Robert from ARM has inspired me with his confidence in the Micro:Bit as a means to create sensors that will support STEM learning. Robert’s experience in seeing physical computing integrated into schemes of work encourages me to explore this avenue.
https://www.arm.com/resources/education/schools
Our thanks to Marcus and the team at Newbury Code Ninjas who has kindly offered to share the CAS Raspberry Pi AstroPi set with us. We look forward to comparing notes on what these Raspberry Pi units end up being part of!
Delighted and excited to be offering App-building for Key Stage 3 pupils with a new after-school club.
goIT is an internationally recognised initiative to inspire young people to learn to develop their own solutions in the context of the UN Global Goals. We will be using MIT AppCreator as well as following the goIT design development principles.
ARC have created a gas-detecting patrol robot for the PA Competition – it really needs a name now.. Gasbot 3000 ?!
This website was so useful in helping Year 7 to make sense of what innovations happened, when!
the ARC demo robot has three functioning brains, two (Pi) on WiFi and one on Bluetooth but has not yet rumbled out of the door.. Sensor readings are rather erratic and the head-mounted servo obeys no known code. On the plus side Motors coping with the combined weight and Meccano providing a strong exoskeleton. Also the camera works!
More details here:
The Advanced Robotics Club began today: so many competitions to choose from, and a talented team of enthusiastic pupils who knew exactly how to assemble the new kit!
Aided by a batch of pre-loved Meccano, the ARC demonstration robot has got a form, of sorts!
The first parts have begun arriving for the new robot. This is an air quality sensor..
Our photo editing competition showcased pupil creativity, with an unexpected twist, in that the finalists opted to choose characters from the world of politics.
Who knew that there was so much humour to be found in the political machinations of 2020.?!
Here is the new Berners-Lee House website page. Named in honour of Sir Tim, it seems entirely appropriate that we establish a place on the net!
As we explore the remarkable Internet Of Things (IoT), please take a moment to view these resources:
Welcome to the Year 12 Cambridge Technicals IT Course. This video selection is for you:
https://www.flickernet.net/ctec1
This link is for my new Year 10 CS students. These videos are to help with the content of the Edexcel course
Back in the day there was a space flight simulator that created a huge field of destinations in which to explore, trade and navigate – if you would like to try it out, here is an emulator and the original .exe:
Welcome to all of the Year 6 pupils who will shortly be joining us in Year 7.
A complete collection of recent school video guidance and your Transition Booklets are available here:
We have been experimenting with the creation of an online escape room!
The first puzzle is the hardest. Here is a clue to help to get you going:
line / word / letter
It is here, good luck!
Looking ahead to next academic year, it seems likely that we will need to delay resuming Code Club until Term 3, although there is a chance that we can find a way to meet safely in a larger classroom ahead of that.
Please keep an eye on www.flickernet.net/codeclub for updates.
In the meantime congratulations to Ryan P (Year 9) who has a wide range of Scratch 3 games featured on the site.
Where old tech is made available for all to enjoy again. We loved it.
Our new Code Club will be starting at LPA next week!
It is invitation only this term (starting with KS3, helped by three KS5)
The links page is here
This is the big blue bunny rabbit that our children spotted whilst on holiday in Dorset. It was for sale for the quite reasonable price of 50p. After some debate over who would be making the purchase, he was presently in the bag / saved from landfill / one of the family.
The parting words of the stall holder rang in my ears, a clarion call to action: “you can connect your phone to it and stuff”
what stuff I wondered. What might it be capable of?
A google later and I had the app. The connection was made to the bunny but there was another connection to make, this time to a news story:
theregister.co.uk/2017/03/01/cloudpets_woes_worsen_mics_can_be_pwned/
oh dear. The batteries were swiftly removed.
Now in the depths of winter I have taken the final step to remedy matters for my son to enjoy his improbably treasured bunny:
and sew it ends!
Sometimes chopping a database up and sorting into into 1st, 2nd and 3rd normal form on the very floor works best!
Demonstrating automated systems to Year 9 with a Raspberry Pi 4, breadboard mounted PIR and resulting monkey on patrol.!
A full weekend of study at Bath University. Being presented with the opportunities and the potential of Raspberry Pi by those who know it best. My thanks to Dan, Mark, Laura and Alan for an amazing time.
Dad loved this phone. I used to get in trouble for borrowing it. Before there were “cordless” phones and well before many people had mobile phones, this was an early “I’m in the garden” device.!
Popping into a Year 7 Science lesson I was perplexed to find all the pupils elevating laminated symbols above their heads as their teacher held her phone up to scan the scene.
The data promptly appeared on the white board at the front. This was my first taste of Plickers in action – now I am keen to give it a go!
The wonderfully talented Year 13 A Level Computer Science class that I teach weren’t quite sure what to make of my scrawled starter question: what happened in 1998?
They made some great suggestions (considering that this occurred comprehensively before their birth!), but what I remember of 1998 is that the idea started to formulate in my mind that not everyone was going to grasp what computers were all about in time to join the rapidly approaching Twenty First Century.
Flickernet arrived in December 1999.
Twenty years on it is clear to me that the need for Computer Education, in all its forms, is as urgent today as it was back then.
There is something fascinating revealed on those rare occasions when computer hardware (here at Heathrow) reveals what it is really thinking.!
