Our ongoing mission to include the mighty Whitewater within the Mourne Park inspired teaching materials, has reached an important milestone now that real-time video of the river compliments the other Space To Learn broadcasts.
The therapeutic benefits of seeing and hearing the river from afar will form part of our teenage mental health and wellbeing project, in association with Oxford Brookes.
It was an unexpected bonus to find that a wasp’s nest had been built within sight of one of the close-up cams. The learning that has come from watching the wasps – and considering their role in the local ecosystem – was as such, also a bonus.
Now, however there are far fewer wasps to be seen. These three photos, taken over a period of one month show why: the nest appears to have disintegrated. More questions than wasps.
The area of woodland which we have cleared to become Transmission Zone 1: mainly an outdoor robot racing track, has just had some visitors!
What a fun time of it we have had over two days at Kilkeel Primary School then in Mourne Park, Space To Learn. The P5, P6 and P7 classes each built a solar powered Micro:Bit sensing unit that was installed deep in the woodland to take sensor readings that are now being broadcast via the monitoring camera.
Sincere thanks to Helena McCabe, William, Richard, Lee, Claire and all at KPS for their welcome and support throughout the project and in their wonderful school.
A lone Pine marten and a badger cross paths just a few minutes apart!
Not sure what would have happened if they had met.. Once a robot is on patrol in this zone, there will be an extra camera with which to analyse the nocturnal activity of these elusive mammals.
Looking forward to welcoming Kilkeel Primary School to Space To Learn, Mourne Park on Wednesday.
The location for their STEM experiments to be sited is ready and transmitting (via a doubly extended PoE connection!)
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
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.
Three different core experiences to choose from
All link together ensuring best fit for your requirements
As a quick guide: Micro:Bit Marvels is aimed at schools and home educators to provide fun projects that emulate those that are often suited to actual deployment in the woods of Space To Learn. It includes options such as robotics; environmental sensing and cross-curricular demonstrations
Connect and Play offers learners a more fluid technology experience featuring a wider range of electronics and design technology led projects that can include recycled equipment and game design
Phillip is available to hire as a STEM Advisor at reasonable rates. He travels throughout Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and County Down.
Please click below to be taken to the Micro:Bit Marvels page – with details about the many Micro:Bit extras that we can demonstrate for you.
It started in the woods..
Flickernet was formed in 1999 at the centre of a private estate in Northern Ireland.
25 years later the corner of that same estate is at the centre of a clear mission to find practical advantages there, with which to help others.
Learning
Calming
Inspiring
Having fun is the best way to learn. With devices such as Makey Makey and Raspberry Pi, connections can be made with technology old and new: creating interfaces that bring old toys to life; build novel controllers; and provide the space to explore electronics and coding combined.
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.
One last camera online for now: AvenueCam. This solar powered camera stretches the WiFi connection to the current limits: providing a view over the avenue that leads further into Mourne Park.
This live feed, along with the established set of existing broadcasts, provide learners with an instant link into the natural environment upon which their classroom studies are based.
The aim of this camera is to monitor the red squirrels as they traverse this route as well as to monitor activity from a freshly dug fox hole below!
The Transmission Zone is a general purpose broadcast area for remotely monitored experiments that need a bit more space.
Central to the space is a young oak tree that is awaiting having a squirrel feeder attached to it. This will be provided by John Francis, who manages the red squirrel population in Mourne Park.
In front of this is taking shape an area for the outdoor robot system, which is currently under development in association with Kevin from Kitronik. More details soon.
Space To Learn provides a test-bed for projects that inspire STEM learning. This Micro:Bit experiment measures three aspects of the environment in the woodland around it: the moisture levels of the forest floor; the ambient temperature; and the light level under the canopy.
Pupils will be building their own versions of these in the Autumn, whilst comparing what they create with the live view on screen.
Teachers have the opportunity to develop their own versions and to explore the potential for environmental sensing and project based learning connected directly to the woodland in Northern Ireland.
Summer in Northern Ireland is well underway with preparations focused on the upcoming Autumn Outdoor Coding sessions.
The WatchBox prototype is due for deployment in October. An ideal tree is now ready – with a new video stream of that tree in place . The data link to that tree will be helped by its proximity to an access point and plenty of sunlight will support the solar.
Transmission Zone (outdoor robot testing area and squirrel feeder location) has now got a defined perimiter indicated by luminous cord!
