Jan / Feb roundup
Marvellous Musical Machine: Micro:Bits connected to servos creating musical instruments for ASD therapeutics and expression
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February 28, 2025
EnviroClub
Our Physical Computing club: dedicated to the study of the environment that can be found on the island, and in the duck pond, outside the classroom window of Key Stage 2, Bishopstone Primary School. Follow our adventures here: www.flickernet.net/bishy3
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September 17, 2024
The Year Ahead
About Flickernet 24/25:
Supporting underprivileged young people
Assisting schools in the South West of England
Outdoor learning and remote sensing facilities (Space To Learn), in Northern Ireland
Core principles:
We have a Christian ethos, seeking to meet the needs of those who face disadvantage by providing access to technology and the natural world: in combination
Pupil-led investigations and project-based learning ensure creative control for those who may not have experienced an open-ended learning approach before
Immersive experiences to help those who suffer from anxiety or who are in need of other mental health support, to benefit from the calming sensations of the woodland
Engagement with the natural environment from afar, with added agency due to the remote connectivity systems.
Therapeutics and mental health care, including for the neurodivergent: opportunities for technology and the woodland environment to be combined into new and effective therapy methods
Pupils of all ages are shown real projects that have been designed to help others, or the environment: this provides inspiration for their own projects
Teachers and home educators are encouraged to join their pupils in developing innovative methods of interacting remotely with the enivronment
Training for teachers, along with the physical space to explore new technologies, including support for their own innovative approaches to learning
Multiple live feeds from within an ancient woodland in the Mountains of Mourne, Northern Ireland provide real-time access to STEM experiments
Real data, drawn from sensors that are spread throughout an area of special scientific interest (ASSI) inspire learners to develop their own projects which, in turn, can be physically located within the same woodland for them to monitor.
In 2025 our focus on the wellbeing of young people will be the main Flickernet offering.
InFindingOut:
- designed to encourage engagement with learning
- starts with the individual needs of the young person.
- for anybody who finds themselves disengaged, overcome with anxiety or otherwise prevented from doing their best in school.
Our combination of therapeutic woodland experience and cutting edge STEM experimentation, provides young people and their teachers with a new outlook.
We aim is to deliver this for free by partnering with organisations who seek to support the growing mental health challenges that are encountered by young people today.
There follows a blog which it is hoped can be helpful in charting the journey that Flickernet, (mainly Phillip Anley!), has taken. Having taught full time in schools from 2005, Phillip has been working independently again through Flickernet Ltd. since 2022. Phillip is also a Director of Digital Writes CIC and of Mourne Country Park Ltd. Phillip divides his time between England and Northern Ireland.
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August 16, 2024
ComX
Delighted to meet up with Isaac, a former primary school pupil today at The University of Gloucester ComX event, showcasing original game design projects.
Isaac is poised to enter his final year of studies. It was equally shocking to both of us that so many years have gone by! Isaac attributes an early introduction to Physical Computing as an inspiration for his choice of degree course. It was a privilege to be shown how far his talents have now taken him.
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June 7, 2024
Capacitive Touch MineCraft
The “Bash Bash Box” is nearing completion: final testing (fun!)
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June 6, 2024
Cardboard Interface Kit
Building touch control kits with Years 3 and 4 so that Scratch programs can be controlled through external inputs (Makey Makey) whilst sending images to an external output (Micro:Bit)
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June 4, 2024
Robot Claw Clash
The inter-school Robot Racing challenge is hotting up! With both Bishopstone and St Mary’s Primary schools fielding teams of robots that increasingly move in the right direction – the moment is fast approaching for Race Day! For updates on team progress, please see www.flickernet.net/rrc
To liven up the arena, we have been developing claw-bots that will chomp at unsuspecting robots as they pass!
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March 13, 2024
Debate Outcome: faith in humanity restored!
Thank you to all of those who attended the first ever Bloviators debate. It was a great chance to test out the format and to explore what debating looks like when it has to be spontaneous! Of the three motions that were on offer, the motion that was voted for by those in attendance was that human beings present too much of a danger for alien life to risk making contact with us. Jamie and Miles successfully opposed the motion, pointing out how much we have to offer the wider universe!
Going forwards we will tweak the format further and take it to some local educational establishments. It is hoped that Bloviators can return to the Cirencester Baptist Church in June.
Randomizing the teams through a spinner / Fisher Price button kept us all on our toes!
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February 24, 2024
Bash Bash Machine
Another name for Minecraft is BashBash – or at least in our house anyway! We first played it on a Raspberry Pi 3b – a rather simplified version, but nonetheless fun. Given the need that I find to demonstrate to pupils what a huge range of inputs are possible (cue tin foil, pressure pads, capacitive touch experiments etc) – there developed a good excuse to build a box with many connections.
Rather than have a light toggle or a buzzer sound when a connection is made – what if those input triggers meant that a Minecraft world was moved through, built and bashed? More to follow!
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February 15, 2024
Chatbot
If, like me, you were a fan of the Tomy robot collection from the 1980s, then you may also recall the tantalising sensation born out of an awareness of what those robots were unable to do, which was almost as invigorating as what they could do.
Take Chatbot: it was equipped with a mechanical voice recorder that was primed by pulling a large level down whilst speaking a message, then triggered by remote control. Hours of fun ensued driving it around with occasional spoken messages being relayed.
Chatbot was not without limitation, however. It could not engage in further conversation – or be instructed to move – or check on the road conditions outside.
Now that it is 2024, Chatbot could – and over the coming weeks I hope to reveal one way of achieving an upgrade to this venerable robot!
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February 13, 2024
Kodu on Micro:Bit
Was reminded today that the Micro:Bit / Kodu link remains a simple but effective means of providing readily coded inputs and outputs: engaging interfaces that bring virtual worlds to life. Next week we will add the pressure pads via Makey Makey – leading to pupils building their own controllers.
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February 4, 2024
Do you bloviate?
Just one month to go until the first Bloviator debate! Free and open to all – if you enjoy debating but haven’t had much of an opportunity to construct a well-reasoned argument in front of a Chairperson for some time – then please consider joining us on the 23rd February. Full details here: www.flickernet.net/debate
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January 23, 2024
ClawBot
Now that we have got our robots avoiding obstacles – will they be able to escape ClawBot?! Follow the latest Bishopstone RRC developments at www.flickernet.net/bishy
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January 23, 2024
WatchBox
Coming soon – we hope – the WatchBox! This project-based-learning endeavour will offer children the opportunity to build, code and deploy, a wildlife monitoring system of their own. This will be a new way to connect with nature. For further details see here: www.flickernet.net/watchbox
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December 18, 2023
Back to Bishy!
Thank you to Robin, Becky and the team for a great welcome back to Bishopstone, to the very classroom where so many technological adventures were had all those years ago!
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December 7, 2023
Pi Upgrades
Led by Zjeremy, (who retains what Steve (HoD GWA) affectionately refers to as a “prototyping look”!) – a number of Raspberry Pi upgrades are now taking shape. Zjeremy needs to run Scratch 3 with a bit of vim if he is to juggle multiple HATS for interfacing with. His secondary 3b board was not up to speed, but the 4b seems happier. To celebrate, he was coded into taking images of the woodland views from the second floor of Great Western Academy.
Meanwhile low cost LCD screens set into basic plastic boxes are a quick and simple addition for classroom kit. Raspberry Pi units deliver physical computing with core electronics and more advanced sensing: it is helpful to enclose them for protection during transport. A ribbon cable allows the GPIO to be extended for easy connections.
The CarFume Detector unit is almost ready for deploying on a busy Swindon street. It will mirror the functionality of Zjeremy and the Tree Pi – providing new urban data for comparison.
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November 16, 2023
Thermal woodland trail
As the cold evenings draw in, there is a type of thermal enhancement that doesn’t warm the toes much, but that does identify hidden cctv cameras in the trees! Thank you Eden for testing out your thermal imaging mobile phone functionality in our wood!
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October 12, 2023
Space To Learn – ready for tomorrow
Standing by to welcome St Louis Grammar School tomorrow – a specialist school in technology – and also my neighbours! Twenty Year 11 Computer Science pupils will be learning how to code Micro:Bits for outdoor learning adventures, including environmental sensing, orienteering, and even metal detecting!
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October 10, 2023
Tech To Help.charity
It is with great excitement that we are launching a new project which brings together the common threads of Physical Computing, Project Based Learning and a desire to see technology put to use helping those who most need it.
Along with my colleague Keith Phillips, founder of Digital Writes, I am exploring the possibility of creating a new charity, which would be called Tech To Help. This will seek to find new ways of directing the limitless creativity and enthusiasm of Primary school children to design and build real-world solutions that help people who are facing disadvantage. The site page is here – it is a work in progress!
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October 6, 2023
Flickernet Archive – First Event
Sharing a particular historical archive using technology and the outdoors is an ongoing mission. As those familiar with this undertaking are aware, over the last year I have converted an 1830s schoolhouse building into an archive storage and digitisation facility. This then enabled me to begin work on the Historical Narrative – a book that seeks to weave together the many stories that belong in Mourne Park. In addition I am recalling what it was like to grow up in this beautiful place. On 23rd September a group of hardy folk joined me in the woods to hear the fist five chapters read, and media shared. Thank you to those friendly faces for their encouragement and patient listening. Video and audio snippets to follow.
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September 27, 2023
Recycling Machine
Loving creating resources for team Digit<all> – with thanks to Amazon Sustainable Futures.
This is the Recycling Machine: metal detector drives a servo to sweep ferrous materials from a conveyor belt!
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July 15, 2023
For those who are new to Physical Computing
Here is a summary page with Micro:Bit; Crumble; Raspberry Pi and more general links relating to the wonderful world of Physical Computing:
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May 26, 2023
Animation to Unity
This 30 second video clip shows the three step process that we undertook with both St Mary’s and SoS pupils this week.
Having drawn their game-book characters and shaded with crayon: 1. Stop motion animation; 2. Photoshop cutout; then 3. Adobe Character Animator – at which point they are sprites that can be included into any Unity game creation – in this case fitting the gothic theme!
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May 25, 2023
Marge in a spin
Enjoying exploring Crumble equipment at Bridlewood Primary and with the ARC.
Have built Marge to demonstrate the ultra-sonics in action. Credit to @philwickins for inspiring the concept. Have put together a page with Crumble links that might be helpful.
May 19, 2023
Pre ICE deodorant experiment
Not an attempt to avoid sweating tomorrow, but rather attempting to meet a challenge set by Paddy Bradley of SWLEP ahead of my presentation at the ICE event tomorrow..
Could Zjeremy show in his live data feed a distinct difference between the current pristine tree particulate reading and the polluted air around him. No better way to pollute that air than Lynx Inca, methought – and so the data proved: careful breathing in when spraying – those particles really do fill the air!
May 9, 2023
Campfire Experiment
The Particulate Sensor was put to work sniffing the air above our campfire. More than just marshmallows to chew over.! Report here.
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April 24, 2023
BETT
The vast, sprawling assembly of tech-enthusiasts that is BETT was every bit as overwhelming this year as in previous years. Rather than attempt to see everything, I was more than content catching a few great seminars and panel discussions, then finding my way to the Physical Computing corner.
Ricky and the team: your equipment has taken remote sensing opportunities to a new level! I am delighted to have connected with you and I look forward to sharing the immense range and functionality of what DFRobot produce in China. It will take me a few months to explore the equipment – but there is no doubt in my mind that what you have created could benefit learners up and down the UK.
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March 31, 2023
The Actual Reality Arcade
Devizes Arts Festival featured this great homage to classic computer games. A simple idea but a brilliant one: becoming the characters in a physical recreation. I got so into being pac-man!
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March 27, 2023
Recycling Old Tech
STEM have kindly published my blog containing some thoughts towards how old, and seemingly defunct, technology can yet be of value to teachers as a means of providing Physical Computing experiences.
Perhaps the question for teachers (& school IT support teams) could be: “what can this still do?” – rather than “what can this not do?”
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March 27, 2023
PM 2.5
Enjoying resource creation for my friends at Digit<all>
An activity for teachers will merge DT with Computing skills and Science – to build a particle measuring machine, linked to the PM2.5 Tree Sensor so that pupils can engage with the need for careful monitoring of these dangerous airborne particles.
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March 27, 2023
Badger plus on cam
The Space To Learn site in Northern Ireland captures video of wildlife passing by cameras that are spread throughout the woods. This camera, BadgerCam – is a good one for recording the soundscape too!
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March 25, 2023
Bridlewood
Delighted that Bridlewood Primary have joined our TPAT Trust. We will soon be exploring crumble kits together – to add physical computing fun to their upcoming school Design Technology project.
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March 8, 2023
St Mary’s join the fun!
Literature Alive – from Digital Writes – is now well underway. Keith and I enjoyed our first visit to St Mary’s on Thursday – coinciding with World Book day. From next week we will begin working with a selection of pupils from St. Mary’s to develop the interactive game book. When asked, during our assembly, what would be different about our book to other books, the answer came back: “everything”!
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March 2, 2023
PA Consulting Competition update
All three of the ARC entries are gathering momentum. There is just one month left before the closing date of this year’s competition – which equates to four hours for us! Although only one entry (The Thermal Imaging project) could actually be described as a “robot”, it has been wonderful to see each team applying their coding, construction, and debugging skills in earnest.
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February 13, 2023
