Have you considered giving each student a breadboard and a PIC
with a Bootloader?  Each student would need only a few
components.

The PIC of your choice
resonator
MCLR resistor
reset switch
wire

You could use an in-line level converter
(http://www.piclist.com/techref/io/serial/RCL1.htm) or save a
little money by including a Max232, capacitors, and cable and
have them add it to their breadboard.

Of course you would need a programmer to load the Bootloader,
but this is only done once so you can use your existing
programmer.

With this setup, the students could be given a handful of
additional parts for each lab. E.g. LEDs, switches, 7 segment
displays, LCDs, etc.  As an added benefit, the RS-232 connection
can be used to output debug information to the attached PC for
display in HyperTerminal.

Andrew


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