Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show

Grades: 6 – 12 (US) Duration: 2 hours

Skills: Subjects:
• Circuits • Electronics
• Debugging • Computer Science
• Programming • Technology

Lesson Plan Overview

Students will learn the basics of using the Tinkercad Circuits interface to build a simple battery-powered
LED circuit. Next, they will learn how to connect an Arduino to the circuit and program it to blink the
LEDs. Finally, they will apply what they learned to make their own LED light show. Students will also
learn some best practices for building circuits, and how to debug and troubleshoot their circuits and
code. The estimated duration is provided for each part of lesson, giving you the flexibility to adjust as
needed. This lesson requires no previous experience with circuits or programming.

Acknowledgment: The Active Learning Initiative at Cornell University

Learning Objectives
• Build a basic LED circuit.
• Connect and program an Arduino to control the circuit.
• Expand the circuit to add more LEDs.
• Build neat, organized circuits.
• Troubleshoot when things don't work as expected.
Standards
• ISTE Standard 4 | Innovative Designer: Students use a variety of technologies within a design
process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful, or imaginative solutions.
• ISTE Standard 5 | Computational Thinker: Students develop and employ strategies for
understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods
to develop and test solutions.
• NGSS MS-ETS1-2: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine
how well they meet criteria and constraints of the problem.

For more information about standards used in this lesson plan, visit these websites:
• ISTE: www.iste.org/standards/for-students
• Next Generation Science Standards: www.nextgenscience.org/search-standards

Materials
This is a list of materials each student will need to complete this lesson.
• Computer with access to the Internet and Tinkercad
• Slideshow software, like Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Keynote (optional)

You’ll find links below where you can directly download and print files from the Tinkercad Lesson Plan
page (https://www.tinkercad.com/lessonplans/program-an-led-light-show) that your students will need
for this lesson:
• Evaluation Rubric [PDF with fillable text fields]
• Example Tinkercad file [link to Tinkercad]
• Light Show Intro [video]
• Create a New Circuit [video]
• Create a New Circuit [PPTX]
• Build a Basic LED Circuit [video]
• Build a Basic LED Circuit [PPTX]
• Add an Arduino and Breadboard [video]
• Add an Arduino and Breadboard [PPTX]
• Blink an LED [video]
• Blink an LED [PPTX]
• Add a Second LED [video]
• Add a Second LED [PPTX]
• Light Show [video]
• Light Show [PPTX]
• Registers [video]
• Registers [PPTX]

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 2

Setting Up Your Class
There are three options for each section of this lesson, allowing you to customize it to your classroom
format:
• You can use a projector (or share your screen if students are learning remotely) to demonstrate
and guide students through using Tinkercad Circuits yourself. This option works well if the entire
class will be working together at the same pace, as you can pause periodically to make sure all
students are caught up.
• You can project (or screen share) pre-recorded video instructions for each section, and then let
students work independently. Students can also watch the videos at their own pace if they are
working remotely, or if they are in a classroom and have their own headphones.
• Downloadable slides with complete instructions are available for each section. This option works
well in a classroom environment where you want students to work at their own pace, but they
cannot watch videos separately (e.g. they do not have headphones), or as a supplement to the
videos if students are working from home at their own pace.

To introduce your students to the lesson, you can start with the introductory video in the next section.
You can also guide them through or ask them to explore the tutorials available on the Tinkercad Learn
Arduino page.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 3

Project Overview [1m]
1. Introduction Video [1m]

Watch this brief video for an overview of the Program an LED Light Show project. (Click the link to watch
the video.)

An example Tinkercad Circuits file is available here as a teacher reference:

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/dcoobTV5YGM. You can also show your students this simulation at
the beginning of class, but we do not recommend sharing the link to the circuit so that students are
encouraged to create their own.

Build and Program a Circuit [45m]

2. Create a New Circuit [10m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

Show the Create a New Circuit video or the Watch the video or slideshow (please see links
slideshow to your students (please see links below). below) to learn how to make a new circuit in
Make sure they can find the Circuits section of Tinkercad. Then open a new window in your
Tinkercad, since it defaults to the 3D Designs browser and log into Tinkercad. In the
section when you log in. Explain that it is a good Tinkercad Circuits workspace, create a new
habit to give the circuits names that will make circuit, and give it a name like "My First Circuit"
sense in the future, instead of leaving the Your teacher will either demonstrate how to do
randomly-generated names. If you come back to this, or ask you to follow along with the video.
your circuit a week or a month from now, will you
be able to tell what it does based on the name?

