Student Learning Archives

Enrichment Programs: What and Why

Written by Charlotte Brearley, BSD Education

Enrichment programs are after school activities designed to give students the opportunity to try new things and explore and develop interests outside of the classroom. Activities can range from sports to cooking, from drawing to coding. All you need is a passionate teacher or external instructor, who can run an activity that aligns with the interests of your students. Another option you can consider is to challenge your students and get them to run their own activity. For example, we have worked with a student at the South Island School in Hong Kong to start an after school code club. It’s been incredibly successful and he now has a waiting list!

Enrichment programs are not just something that fills time between school and home though. They have a huge number of benefits and provide opportunities for students to further their interests from the classroom or to try something totally new. They help students develop a love for learning in their own time, expand their mind and gain skills that will help them in their academic and professional careers. Learning outside the classroom also gives students the opportunity to experiment and take risks with no implications. They are not being graded or compared to their peers and so students can try things out and learn from their mistakes. This in turn will build students’ confidence as they learn new skills and immerse themselves in new experiences.

Although activities may take place outside the classroom, their benefits will follow your students into their studies. According to “After School Programs in the 21st Century: Their Potential and What It Takes to Achieve It” published by Harvard Family Research Project, many studies “repeatedly underscore the impact of supporting a range of positive learning outcomes, including academic achievement, by affording children and youth opportunities to learn and practice new skills through hands-on, experimental learning.”

These benefits are all true of our experience at BSD. We offer programs at our own space in Hong Kong and at a large number of schools in both Hong Kong and Philadelphia. As after school programs are in a student’s own time, we know it’s important to provide an educational but also fun and sociable environment. We particularly focus on collaboration and teamwork as our programs often bring together students from a range of different backgrounds and age groups. As a result, we have found that students participating in enrichment activities not only build technical knowledge, but also develop vital future skills such as working collaboratively with new people, problem solving and presentation skills. You can found out more about what we offer here.

Enrichment programs are a great way to encourage students to follow their passions, develop new interests and build new skills. You should think about the activities you can offer and inspire your students to try something different.

Advantages of Real World Technology Camps: App Development

Written by Gabo Tse, BSD Education

Technology camps are a creative and inspiring way to expose children to a variety of real-world skills that will benefit them in the future. Not only will they be learning something new, but technology camps also allow children to explore areas of interest that they may not have experienced at home or at school.

In our current digital era, people of all ages use apps every day intrinsic to their ways of life in their daily lives. However, what is an app exactly? Why do people choose to build apps instead of websites? What does it take to build an app? What makes an app “great”? These are all questions that kids will have the opportunity to explore by attending App Development Camps.

Beyond simply learning how to code, creating a mobile app also encourages children to foster skills in a variety of areas. This includes tech-related skills such as programming, UX (user experience) design, UI (user interface) design, and soft skills such as creativity, resilience, computational thinking, and communication.

Let’s take a look at some of the real-word skills your child will learn if he/she/they enroll for an App Development Camp:

Coding

To build an app, students will learn to code using languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, as well as using coding “libraries” and “frameworks” (these are large bodies of code create by teams of professionals to make complicated but frequently used things we want to create easier and faster to build). Learning how to code teaches kids computational thinking, adaptability, organization, and also how to be focused and thorough when completing tasks – that’s because one small error in your coding syntax might cause a bug in your app!

Problem-solving

Throughout the process of building their app, children will encounter challenges such as their code not working, not knowing how to make their code perform a specific action, or not understanding specific parts of their code. This means that they will have to devise different solutions, whether that’s collaborating with their peers, researching online, or figuring out how to synthesize the coding syntax that they’ve learned to test a different approach.

Fosters empathy

Deciding to create an app means that developers must place themselves in the shoes of their users, and adopt a variety of perspectives. Developers must consider a number of questions, such as: “Will my app be easy to use?”, “Why will people want to use my app?”, “Who will want to use my app?” and “What problem(s) will my app help solve?”. The success of an app depends on the experience of its users, and kids will learn that app development is not about creating an app for themselves, but rather, apps can be solution and community driven, and are built to solve problems and help others.

Communication

At the end of a BSD App Development Camp, all the kids are required to present their app – what they built, why they built it, and how they built it. Not only does this allow them to reflect on their entire camp experience as a whole, but presentations help build confidence by showcasing their hard work, improve their public speaking skills, and demonstrate to them that their work is valued and recognized.

