Getting Started with Physical Computing Brendan Routledge brendan.routledge@computingatschool.org.uk brendan@suffolkeducationconsultants.net

Micro:bits in Primary Schools TES article December 2017 by Dan Cumberland Embrace the wow factor (without breaking the bank)  Find the right balance between guidance and independence Planning is key, but don’t stifle creativity Always think big and don’t be afraid to embrace ideas Get other subjects involved Different contexts promote deeper thinking Promote failure Don’t be afraid to be a big kid yourself

How does physical computing fit into the primary curriculum?

How does physical computing fit into the primary curriculum?

Have a look at your micro:bit – what can you tell me about it?

Let’s get started! Google “micro bits lets code” and open ‘Javascript Block Editor’

Your first program We’re going to make a message scroll (move) across the screen Drag the blocks below from Basic into the area in the middle of the screen You should see your program run on the emulator on the left

Transferring the code Click Download to download your code Click Done on the pop up box Once your file has downloaded, click on the arrow by the file name and select Show in folder Drag the file to the micro:bit device on the left of the window Watch your program appear on your micro:bit!

Challenges Make your micro:bit display two messages, with a pause in between Make an image appear between the text Clear the screen for a short amount of time between the images displaying

Button presses We’re now going to use the buttons to make stuff happen Program your micro:bit to display an image when a button is pressed

Challenges Make your micro:bit display a different image when button B is pressed Make your micro:bit display a different image when buttons A and B are pressed Make your micro:bit display a different image or message when you shake it Make your micro:bit stop the animation if you press button A + B together

Altering LED brightness These instructions will make a heart flash

Using variables We can use a variable to store the brightness Create a new variable called “myBrightness” by clicking on Make a Variable from the Variables block We’ll then set this variable to zero when the program starts

Using variables Through using variables, we can reduce the number of instructions we need

Challenges Alter the speed of the fade by: Changing the length of the pause Altering the brightness increase Can you edit the programme so that when it gets to max brightness (255) it resets to 0 and starts again?

Programming events We could make the heart appear only when you shake the device

Challenges Make the heart go brighter if you press button A Make the heart go darker if you press button B Make the heart vanish if you press A and B at the same time Make the heart go brighter if you tilt the micro:bit screen upwards Make the heart go darker if you tilt the micro:bit screen downwards

Making a circuit We can create a circuit by touching 0 (P0 in the Editor) and ground (GND) Try making something happen when pin P0 is pressed You might display some text or random numbers

Challenges Make a simple game to tell your friend where they should go on holiday!

Resources and further guidance This presentation available at http://www.suffolkeducationconsultants.net/?page_id=130 http://mb4ps.co.uk/resources - excellent site produced by Neil Rickus, very practical and full of classroom ideas https://microbit.org/ideas/ - loads of project ideas from the official site https://teachwithict.weebly.com/microbit.html - ideas for use from a currently serving teacher https://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-gb/articles/industries/government/citynext/educated-cities/7-perfect-microbit-projects-for-pupils/ - 7 projects from Microsoft