Building a 5-year IT/Robotics curriculum for grades 7–11(reddit.com)

Hey everyone! I teach CS and programming at a small school in Syria and I'm in the middle of designing a full 5-year hardware-focused IT curriculum. I'd love some honest feedback from people with hands-on robotics/embedded systems experience. Here's the current plan: - **Grade 7:** Lego Spike Prime + Micro:bit - **Grade 8:** Arduino Uno with multiple sensors - **Grade 9:** Project-based learning with Arduino *(see note below)* - **Grade 10:** ESP32 - **Grade 11:** Advanced ESP32 + Raspberry Pi **Note on Grade 9:** This is the Basic Education Certificate year (think national standardized exams), so the curriculum here is intentionally lighter — more of a consolidation year with small projects rather than introducing heavy new concepts. Students won't have the bandwidth for anything too demanding, so I'm keeping it Arduino-based but project-driven to keep them engaged without piling on. --- **My questions for the community:** **Is this hardware progression age-appropriate?** Students range from roughly 12–17. Does the jump between stages feel right, or are there places where it's too much too soon (or not enough)? **ESP32 in grades 10–11 — good idea or not?** I like it because it covers WiFi/BLE, has plenty of GPIO, and feels like a natural step up from Arduino. But I've heard mixed things about its learning curve and toolchain complexity for high schoolers. What's been your experience? **Are there better alternatives to the ESP32 at that level?** I'm open to suggestions — whether that's staying on the Arduino ecosystem (Nano 33 IoT, Portenta, Uno R4 ?), or something else entirely. Budget is a consideration but not the only one. Any feedback appreciated — curriculum design resources, pitfalls to avoid, or even just "this worked great for my students" stories. Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/Pastalini_Byte [link] [Kommentare]