The camera formally known as CloseupCam 1 has become WaspCam.. It was about to have a Micro:Bit experiment added when I was stung! In attempting to move the unsightly cable I got stung twice more! WaspCam it is then – the nest is situated clearly in view and busy!
Beginning to consider what a more exciting logo might look like..
AI is great, but the woodland featured in this creation does not yet feel accurate – Mourne Park is predominantly a beech wood with venerable trees creating a canopy through which the Whitewater river flows, sometimes in considerable torrents. The AI rendering reduces this to a rather generic coniferous wood!
It is a long time since I attended Kilkeel Primary School, but the large assembly hall door was just as I remember. There was a familiar sense of anticipation too..
Meeting with Helena McCabe and two of her IT team was tremendously productive. We have planned out a future KPS visit to Mourne Park to see Space To Learn in action.
Just in time, I have the Transmission Zone camera up and running. It required a PoE extender and presented an opportunity for a sound focusing experiment. The clearing is ideal: easy to access from the main teaching area, yet undisturbed wild woodland. There is a badger / fox path running straight through it.
More information about Space To Learn here
Continuing an exploration into remote sensing and the ability to experience an environment from afar – the latest WoodsCam overlooks a badger set, extending the range of the cameras further into the woods.
Swindon Borough Council – custodians of the Magic Roundabout – have kindly agreed to my request to site a particulate sensor on traffic lights in town. It is hoped that the busy toad will provide a new data stream to add to the mountain air / classroom feeds that are already in place.
All being well, the fumes produced by passing traffic will show pm 2.5 readings that can be viewed in realtime to provide a direct comparison to those found in a pupil’s own classroom and that found within ancient woodland in Northern Ireland. Zjeremy the robot brings the sensor into classrooms – see www.flickernet.net/data or www.flickernet.net/pm25
A preliminary visit to the site has revealed open WiFi access from the nearby Co-Op which could help!
The Whitewater River in Mourne Park is a what is known as a spate river.
Torrents of water cascade down from the Mourne Mountains – usually rushing past faster than we can register. Slow motion photography helps to capture the beauty. It may look intense – but it is truly peaceful.
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
Thank you to everyone who attended the first Autism Support Communicator event, which was held in Mourne Park on Saturday. Communicating our feelings as we explored the woods together: through the sending of images via Micro:Bit radio signals – it works!
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.
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!
Exploring the versatile Micro:Bit in Mourne Park: orienteering with a [coded] compass through the woods; searching for treasure with [coded] metal detectors then sampling the natural environment with sensors. Thank you Anthony and the team for coming along – full report here: www.flickernet.net/stlouis
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!
A little note to say that, sadly, I am on compassionate leave at present due to my Mum being gravely ill. My regular schools know this, and I am grateful for their understanding. My Digital Writes colleague Keith continues to deliver our current courses. Meanwhile, with time ahead in Northern Ireland, I am preparing for the upcoming Woodland Coding events, through Space To Learn, about which: more to follow.
There are two new Project Based Learning initiatives brewing which I will be excited to share here in due course. They seek to offer a (pupil-built) helpful communication system for two distinct groups of people: those who are autistic and those who are refugees. This is my priority for TTH (Tech To Help).
An important upcoming development will be the Society of Tinkerers. Building on Flickernet Tinker, this seeks to create a forum in which TTH can be advanced as well as providing space for further projects to be skilfully investigated by those from a range of technology and educational backgrounds.
Flickernet Archive has an initial event pending, during which outdoor presentation of materials will be trialled, in support of my friends and neighbours, The Woodland Trust.
Swindon Borough Council have kindly agreed to support my extra-urban particulates sensor, which will go live (on the data page) once I have selected a location from those on offer, and installed the Raspberry Pi powered equipment.
Whilst I may be more difficult to contact over the next week or two, I am keen to resume all things Flickernet soon, and look forward to delivering all that I can going forwards.
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!
From climbing trees in the woods of Northern Ireland whilst clutching Raspberry Pi units, to helping children who were on the cusp of quitting school to build adventure game-books, this year has been a real eye-opener to me.
It is a rare privilege to become free to teach what one chooses. I hadn’t dared believe that it could happen, but now Flickernet is full steam ahead – 24 years on from those early Dot Com years – with a new focus called TTH: Tech To Help. This is what I will be up to, going forward – please see the synopsis page for more information or if you would like to be involved.
The Particulate Sensor was put to work sniffing the air above our campfire. More than just marshmallows to chew over.! Report here.