Technology is ingrained in nearly every aspect of our lives today. Learning to build apps is a fun, engaging, and unique activity that exposes children to a variety of disciplines, empowers them with digital skills required to succeed in the future and deepens their understanding of the world around them. They are able to socialize and make new friends in a fun and collaborative environment, and create an app that they can take home to show their friends and family that might even solve a problem for their community, or be a unique portfolio piece for a school, college, internship or job application in the future.

If you are interested in bringing our App Development Camps into your schools, let us know by contacting us here.

Your Questions About Enrichment Programs: Answered

Written by Scott Peterman, BSD Education

What are Technology “Enrichment” or “After School” Programs?

Technology focused after school enrichment programs are geared towards kids mastering the key skills and competencies of technology like computational thinking, design thinking, problem solving, and communication skills in an engaging, fun and team oriented environment. Absolutely no prior experience needed!

What makes a great Enrichment Program?

Rather than a lesson in the school day, in after school or enrichment time, enrichment classes are in the students’ time. So while they are taking their first steps into the world of technology through e.g. computer programming and applying digital skills to be creative with technology, they need to really be immersed in experiencing first-hand the incredible world of possibilities that tech provides in a way that is fun and exciting.

How do you select a theme for Enrichment Programs and how long should they last?

The best themes for Enrichment Programs spark student’s imagination around the possibilities of Tech with contextually relevant applications in their everyday life. While you should always be careful not to misrepresent the activities and outcomes in a program, there is no reason why real world themes can’t be fun and engaging for students and connect to their interests!

Similarly, the duration of an after school program should balance the minimum time needed to create intended projects, with the constraints and potential unforeseen changes that sometimes come up during the course of the school year calendar. We’ve found that after school programs should run between 1 to a maximum of 2 hours per session and need a minimum of 5 hours in total for students to have an ideal experience and really create something they can take away and be proud of.

When scheduling, it is important to be mindful of potential conflicts in the school calendar that can disrupt and/or impact students experience negatively. An example of this is winter break over the calendar new year which while a relatively short, is still long enough of a break that it can derail student’s progress and learning in a weekly program. For situations like this we instead try to schedule a program to wrap up prior to the winter break (even if it means shortening a program) and then start a new session in mid-January when students have already gotten back into the swing of school.

There is all sorts of technology out there, how do you balance between the latest thing but providing something that is accessible?

Tech themed after school programs should always prioritize equity and access over the latest thing. The latest craze is also often expensive to deliver and becomes obsolete very quickly. While media coverage may portray new Tech breakthroughs as life altering, the reality is often that ‘the latest things’ typically take years at best to deliver an educative experience for k-12 students.

An example of this paradox are 3D Printers, which despite coming onto the market more than 10 years ago are still rarely utilized in school settings because there is no coherent curriculum for them and it’s hard to see how their value can maintained on a long term basis.

Finally, we find the best balance is also to incorporate tools as the focal point of learning that are also free of affordable to buy at home, as these allow students the opportunity to continue learning and creating on their own should they wish.

What type of people make the best teachers for Enrichment Programs?

Contrary to popular belief, the most important aspect for technology enrichment program instructors is not a strong background in CS or Technology. Instead, we have consistently found that experience and confidence teaching, coupled with an open mind for learning new ideas are the two most important traits when looking for a tech program instructor. Regardless of a candidate’s age or background, it is much easier to train someone how to teach Tech curricula than it is in how to effectively manage a classroom, build inspiring relationships with students and empower them to strive towards their full potential.

What about parents? What is the best way to keep them informed and help them understand or be excited about what is being created?

While students are not the primary target audience for the content taught in after school programs it is Important to always make sure parents or guardians are kept in the loop throughout.

BSD keeps parents updated with a series of email updates prior, mid-way and at the conclusion of programs that provide information about instructors, project themes and instructions on how they can see their child’s work, as well as how their child can share his or her work with them.

Finally parents are always invited to attend the second half of the final class to see what their child has been creating in the end of course demo.

Integrate Technology into Your Subject: Sciences

Written by Eva Yeung, BSD Education

Last week we discussed tech-ed versus edtech and introduced 3 reasons why you should bring technology learning into your subject. For the next 3 weeks, we will be sharing ways to integrate technology into different subject areas, to kick off this series, let’s begin with science.

