Inventr.io has a great 30-day project called 30 Days in Space.  You are trapped on a broken spacecraft and need to fix it.  I bought a Hero Starter Kit last year.  Last month they had a deal on the $97 Mega Kit.  They gave you a $40 Mega 2560 unit with it.  Alex@invertr.io is collaborating with me on this project.  I went out and bought assorted bread boards and a box of toggle switches to build my imaginary space craft.  I will be changing the projects to having the Arduino devices still connected with I²C. Just not on the board above.  You can check out and follow the links from both the old and new projects.