Toward the Digital Twin Education: Arduino Microcontroller Training for STEM Educators

The use of microcontrollers and programming have become essential nowadays.The introduction of coding early in students' academic experience is becoming the norm.However, teachers are not usually equipped with the knowledge of programming and very few of them use their skills to incorporate programming into their curriculum.The University of North Texas organized a workshop for high, middle, and elementary school educators during the summer 2022.As a part of the workshop, lectures and practical examples were presented about the use of Arduino UNO board and sensor kit.In addition to simple, introductory applications of the board and basic programming, a code controlling temperature and humidity for a simulated nuclear power plan was provided.The UNO board was inserted into a 3D printed model of power plant, which was provided to each one of the teachers participating the workshop.Then, teachers implemented these modular lessons into their curriculum, reaching out a diverse student population in North Texas at various grade levels at their institutions.