Many educators would immediately consider bringing in hardware, such as robotics. However, this requires purchasing new kits. There are other quick and simple ways to inject tech into your existing lessons and activities!

We are going to look at the 3 main ways that technology enhances and supports the science classroom: improving data collection and analysis, supported visualization of abstract phenomena and the presentation of findings.

Improving Data Collection and Analysis

When introducing the topic of data to students, don’t stop with pen and paper! Introduce tech tools such as Google Sheets to help students organize their data for better analysis. For an authentic technology learning experience, introduce students to simple programming projects using JavaScript to create dynamic data visualizations that support their understanding of the relationships between their datasets. Through such activity, students will practice 21st-century skills in working with and interpreting meaning from data with the support of technology.

Visualization of Abstract and Intangible Concepts

In a school environment, some experiments and simulations are inaccessible due to safety or budget constraints. For many students, abstract and intangible concepts in science can become challenging to grasp without visualizations. This is where computer-generated simulations become extremely useful to support student understanding. Bring in simulation projects, such as a project that simulates the speed of orbit of different planets around the sun, a plant simulation game to learn about the requirements to keep a healthy plant or a game of Pong to understand forces. Students can be challenged to solve problems by modifying values of simple computing concepts such as variables, conditionals, and animations to represent a real-world process/phenomena through experiential learning.

Presentation of Research/Findings

Give students an authentic audience to write for. The next time you set a poster or report task or assessment, consider asking students to present their findings and research through an online poster, website, or information app. In planning to use digital artifacts, students are challenged to consider the user experience and will use graphical and organization devices effectively to present information in an engaging and dynamic way. An added benefit of this activity is the shareability of the completed artifacts. Practice online safety and digital citizenship by asking students to consider how they communicate information online.

As shown above, you don’t have to change your existing curriculum and sacrifice hours from your existing practices and curriculum to give students the opportunity to practice important tech skills! If you are interested in hearing more about the BSD cross-curricular project offerings, please contact us – we would love to walk you through what we have to offer to you and your students.

Integrating Technology Education into Schools: The How

Written by Mo Qureshi, BSD Education

In this post we will share how we work with schools globally to integrate Technology Education in their existing curricula in a simple, 3 step process. Once a school has decided to partner with us, they can be ready to start teaching with BSD curriculum in less than a week!

1. Choosing a Curriculum

Every school’s journey begins with identifying their needs which are gathered by answering two questions:

What skills and competencies they want to develop in their students
How much time they have available

Based on what a school requires, we suggest either one or a combination of units from our 4 curricula offerings. Our suggestions are based on factors like (national) curriculum followed, lesson time available, skills to be developed, student interest, infrastructure available, etc.

Our 4 curriculum offerings are:

TechReady: These are focused technology courses (like Data, AI, App and Game Dev, etc) for ages 8-14 aligned to US/UK/IB curricula and mapped to ISTE/CSTA standards.

TechConnected: Technology projects for English, Mathematics, Science, Geography, Humanities and Language Learning for ages 8-14. Aligned to US/UK/IB curricula and mapped to ISTE/CSTA standards.

Technovators: After school and camp courses for ages 8-14 covering a range of topics including Coding, Robotics, Tech Entrepreneurship, E-Sports, Lego, Roblox, Minecraft, etc.

Connect2Work: BTEC aligned vocational courses for career readiness in technology first jobs for ages 16-18.

2. Teachers Skills Building and Curriculum Familiarisation

After the requirements have been identified and projects chosen, teachers receive professional development training by our instructors. The training gives the teachers the skills and confidence needed to adopt, implement and sustain the delivery of BSD curriculum seamlessly in their classrooms. The training covers:

An orientation to BSD Online – our online learning software platform
Skills building – hands on introduction to digital and coding skills
Curriculum familiarisation – understanding of the teaching resources like lesson plans or teacher prep guides BSD provides and how to use them

3. Start Teaching and Community Building

After training, teachers are ready to integrate technology education in their classroom. As teachers start teaching, we support them by providing virtual or onsite coaching with regular check-ins. Teachers who are trained and gain experience in the classroom, are encouraged to try new projects and strategies.

As teachers experience and confidence grows, some go ahead and start sharing their experiences and success stories of using BSD curriculum in their classrooms with their colleagues while others take the initiative of training more teachers within the school. This helps develop a robust community of technology education practitioners in the school, all supported by BSD’s online Educator Community!

