Best way to get started with Arduino
by Mark Frauenfelder from on (#1F0GA)
Arduino is an electronics prototyping platform that gives non-engineers the ability to add interactivity to their projects. (I teach an online Arduino course on Skillshare that 1,163 have taken with a 97% rating).
Amazon has a sale on the genuine Arduino Starter Kit for $72. It has the Arduino Uno microprocessor and a bunch of components, along with instructions for 15 projects that will give you a feel for all the things you can do with Arduino.