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
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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:
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!
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.
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!
Campfire Experiment
The Particulate Sensor was put to work sniffing the air above our campfire. More than just marshmallows to chew over.! Report here.
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.
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!
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?”
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.
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!
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.
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”!
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.
Interactive Book
The Digital Writes pupil-powered creation is well underway: bringing new meaning to the phrase “immersive”, our Literature Alive project is demonstrating what Unity software can enable children to accomplish, even when they may have decided previously that reading or writing was not for them.
Key Stage Three pupils at the School Of Solutions – a vitally important alternative provision unit which is part of The Park Academies Trust – are experiencing cutting edge ‘world-building’ software whilst contributing their creative ideas towards a digital book like no other.
It is a virtual game book – a successor to the ‘play-your-own-adventure’ stories that allow multiple routes through the text. Turn to certain pages and the book becomes an active 3D world, based on the content of the story that is unfolding and which they can then explore.
A total of four Swindon schools, two Primary and two Secondary – as well as the Museum of Computing – are taking part in this Arts Council funded project. Full details are here, with a great demonstration video (2 mins) to be found on YouTube here.
Would you like to join in?
With the launch of Flickernet Tinker, there is now a new opportunity to become involved in the world of physical computing, even if you prefer making to teaching! Everyone is welcome to join in – for further details please see: