Extension of low-end microcontroller data storage for STEM projects without database knowledge

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is widely promoted in primary and secondary education. Under teachers’ supervision, students can design and implement various STEM projects using low-end microcontrollers, which are famous for their low-cost and user-friendly design. However, those low-end microcontrollers’ low storage capacity limits the students’ design talent, as the data generated in a project is not adequately stored and analyzed. To tackle this drawback, this paper proposes a flexible data storage solution without needing database knowledge in STEM projects. It extends the storage capacity of the micro: bit microcontroller by wirelessly connecting it to the backend device, which Raspberry Pi implements. Streaming data is being sent to the backend using Bluetooth technology and will be formatted using blockchain technology for efficient storing and retrieving. Intensive simulations proved that sending collected data from sensors in low-end microcontrollers to remote devices over Bluetooth connection does not require significant resources, while big data is stored remotely.