What is IoT & a Smart City?¶
Authoring note (remove before publishing)
This page is the handoff between the STEM curriculum and the Flowlence Code technical tutorial. It answers "why am I learning this?" before the student touches hardware. Sections marked with TODO should be filled in by RVP's STEM team.
The Internet of Things (IoT), in plain words¶
An IoT device is any physical thing — a lamp, a sensor, a watering pump — that can sense, decide, and act, often connected to a network. A smart streetlight that dims itself at midnight is an IoT device. A soil-moisture sensor that tells a farmer's phone when to water the crops is an IoT device.
Every IoT device follows the same simple loop:
| Step | What happens | Examples in your kit |
|---|---|---|
| Sense | Reads something from the world | DHT11 (temperature), Ultrasonic (distance), Fire Detector |
| Data | Numbers or signals from sensing | "24°C", "5 cm", "flame detected" |
| Decision | Logic decides what to do | "IF temperature > 28 → turn fan ON" |
| Action | Something physical happens | Fan spins, gate opens, alarm sounds |
This is the loop you'll use in every project: Sensor → Data → Decision → Action.
What is a Smart City?¶
(To be written by RVP STEM curriculum team. This section should introduce smart-city concepts, sustainability, urban planning, and connect to the Brilliant Global Competition judging framework.)
The four smart-city pillars¶
Your projects in this tutorial map to four pillars that real smart cities are built on:
| Pillar | What it covers | Sensors in your kit | Your project |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🌿 Sustainability — Smart Irrigation & Water Management | Water supply, agriculture, conservation | Soil Moisture, Water Level, Water Pump, Relay | Smart Agriculture |
| 🚦 Mobility — Smart Mobility & Traffic Systems | Roads, parking, transit, automated access | Distance Sensor, Servo, RFID Reader | Smart Parking |
| 🚨 Protection — Public Safety & Emergency Systems | Fire, gas, alarms, emergency response | Fire Detector, Gas Leak Sensor, Active Buzzer | Smart Safety |
| 🌡️ Comfort — Smart Environment & Climate Monitoring | Climate, air, automated heating/cooling | DHT11, DC Motor (Fan), LCD | Smart Temperature |
In Part 1 you'll get the kit and software ready.
In Parts 2–5 you'll build one project per pillar, learning each component first and then combining them into the full system.