Boosting high school students' learning experience from a block-implemented Internet of Things experimentation

The Internet of Things proposes a new paradigm of embedded systems in which every device in a network of computational objects has autonomy to communicate with other objects (things) or people, which allows its application in a wide range of domains, including the field of Education. This fact motivated the present work, developed from a community service learning project in which high school students (without advanced knowledge in electronics, programming and network protocols) participated in an experimentation aiming to enhance their logical reasoning skills from the construction of a “Smart Home” remotely controlled through the Internet. At the end of this practice, the students were motivated to develop new IoT projects to solve other problems of their daily lives. Being argued if they liked the course, they gave unanimous positive feedback, where 70% would be willing to take another course of this type and in this domain.