Teacher Training

Physical computing kits available for Code Clubs in England

From making your first LED blink to creating a musical instrument, physical computing can bring the ‘A-ha!’ moment into your Code Club.

If your Code Club is running within a school in England, you can hire a selection of physical computing kits from an NCCE Computing Hub for free.

Bringing the ‘A-ha!’ moment to Code Club

Physical computing helps club members to build connections between the real world and programming. By designing, programming, and making their own creations, young people get the opportunity to learn about microcontroller boards, LEDs, inputs and outputs, and so much more!  

The kits are designed so that you can get started straight away. No experience is necessary as you’ll have access to:

  • The Teach Computing guide to physical computing kits
  • Step-by-step projects
  • Our online FutureLearn courses 

What are the kits?

The physical computing kits are available from the 34 NCCE Computing Hubs located at secondary schools across England. The kits are split into trays by type of device, and each tray is suitable for teachers to get started with physical computing at different key stages:

  • Crumble trays – aimed at key stage 2
  • Micro:bit trays – aimed at key stages 2 and 3
  • Raspberry Pi Pico trays – aimed at key stage 4
  • Raspberry Pi 3B+ trays – aimed at key stage 4
This is what a Raspberry Pi Pico tray looks like

How can I borrow a kit to use at my Code Club?

If you’re a teacher in England, you can visit the NCCE Hubs webpage to find your local Hub, then contact them to find out what’s available to borrow. Each computing kit is generally available to use for up six weeks at a time. 

If you’re a volunteer, you can still access the free Teach Computing Curriculum to use in your club. 

I’ve hired a kit. How do I get started? 

The Teacher Guide to physical computing kits provides a detailed explanation of all of the equipment and components included in the kits. It also has information about free teaching resources and training. 

The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently launched two fantastic new project paths that your Code Club could explore with the Raspberry Pi 3B+ and Raspberry Pi Pico trays:

Each project has step-by-step instructions to help young coders and educators to learn and develop their coding skills together! 

Raspberry Pi Picos bring Python code to life when connected to breadboards and other electrical components

How have the kits been used?

More than two hundred trays have been loaned out since September 2021. Over 90% of teachers who have borrowed them say that they have used lessons and units from the Teach Computing Curriculum to teach with the physical computing kits, some during class time and others at after-school clubs, like Code Club. 

Ian Cartwright, a teacher from Belvedere Academy, a girls’ secondary school in Toxteth, Liverpool, borrowed a tray of Raspberry Pi Picos to use at his lunchtime club with a small group of 11- to 12-year-old students. Ian started with five students and that quickly went up to a group of ten when they started telling their friends about making the LEDs flash. Ian said, 

“[It’s] massively more engaging than programming Python on a screen — walking into a room with the box of kit grabs their attention straight away. They love the idea of building something physical, like a car. When the lights flash they ask whether they can take their phones out (but they’re not allowed to) so that they can show their mum and dad when they get home.”

Young people can build motorised buggies and bridges with the Crumble tray

Year 5 and 6 students from Purford Green Primary Academy in Harlow, Essex, told us about how they used Crumbles to make buggies drive around tables and control bridges to make them go up and down. When asked how using Crumbles compared with other computing activities, such as using Scratch, one student said, 

“I liked the Crumbles because it helped me develop my block coding and make my bridge move. I couldn’t do that on Scratch.” 

Bring the magic of physical computing into your Code Club and share your adventures with us on Twitter and Facebook. 

Volunteer to help us run Code Club Teacher Training

We’re on the search for enthusiastic volunteers who could help us run teacher training for the computing curriculum!

Why we need your help…

It’s just over one year since the introduction of the new computing curriculum in English schools. Back in September 2014, the new curriculum was hailed with cheers from the UK’s technology industry who saw the change as a first step in addressing the growing digital skills gap, whilst many educators reacted with concern.

The simple fact is that most teachers were never taught to code, either at school or as part of their teaching qualification. A study from TES reflected this, revealing that two-thirds of teachers felt unprepared to teach brand new, technically focussed subject matter.

Robot 001At Code Club, we have been working to change that, with our Teacher Training programme.

To date we’ve trained 1186 teachers with the help of 250 amazing volunteers. This year, we have started running training sessions that are free at the point of access for teachers.

Now we’re looking for trainers who can volunteer to run these sessions. Think you might be able to help? Read on…

What’s involved?

  1. Take our five minute quiz (it’s just nine questions to determine your knowledge of programming)
  2. An informal phone or skype interview
  3. Attend a training day

How does it work?

It’s pretty simple really. We provide free training for volunteers with some experience, interest or passion in computer science to run sessions for teachers. All materials you need for sessions with teachers will be provided. You will also receive a full training day about how to deliver effective training.

Teachers can sign up on our website. They provide contact details and several dates that they want training. On our training days we match volunteers with schools based on their availability.

What training do we offer you?

It’s a full day’s professional seminar. There will be anywhere from 10 to 20 people involved. The day itself is run by Ali Redmore, former executive director of the Science Learning Centre, and teacher. On the day we give all sorts of tips and tricks about how to run sessions, how adults learn, behaviour management, in depth look at our materials and setting up your first session.

Most people that attend a training day have never taught before. We welcome anyone who has an interest in computer science and helping teachers.

I’m interested, where do I sign up?

Head to www.codeclubpro.org/become-a-trainer and sign up. Our next training session for volunteers is in Birmingham on Saturday 7th November 2015. We’re looking forward to meeting you!

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New Teacher Training Materials!

They say a change is as good as a rest. Here at Code Club HQ we have definitely taken the spirit of that phrase to heart.  After refreshing our projects page and registration process for Code Club volunteers, we’re now excited to say that we’ve also implemented some changes to our Teacher Training materials – all with the aim of helping and supporting our wonderful volunteers. There are two big changes to be aware of:

  • NEW materials for teacher training
  • FREE sessions for teachers at the point of access

You wanted new materials…you got them!

After reading through feedback we received from many of our volunteers, we saw there was overwhelming support to update our Teacher Training materials. The changes have been focussed on creating more interactive sessions to increase group participation and decrease the time our trainers spent talking ‘at’ teachers.

Robot 003What are the new sessions?

The new sessions are:

  • Computational Thinking: an introduction to computer science concepts, maze based practical application for KS1 computing elements, and lesson ideas for cross curricular computing
  • Programming: using scratch to create a chatbot, interactive learning for the KS2 programming aspects and unplugged ideas for classroom activities.
  • Networks and the Internet: learning to use HTML (the ‘language’ of websites), how the internet actually works and the principles of searching the web.

What does this mean for volunteers?

Good things, all good things.

You will still have an arsenal of slides, activities, session outlines and further links. The slides should be self explanatory but we will be releasing screencasts of all three presentations in the near future as well. We will schedule in webinars soon too, but until then if you have any questions, comments or queries please contact trainer@codeclubpro.org.

What does this mean for teachers?

Sessions will now be free at the point of access for teachers! Teachers can register for training through our website and we will set up the session from there. We will run sessions as and when we secure funding, so it is worth noting that schools may not get immediate access to a free session.  As a not-for-profit, we rely on financial support to run our teacher training programme – and we hope this new approach will offer more opportunities to reach more teachers and children across the UK.

When can I see the new materials?

If you’re one of our trainers, you can view them right now! Simply log in to https://www.codeclubpro.org/trainers/sign_in and see them for yourself. The old materials will still be available for the next few months.