DIY

BBC micro:bit launches in London!

On Tuesday we attended the launch of the BBC’s exciting new micro:bit project in London. As a partner organisation of the BBC’s flagship Make It Digital initiative, which aims to get more young people across the UK involved in digital making and computer science, Code Club couldn’t be more excited to see the new micro:bit revealed in all its pocket-sized glory!

The micro:bit, measuring just 4cm by 5cm, is a stripped down computer which children can use to code and create anything they set their minds to! It’s intended as a starter device to give children a basic introduction to physical computing and tinkering, so that they can move on to using the more advanced machines such as Arduino, Galileo and Kano.

CJTPan2WIAAfkMR

Key features of the micro:bit include:

  • A display consisting of 25 red LEDs
  • Two programmable buttons
  • On-board motion sensor or “accelerometer”
  • A built-in compass or “magnetometer”
  • Bluetooth Smart Technology
  • Three Input and Output (I/O) rings

The introduction of the micro:bit has been inspired by the success of the BBC Micro back in the 1980s (a tool which gave a lot of our Code Club volunteers their first hands-on experience with coding and computer science).

Speaking at Tuesday’s event the BBC’s Director General, Tony Hall said: “Just as the BBC Micro introduced millions to personal computers 30 years ago, the BBC micro:bit can help equip a new generation with the digital skills they need to find jobs and help grow the UK economy.”

We’ll be supporting the BBC micro:bit initiative by creating a set of learning resources for the device, which will be available to use in our Code Clubs to help children harness the power of the device and to see the impact that programming can have on their day-to-day lives.

Children will learn introductory programming and computational thinking concepts, and apply them in making a range of fun programs for their micro:bit.

We’re also really thrilled that the BBC will be providing us with 20,000 micro:bits so that our Code Club members and volunteers can get a chance to use them too – for free! Stay tuned for further details coming soon.

Read more about the micro:bit on the BBC Make It Digital website

*Big thanks to our volunteers Joseph Haig, Marc Burrage and Stephen Manson who gave us a helping hand at the launch event :)

Fun with squishy circuits

I recently saw this excellent TED video about how to teach the basics of electricity to children using electricity conducting playdough and letting them be circuit designers, and decided to try it out. The dough can be hooked up to all kinds of fun stuff including LEDs, motors, arduinos, MaKey MaKeys etc.

Playdough can be made from things you already have in your kitchen, and it’s quite easy to make. You’ll need to make two types of playdough, one for the insulating dough and one for the conductive dough. The original recipes can be found here, but Americans use this funny thing called “cups”, and as true geek I only think in SI units*, so here’s the actual recipe that I followed:

The stuff you’ll need:

ingredients for playdough

First, I made the conductive dough, using:

  • 250 ml tap water
  • 200 g flour
  • 75 g salt
  • 135 ml lemon juice
  • 15 ml vegetable oil
  • food coloring (optional, I used green which is my favourite colour)

Add all the ingredients except for about 60-70g of the flour in a pot and stir well.

Heat over medium temperature, and continue stirring. It will start to boil and thicken. Keep stirring until it looks like this (big ball of dough):

cooking playdough

Put the dough on a baking tray with a bit of flour, and knead in the remaining flour, a bit at a time, until you reach that special playdough-y consistency. Check the quality by making some basic sculptures.

playdough dinosaur

And now for the insulating dough! You’ll need:

  • 200 g flour
  • 110 g sugar
  • 45 ml Vegetable Oil
  • 125 ml deionized water (I couldn’t find this so used still, filtered water from the shop)

Mix 140 grams of the flour with the sugar, vegetable oil and a tiny bit of the water (about 15 ml) in a bowl.

mixing insulating playdough

Then continue adding a little bit of the water at a time, until most of the water is absorbed in the dough. Then knead in the remaining flour/water until you reach a good playdough-y texture.

Now all you need to do is test the playdough for conductivity and non-conductivity. This can easily be done with some batteries and a LED. Make two lumps of conductive dough, hook it up to the batteries, and stick one leg of a LED into each lump. Notice if you bring the two lumps together so they are touching, it short-circuits and the LED no longer lights up. So stick some insulating dough between the two lumps and voila, squishy circuits 101 is complete. Have fun playing, and please let us know about any cool things you make!

basic squishy circuitsnail circuit

The dough lasts for several weeks if you keep it in an airtight container or ziplock bag. Remember to clean off the batteries/LEDs/metal bits with a damp cloth after using them with the dough, as salt is very good at corroding metal. I learnt that the hard way.

This batch of dough will be a part of the Code Club traveling code show, where we will be teaching the basics of computing, 1s and 0s, or “on” and “off”, you get the picture ;)

* Except for when it comes to temperature. I still think in Celsius rather than Kelvin. Oh well.