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Prior to lock down and the world turning upside down, we had been along to a local CoderDoJo and D had really taken to it. Obviously all that has been suspended for the time being but D’s enthusiasm for coding hasn’t!
I’m the first to admit that coding is not my strong suit, and it’s one of the areas I keep meaning to read more about, but I never quite get around to. We have dipped in and out of it but never done anything consistently. A week or two ago the team from Pi Hut got in touch to ask if we would like to try out the BBC Micro:bit. After a quick look, I thought it sounded like the sort of thing the older two might benefit from so we had a look.
What is the BBC Micro:bit?
The BBC Micro:bit is a neat bit of kit that you can, quite literally, plugin and go with. It’s a pocket-sized coding computer with motion detectors and bluetooth. In the box we received, the Micro:bit, USB cable, 2 x AAA batteries, powerpack and instruction booklet/quickstart guide.
How does BBC Micro:bit work?
The BBC Micro:bit is a very clever bit of kit and the instructions on it are super clear. We showed the children have to open up the webpage, how to connect the Micro:bit to the laptop and how to ‘flash’ their programmes to it and they were away.
On the Website for Micro:bit there is all manner of tutorials and guides to work through that show you how to build the code to create different things. The children managed to set up a friendship meter – to test how friendly they are, they then set up a way to send secret spy messages between their two Micro:bits and with Damian’s help a game where you could hide one Micro:bit and use the other to locate it.
I have been super impressed with this little machine and there are so many possibilities with it in terms of developing their coding knowledge. You can use Scratch to build the code and, as your knowledge develops you can move on to using Python.
There is a LOT to explore on the BBC Micro:bit website, and we have barely scratched the surface so far. I intend to spend some time looking at the different lessons plans and seeing how we might work through those to help them with the language around computers and coding as well as building their confidence and skills. It’s certainly an area that D has been really interested in in the last eight months or so, and this is the first time I’ve seen Em’s imaginations truly captured with coding. I think the instant and very tangible (and fun!) outputs that it produces quite quickly have helped with hooking her in.
What do I think of the BBC Micro:bit?
I am very pleasantly surprised by the Micro:bit and the possibilities it opens up to us. It’s a relatively inexpensive piece of kit at around £16 for the starter kit we were sent. There are a number of add ons that I suspect we might look at investing in at some point in the future including an inventors kit and speakers. I’m hugely impressed with the Micro:bit website as the tutorials are super easy for the children to follow with no input from me. And, truthfully, I need that time away at the moment after the year of Covid and the intensity of parenting 24/7 with no respite! It’s the perfect guilt-free way to give yourself a break as you know that your children are developing key and crucial skills.