The BSD Advantage

Our professional development training is designed to help teachers overcome the three fundamental barriers that we have found to consistently prevent a broader implementation of technology education in the classroom.

Confidence: Teachers usually don’t have background in technology so can see bringing technology education into the classroom as risky and unfamiliar. Professional development for an area that is new and technical can be hard to access. We help teachers by providing an online teaching environment and training by professionals that gives them the skills and confidence by putting them in control of the learning experience.

Content: Technology is constantly changing. Curriculum can, therefore, become quickly outdated. We help overcome this by providing up to date curriculum and content with real world relevant curriculum that can be brought into every subject.
Community: Teachers don’t often have a community of practice or peers to collaborate with, or a core group of trained practitioners to learn from and share ideas with. We assist teachers by becoming their trusted partners. We provide ongoing virtual or onsite coaching, regular check-ins, and an online community and events with like-minded educators from around the world.

If you are a teacher using BSD curriculum in your classroom, we would love to hear your experiences. If you are not yet a BSD School but are interested to bring technology education into your classrooms, get in touch with us.

How Nord Anglia International School in Hong Kong is using Technology Education Curriculum for their MIT STEAM Challenges

Written by Mo Qureshi, BSD Education.

What are the MIT STEAM Challenges?

The MIT STEAM Challenges is a collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Nord Anglia Education to enhance the teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) by connecting MIT innovation and culture to Nord Anglia schools globally through project based challenges.

Since 2016, MIT has designed three challenges per year, which have been implemented in Nord Anglia schools. The Challenges are in-school cross curricular experiences for Nord Anglia students based on MIT research. The MIT Challenges are a unique opportunity aimed to give a taste of MIT to every school, teacher, and student in the Nord Anglia Education family. Each MIT Challenge embodies the teaching and learning culture of MIT, is rooted in the research of MIT faculty, and makes that research relevant and accessible to Nord Anglia students.

This Year’s Theme

The 2018-2019 MIT Challenge is themed “STEAM Superheroes”. The challenges highlight the research of three MIT professors and their ‘sidekick’ graduate student researchers, for Nord Anglia to use as inspiration for developing their own innovations, powers, devices, identities, and more.

Each of the three “STEAM Superheroes” challenges present the work of an MIT professor and a graduate student researcher as a snapshot of life at MIT. Nord Anglia students then tackle a project of their own, using the professor and their process as inspiration

The three STEAM Superheroes and their powers are:

Epic Identity featuring Prof. Leia Stirling: Students will learn about wearable technology and its ability to improve human performance.
Super Natural featuring Prof. Anette “Peko” Hosoi: Students will closely observe the natural world and understand the physics behind an animal’s adaptation, then apply that knowledge to engineering design.
Medical Marvel featuring Prof. Chris Voigt: Students will tap into the potential of applying engineering principles to biological problems to improve human health.

BSD Education and Nord Anglia International School, Hong Kong

BSD partnered with Nord Anglia International School, Hong Kong (NAIS HK) in 2017/18 to develop and deliver projects for the MIT STEAM Challenges.

As part of the partnership, BSD delivered PD for 4 NAIS HK teachers in 2017 and is training 8 teachers in 2018. The 4 teachers developed in 2017, internally trained 4 teachers each, making a total of 20 teachers trained in 2017.

What students will learn to build using BSD Online in 2018-19

NAIS HK is using BSD’s cross-curricular curriculum offering – TechConnected with their Year 3-6 students to build their own customised creations for the MIT STEAM Challenges. Students will build their foundation with coding by learning HTML and CSS, learn the fundamentals of Computational Thinking, and learn how to make their digital artifacts and present their work.

The BSD projects recommended can be used by students to showcase and present work or to apply their learning. For example, students will showcase their work by documenting their journey of researching and building their own STEAM Challenge and present this by creating a digital portfolio. Students learn about the challenges of space travel, the preparation required and what astronauts do when they face problems in space; then students apply this learning by creating a Mission to Mars theme Choose Your Own Adventure game.

All students will be build their own Personal Portfolio Showcase to document their learning and showcase what they have built. In addition to this, students will complete the following projects in each year group:

Year 3: Introduction to coding in HTML & CSS followed by coding and designing their Online Poster with a Keep Calm and Carry On theme.
Year 4: My First Website to explain and document their STEAM Challenge
Year 5: My First Website with the theme of “Into the Unknown” and Choose Your Own Adventure with a “Mission to Mars” theme.
Year 6: Trivia Game and MicroBit Wearables with a “Medical Marvel” theme.

