EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN THE FUNCTION OF IMPROVING PRACTICAL SKILLS OF FUTURE STUDENTS IN THE FIELD OF ЕLECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

This paper is based on the authors’ many years of experience in teaching, organizing special courses and one-day workshops for different groups of students, as well as IEEESTEC students’ project conferences. The manuscript contains a brief description and results of the implementation and evaluation of the special course “Let’s put knowledge into practical work” for grammar school students. In order to continue their study and provide students with additional knowledge, the Arduino course was designed. Since 2018, by attending the course as an extracurricular activity, students gain new knowledge in the field of electronic components and microcontroller programming. Based on the conducted analyzes and evaluations, as well as current pedagogical trends, the authors give recommendations on how to overcome problems that may arise due to a lack of practical knowledge and increase students’ self-confidence and indicate the importance of a course designed in this way for those freshmen who want to acquire some new skills and knowledge.