Making an API post

[buran]

I have been trying to learn Python formatted as Json.

python formatted as JSON?

Making a simple API request.

There are two possible options - either there is some package/wrapper already available for your particular IoT device(s) (e.g. provided by the manufacturer and/or enthusiasts) or you need to work with native/general package like requests and simply make the post request.
In both cases we can little to help (mostly general advice like use requests), given that we don't have any information on device or the API.

For example I downloaded something called "requests" it was supposed to be a download for making HTTP requests. Then I go to use it and my pycharm doesn't recognize it. I get an error saying that it is for an older version of pycharm.

This indicates that you have trouble installing requests and more importantly - you are confused about how to install packages in general. I don't think the error says that requests is for older version of pycharm. pycharm is IDE and requests does not care what IDE you use. Most likely the error says you downloaded a version for different bersion of python. BUT you don't have to download it, but install it via pip. So let's start form here - provide more information on the error you get (i.e. the full error message/traceback) you get. Also - what OS, what version of python, etc.