Teaching Physical Computing Notes

Students mostly find it difficult to understand the electronics of the setups.

The wiring, we can't understand the wiring.

The other thing they usually complain about is the syntax of coding in C. These are Design students that find mathematics and logic very hard, and have close to zero experience with programming. Semicolons are a nightmare. Matching brackets is a mystery.

How can one teach them in a way that eliminate these problems?

• About the C syntax problem, maybe using CircuitPython could solve this and also the solve the cycle code-compile-debug-repeat. But this would not work with Uno R3 based on ATmega chips.
• Use the Firmata / Pyfirmata combo. This doesn't produce independent devices as they will be tethered to a computer.
• On the wiring confusing that are their setups, the only easy way to teach them is to move to a groove modules based teaching. This would simplify the connections avoiding mistakes and some of their shortcomings.
• Use XOD (visual programming ala Pd.)
• Use Snap4Arduino (a Scratch type language)

Do you have any experience with this? Hit me on discord if you do.