.
To program in this environment, go to the Tools menu, select "Ardublock"