Being a Teacher using Physical Computing with all Students
These stories centre on classroom moments where students encounter computing through tangible experimentation with devices, sensors, and code. In these encounters, learning unfolds through curiosity, trial-and-error, and shared exploration. Teachers describe how such experiences can create powerful anchor moments that shape how students come to understand computing and their own place within it.
Tom
We use micro:bits with temperature sensors and tilt switches that physically do something in our Y7 computing lessons. When students enter the sixth form, and again we’ve had difficulties when the trust blocks them, we run the serial USB device for data logging. The central part of this lesson is to teach students the SQL commands to create a file and read the data in Python automatically, so let's have that data live.
They download a serial stream of data using micro:bit and Telnet or something similar, and this data could be stored as a text file or database. But then students do something with the data, so it's not just about micro:bit; the micro:bit is the device that provides the data.
It makes it a little less dry, doesn't it? A little more interesting. Let's have that data coming in, swing it around their heads, see what's going up and down, and start looking at how we can use Python plotting.
So, instead of just doing it in a spreadsheet or simply using Access to learn SQL commands, we do it properly and do it with some interest.
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I use micro:bits this way because they do the job, and I have 60 of them under my desk, so I don't have to buy anything else.
I can plug them in, and they just work. I could get the Raspberry Pis out, but then I would have to spend the next 45 minutes setting up the damn things and showing the students how to install Linux and things like that.
Tom
We try to get our A-level students to think about using physical computing in projects when they do their coursework.
Some students have used Arduinos or micro:bit as control devices, and we try to get them to consider these aspects.
For example, one student attempted to build a motion-tracking system to control an object on the screen using a micro:bit for processing.
His coursework became complicated by using the micro:bit with Bluetooth or the radio-type thing to connect.
He eventually used a webcam with a library he had found on GitHub. It was a good project that reached a point where he wore a bright red glove that could be detected on the screen, and became motion-tracking.