At BSD, we believe in and advocate for introducing digital skills, including coding, to students during the primary years. This builds a strong foundation of skills, knowledge and experience applying technology that they have created in a real-world context to make them future ready and prepare them for technology first careers.

If you are infusing your regular lessons with technology skills we would love to hear from you.

3 reasons you should bring technology learning into your subject

Written by Charlotte Brearley, BSD Education

1. Kids need digital skills to succeed in the future

Technology is already fundamental to every industry and this will only increase. We can’t ignore the way the world is going and the facts: computer-related employment will grow 22% by 2020 and 65% of children entering primary school today will do jobs that don’t yet exist.

For students to succeed in the future, it is therefore critical they learn digital skills. Some schools believe that this can be done through a computing class or an after school club, but in the real world technology touches everything and impacts everyone. It cannot be isolated to one subject area or a group of self-selecting people and the school environment must reflect this. It needs to be infused across everything so that students can make connections, follow their interests and understand how to use and apply technology to build solutions across contexts.

2. It increases engagement

As well as giving your students the skills they need to succeed in the future, teaching digital skills will increase engagement with your subject. Teachers we have trained have reported that students are more engaged in classes using BSD Online and our curriculum. It can enable a more interactive learning environment and helps make the learning more authentic. Students can struggle with the real world context of some topics and a common question is ‘Why are we learning this?’. Bringing technology into your subject and giving your students the opportunity to explore, build and create with it makes the connection to the real world much stronger and helps to pique students’ interest.

3. It develops vital soft skills

Point 1 highlighted the importance of learning technical skills to help students succeed in the future. However, the skills developed by bringing technology learning into your subject don’t stop there. Technology learning expands the mindsets of young people by developing ‘21st century skills’. By focusing on designing and developing real-world products, learning how to apply technology nurtures a range of critical competencies for young people. For example:

Communication and Collaboration

When working to create a solution or product, students often have to work together to combine complementary skills and must always consider whether the end product is actually going to work for the end user. Students therefore need to work with others to: determine who will do what; understand potential users’ requirements; request and act on feedback; and share information about what they have designed and built. None of this can be done without communication and collaboration skills.

Creativity
Creativity links to building with technology in two main ways: Creativity in problem solving and creativity in design. When solving a real world problem, students need to think creatively about how to solve it using a technological solution. Once students have decided on the product or solution, they need to think about the best way to design it. Thinking about the end user, they need to consider user experience and user interface – nobody wants to use a poorly design product.

Computational thinking
Computational thinking is about taking complex problems and breaking them into tiny pieces, which is exactly what students have to do when they are deciding how to use technology to provide solutions. In a rapidly changing future, students will have to solve problems constantly to adapt to the world around them.

Bringing technology learning into your subject is a win-win. It will make your classes more inspiring and engaging, whilst also giving your students the skills and competencies they need to succeed in their futures.

To find out how BSD empowers all teachers to bring technology learning into their classroom and give their students the tools of tomorrow, get in touch!

Education Technology v.s. Technology Education

Written by Eva Yeung, BSD Education

As educators, we want to bring the most relevant and engaging learning experience to our students to ensure they are prepared for the future. One effective way to do this is to bring on “meaningful technology activities” into the classroom, but what does this mean? Where do you start?

First of all, let’s debunk the differences between Education Technology (ed-tech) versus Technology Education (tech-ed).

In the ed-tech community, educators encourage the use of technology to enhance the process of learning of the current school curriculum – Science, Mathematics, Languages, for example, using search engines to conduct research or writing using Google Docs. Through edtech, students use appropriate technology tools to more effectively, efficiently or engagingly do a traditional classroom activity. Whilst bringing in technology to enhance traditional learning, in many classrooms teachers are not yet evolving the “what” students are learning. This is an integral piece for preparing our students to create their own tools rather than becoming consumers. On the other hand, technology education (tech-ed) is the focus on learning how technology works. This encompasses coding and programming, innovation through technology, and computer science. Technology education learning will likely be covered in your school’s coding elective, or technology class. However, we still find the absence of a real-world connection and authenticity in classroom technology projects.

Education Technology	Technology Education
Using technology in your classroom	Teaching how technology works

At BSD, we believe in a holistic approach to learning, where students are pro-active and creative, and more importantly, where their learning is sustainable and relevant. In our curriculum, we take on a blended approach to bring balance in technology learning. It shouldn’t be edtech or tech-ed, we want to enable teachers to integrate technology meaningfully into their lessons by offering projects such as building a website to present research for history using HTML and CSS, or reinforcing the learning of planets and orbit through coding a simulation using JavaScript. In the K-12 Computer Science Framework (US), the ‘practice’ highlights the opportunities and benefits of a cross-curricular approach to develop skills, such as computational thinking and tech skills, purposefully. Supported by tech, in English, Mathematics, and Science, students develop their skills in defining problems and developing models through abstraction. They also hone their ability to communicate their rationale for chosen solutions. This occurs through exciting projects such as building an information chatbot to showcase their subject understanding. The image below illustrates different pathways to introduce and integrate computing concepts through K-12. Considering the structure of the K-12 education system, it is more difficult to integrate into subject areas in High School due to the existing curriculum demands, therefore a more specialist approach is preferred by schools to offer students the depth of learning into the topic.

From p.165 of the K-12 Computer Science Framework (US) by the K-12 Computer Science Framework Steering Committee.

In the next few weeks, we will take a deep dive into six subject areas (English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities, Geography, and Foreign Languages) to discuss how you can bring authentically connected and integrated tech projects into your subject area.

Advantages of Real World Technology Camps: Robotics with Micro:bit

Written by Mo Qureshi, BSD Education

What is a micro:bit?

A micro:bit is a pocket sized microcontroller designed by the BBC for use in Technology Education education in schools. It can be programmed using JavaScript, Python or block code. A micro:bit has:

– 25 red LED lights that can flash messages and be used to create games.

– two programmable buttons that can be used to control games or hardware prototypes.

– an accelerometer, so it can detect motion and knows when the user is moving.

– a built-in compass which can be used to detect the direction and it can use a low energy

– a Bluetooth connection to interact with other devices and the Internet.

– power input and can be powered by a battery and additional sensors can be attached.

You can find more information about the micro:bit features here.

Students can use micro:bit to build a wide range of tools like gaming consoles, fitness trackers, wearables, autonomous vehicles, soil moisture and temperature sensors. In the process of programming a micro:bit and building tools with it, students develop skills like Design Thinking, prototyping, coding, experience working with materials and electronics, using hardware and collaboration. Let’s take a look at the skills students learn:

Design Thinking and Product Design

To build any functional tool, it’s of utmost importance to understand who the users are and to clearly define the problem – this is a direct application of Design Thinking.

While building tools with micro:bit, students will be encouraged to research and define who their user is, what the users’ needs are, and what problems their tool will solve. If students do not have this information, they will spend time researching.

Students will also learn to think about their tools as a product, so they will not only consider how it works and what problem it solves but will also have to consider what it looks like and what the user’s experience will be i.e. how the user will use it and interact with it.

Prototyping and Testing

Building a commercially viable product is a resource intensive task. In the industrial world, it takes the combined effort of numerous experts backed with R&D, financial resources and time. Before a product is ready for commercial use, it has to go through cycles of prototyping, testing, feedback and improvements.

Using micro:bit to build tools, helps students learn invaluable,real world industrial skills of prototyping and testing. Using low cost and easily available materials, students can easily make multiple prototypes or modify their designs based on user feedback.

Materials

Most products or tools are built using numerous components and materials, the same is true for working prototypes.

While building products with micro:bit, students will have to consider:

– the users: who will use it and how

– the use case: where and in which situations will it be used

– the wear and tear: does it have moving parts or does it need to be carried around or is it exposed to air and water

– the safety for the products: are there any moving parts or open wiring

Based on the above the criteria, students may cycle through different materials based on cost, strength, flexibility, weight, portability, etc. In BSD’s robotics classes, students have used materials like cardboard, paper, acrylic, PVC and wood.

Basics of electronics

Micro:bit is powered by electricity, either via two AAA batteries or via a USB port. Students who use Micro:bit will learn how electricity works, how to wire different components together to create a circuit, how to ensure that device has the correct amount of electricity and what the electricity requirements are for different components like LED lights and motors or sensors like ultrasonic and moisture sensors.

