Microcontroller project kit help

first post here, so hi i guess

To cut a long story short, ive got my grubby paws on a Microchip Explorer 16 development kit which im planning on using for some basic PWM of LEDs for a optics project (im a Mech. Engineer, i shouldnt be doing stuff like this ). Ive worked with much more basic stuff in the past, but this microchip board has me foxed. According to microchip, there is access to the I/O on the board - which is what im after - making the LEDS and LCD on the board do things is all well and good, but its not really helping me. What im trying to work out is where these I/O connections are located and how to connect my LED arrays so that i can modulate them with the board.

Ive trawled through the schematics and the user guide, but there is very little on where to plug in any external devices.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers