Unless your school is hopelessly behind technology and has a library filled with vhs ' still . Source Barely a millenial , my school is still horribly outdated , and we live in a pretty modern area . <| sep |> UPVOTE IF YOU ' RE NOT A RACIST ! <| sep |> If you want to be able to dim them , you ' ll want a MOSFET . It either needs to be a logiclevel MOSFET that works with the 5 V output of the Arduino , or if it ' s a nonlogiclevel FET , it needs additional driver circuitry . A nonlogiclevel FET just connected to the Arduino output will perform poorly . Channel 4 RouteMOSFETButtonIRF 540 V 20 M O S FETSwitchModuleArduinotel 44 ? trksidp 2047675 . c 100005 . m 1851 trkparmsaid % 3 D 222007 % 26 algo % 3 DSIC . MBE % 26 ao % 3 D 2 % 26 asc % 3 D 38530 % 26 meid % 3 Dc 20 ffb 40 fd 964 ebb 866 e 696 d 90429 f 03 % 26 pid % 3 D 100005 % 26 rk % 3 D 1 % 26 rkt % 3 D 6 % 26 sd % 3 Dtel 1 would work if you want to dim the strips independently of each other , Channel 1 RouteMOSFETButtonIRF 540 M O S F E T SwitchModuleArduinoTOPtel 85 ? hashitem 2 eea 6 bbdbdgmjIAAOSwZVlXwnhj would work if you connect them all together . The screw terminals are 12 V in and out . Those black connectors on the other side is where you connect 5 V , GND and an output pin from the Arduino .