Sensors

A micro:bit comes equipped with 4 inbuilt sensors:
– light sensor: detects ambient light
– temperature sensors: detects the current temperature of the device, in Celsius
– accelerometer: detects the acceleration of the micro:bit; it senses when the micro:bit is moved and other actions like shake, tilt, and free-fall
– compass: detects the earth’s magnetic field, allowing it to detect which direction the micro:bit is facing

Connecting additional sensors to the micro:bit opens a world of opportunities. A micro:bit can be connected to sound, ultrasonic, temperature and moisture sensors. For example, a micro:bit powered plant watering bot will need light, moisture and temperature sensors.

Learn to code

A micro:bit can be programmed using 3 coding languages – JavaScript, Python and Blocks. Learning how to program a micro:bit enables students to learn how to code as well as empowers them to have total control over the features of the micro:bit.

Learning to code is more than a technical skill. Coding develops soft skills like Computational Thinking, attention to detail, collaboration, creativity and problem solving.

Teamwork and collaboration

As previously mentioned, building a product or a working prototype requires collaboration between numerous people with different skills and working styles. Similarly, to mirror real world professional situations, students in our classes are grouped together when developing a product with micro:bit. Every member of the team has to select a specific responsibility, decide on deadline, communicate progress with the team members and learn from each other.

Learning to make products or prototypes with micro:bit is a well rounded activity which teaches students technical skills like electronics, prototyping, testing, and coding. Students also gain transferable life skills like design thinking, communication and collaboration. Activities like this expose students to the emerging technologies they interact with every day, and encourages them to not just be consumers of technology but also creators of solutions while preparing them for technology first careers.

If you are using micro:bit in your lessons we would love to hear how you are using them and would love to feature your experience and your students’ products in our future newsletters.

It’s time for data – and time to make time for data

Written by Chris Geary, BSD Education

Data has been a core part of education for years. We all remember being graded at school, both formatively as well as summatively. Strong observational practice, or constructivist methods, by teachers in classrooms has also been an effective way to gather data. This human-led combination has historically informed about how students are progressing with work, socializing and communicating with their classmates, or how they respond to struggling – perhaps crossing the line from persistence and concentration, to frustration and disengagement.

An increased introduction of technology into classrooms brings with it artificial intelligence, real time visible information and a multitude of options to introduce more personalized student learning experiences. However, how do we ensure that what is being measured is relevant and will produce meaningful results?

In an article about the approach taken by Broken Arrow Public Schools in the US, it illustrates how their school sites take a meaningful approach to data which considers the overall stories being told by the data in each of their schools. They approached developing their solution through a Professional Learning Community process and eventually made time, through embedding it in the schools’ schedules, for collaboration time to reinforce the process. The point carried through strongly that, data being available is one thing, however this will not return value unless teachers are given the time to analyze, collaborate and act upon it.

Another article about how data can inform teaching made a great point about the wealth of information that is available from student files and the insight that can be drawn from them, however brought up the difficulty in finding the time to view them.

The technology tools on offer today impact not just the fabric of the school, such as learning management systems, but also the hands on learning of students, such as online learning platforms. All of these platforms produce data and it is in the amalgamation of all of this data that the benefits will be found, rather than in a single tool in isolation.

Understanding the data from environmental conditions, attendance, learning data and results; what happens when and by whom across a range of activities; can identify not only opportunities to enhance teaching practice, but also duplication of effort. Subsequent automation or use of artificial intelligence, made effective from the initial understanding of the data involved, might improve e.g. communication and time availability.

On BSD Online, teachers can access real time data about work that their students are currently doing, including when they do it – at school or at home, where they are up to, and what parts of the work they most frequently make errors on. The latter feeds a machine learning algorithm to improve personalized in-platform suggestions and tips given to students as they learn.

We have seen teachers become able to better understand how different types of content are paced down to individual student levels for personalization, as well as understand the interdisciplinary performance of students and preferences of the overall student body. In some schools, preference data has been compared to attendance data to identify strategies to increase engagement in traditional subjects. Because data is available in real time and accessible anywhere, it becomes more easy and flexible for teachers to connect in person or virtually to discuss their findings.

Data is available from more sources than ever before. A trend only set to continue growing. To convert the insight from data analysis and interpretation into actionable and valuable initiatives, data must be considered from all aspects of school life and time must be made to consider the story that data is telling as a collaborative community. In the end though, the opportunity is better than ever to take back time and really understand how student life is performing at your school.