Materials:
• Create a New Circuit [video]
• Create a New Circuit [PPTX] (Please click the link to download the slideshow.)
• Computer with audio

Outcome:
• Create a new circuit in Tinkercad Circuits.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 4

3. Build a Basic LED Circuit [10m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

Show the Build a Basic LED Circuit video or the Watch the video or slideshow (please see links
slideshow to your students (please see links below) to learn how to build a basic LED circuit.
below). Check to make sure students are In a separate window, build a series circuit in
comfortable with the basics of the Tinkercad Tinkercad with a 9V battery, LED, and 1 kilo-ohm
Circuits editor at this point. They need to (kΩ) resistor. Make sure the long leg of the LED
understand how to click and add parts from the is connected to the positive (red) terminal of the
components drawer on the right, move them battery. When you click "Start Simulation," the
around in the workplane, and connect them with LED should light up.
wires. Students who struggle with using the
interface will have difficulty with the rest of the
lesson.

This is a good point to start to emphasize

debugging. If a student's LED does not light up,
help them ask questions to figure out why. For
example, do they have an open circuit with one
wire disconnected? Is the connection to the
battery backwards?

Materials:
• Build a Basic LED Circuit [video]
• Build a Basic LED Circuit [PPTX] (Please click the link to download the slideshow.)
• Computer with audio

Outcome:
• Build a battery-powered LED circuit.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 5

4. Connect an Arduino and Breadboard [10m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

Show the Add an Arduino and Breadboard video Watch the video or slideshow (please see links
or the slideshow to your students (please see links below) to learn how to add an Arduino and
below). It’s important to emphasize good wiring breadboard. Then in a separate window, start a
practice here. Many students may connect wires new circuit in Tinkercad. Add an Arduino and a
in a straight line between two points. This makes breadboard to the circuit, rotate them both 90
the circuit messy and harder to debug as they add degrees so they are upright, and put them next
more wires. to each other. Connect the Arduino's 5V and
Encourage them to carefully route the wires to GND pins to the breadboard's power (+) and
keep things neat, as demonstrated in the video. ground (-) buses respectively. Use neat, color-
Color-coding wires is also important. It is standard coded wiring.
convention in electronics to use red for power/5V
and black for ground/negative.

Materials:
• Add an Arduino and Breadboard [video]
• Add an Arduino and Breadboard [PPTX] (Please click the link to download the slideshow.)
• Computer with audio

Outcome:
• Set up an Arduino and breadboard so you are ready to start controlling LEDs with the Arduino.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 6

5. Blink an LED [10m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

Show the Blink an LED video or the slideshow to Watch the video or slideshow (please see links
your students (please see links below). As the below) to learn how to blink an LED. Then in a
circuit becomes more complex, it becomes more separate window, connect an external LED to
important to emphasize good wiring practice and Arduino pin 13 using the breadboard in
debugging. Some students might not get their LED Tinkercad. This time you will need to change the
to blink on the first try. Avoid fixing it for them – value of the resistor – set it to 220Ω. Click the
guide them through the troubleshooting process Code button and use the Blocks dropdown
to make sure everything is connected properly on menu to select "Text." When you click "Start
the breadboard. Since they are using built-in Simulation," the LED should blink on and off.
example code, there should not be any errors in
the code at this point.

