
7makezine.com/boards
Need boards for classroom use? In the past you’d
choose an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi, and your
students’ (in)ability to solder would constrain your
choice of projects. Those are still good options — but
now there are boards that pack a lot more functionality
with a lot less wiring required.
Two of the most common boards in K-12 classrooms
are the Adafruit Circuit Playground Express, aka
“CPX” (learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-circuit-playground-
express), and the BBC micro:bit v2 (microbit.org), both
available in $30 starter kits including the board, USB
cable, battery pack, and batteries. Let’s compare.
Coding
Both boards ar ...