Materials:
• Blink an LED [video]
• Blink an LED [PPTX] (Please click the link to download the slideshow.)
• Computer with audio

Outcome:
• Connect a single LED to the Arduino and make it blink using built-in example code.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 7

6. Add a Second LED [10m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

Encourage your students to try this before they In a separate window use what you have
review the slides or video for this section to find learned so far to add a second LED to your
"the answer" (please see links below). You can circuit in Tinkercad. You will need to choose an
also emphasize that there is not a single "right Arduino pin and connect it the same way you
answer" to this part of the lesson. The example connected the first LED. Make it blink on and off
uses a second LED connected to Arduino pin 12, at the same time as the first LED. Hint: you can
however, the students can choose a different pin do this by copying and pasting lines of code in
if they want to. your program; you do not need to write any new
code from scratch. The only thing you need to
Make sure students are comfortable with the change is the pin number. Try to do this before
following before you proceed: you look at the slides or video for this section
• Wiring an LED to a new Arduino pin, (please see links below).
including a resistor
• Using the pinMode() command to set the
appropriate pin as an output
• Using the digitalWrite() command to turn
the LED on and off

Materials:
• Add a Second LED [video]
• Add a Second LED [PPTX] (Please click the link to download the slideshow.)
• Computer with audio

Outcome:
• Connect a second LED to the Arduino, and modify the example code to make it blink.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 8

Make Your Own Light Show [45m]
7. Design Your Light Show [15m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

Show the Light Show video or the slideshow to Watch the video or slideshow (please see links
your students (please see links below). Some below) to learn how to design your light show.
students might get ambitious here – set Then it's your time to shine! Add more LEDs and
reasonable expectations based on the time you design your own LED light show in Tinkercad. You
have available. For example, you might say that can make the LEDs blink on and off in different
everyone should start out with four LEDs and add patterns, or even try to make simple animations
more if they have time, instead of trying to jump like an "LED chaser."
right to 12 LEDs and then not having time to
finish.

Note that programming a circuit with lots of LEDs

can become cumbersome using the digitalWrite()
command, since you need one line of code to
turn each individual LED on or off. See the
"Optional: Programming with Registers" section
to learn how you can turn up to eight LEDs on or
off with a single line of code.

Materials:
• Light Show [video]
• Light Show [PPTX] (Please click the link to download the slideshow.)
• Computer with audio

Outcome:
• Design your own LED light show.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 9

8. Share Your Work [30m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

For remote learning, you can have students share Once you have finished your light show, share it
their screens one at a time, or put them in with your teacher and the other students in your
breakout rooms so they can share in smaller class.
groups. For in-person learning, you can have all
students leave their simulations running on their
computers, and let them walk around the room to
look at other students' projects.

Materials:
• Computer with audio

Outcome:
• Show off your work to the rest of the class.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 10

Optional: Programming With Registers [20m]
9. Learn to Use Registers [10m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

This is an advanced, optional topic that you can Watch the video or slideshow (please see links
use as an add-on to this lesson plan. Show the below) to learn how to use registers. Registers
Registers video or the slideshow to your students are specific locations in a microcontroller's
(please see links below). The vast majority of memory. Each register is made up of individual
Arduino projects use the built-in Arduino bits that can be either 1 or 0. Many registers have
functions and libraries because they are easier special functions related to the microcontroller's
for beginners to understand and use. Registers hardware – for example, the Arduino's digital I/O
make the code harder to read, but sometimes pins. As explained in the following video and
they allow more advanced functionality or can slideshow, there are registers you can use to
make the code more efficient. replace the pinMode() and digitalWrite()
commands in your Arduino code. This approach
In the case of this project, a single line of code lets you control up to 8 LEDs with a single line of
using registers can replace multiple lines of code code.
with the pinMode() or digitalWrite() commands.
See this video for a more detailed explanation of
why you would want to use registers, and this
video series for a full set of tutorials on
programming with registers in Tinkercad.

Materials:
• Registers [video]
• Registers [PPTX] (Please click the link to download the slideshow.)
• Computer with audio

Outcome:
• Use registers to blink a single LED.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 11

10. Update Your Light Show [10m]

Teacher Instructions Student Instructions

Students with previous programming experience Program your light show using registers instead
may be confused by registers. A register is not an of the pinMode() and digitalWrite() commands.
array or a variable, even though it seems like one. Does this make your code shorter and easier to
Emphasize the idea that each bit (1 or 0) in a read? Can you program new behavior for your
register corresponds to a physical pin on the LEDs that would have been difficult to program
Arduino, and each 1 or 0 has a meaning associated before?
with it (output/input for the DDR register, and
high/low for the PORT register).

Outcome:
• Program an LED light show using registers instead of Arduino commands.

Lesson Plan: Program an LED Light Show 12