Thanks to the generous support of Micro:bit Education Foundation, in the framework of the KIDS INSPIRING KIDS IN STEAM Erasmus+ project, Experience Workshop has received a great number of micro:bits, which will hopefully inspire a new generation to start coding. Our Experience Workshop micro:bit Inventor program was launched on the international Pi Day, on March 14, 2017. Until now, almost 200 Finnish, German and Hungarian students got acquainted with creative coding thanks to micro:bit. On September 29, 2017, Zach Shelby, Micro:bit Education Foundation’s CEO met some of the Finnish students from our program at the closing event of our KIDS INSPIRING KIDS IN STEAM Erasmus+ project.

Experience Workshop’s Micro:bit Inventor Program is a great success from primary school to university. Some of the schools have already decided to continue participating in the program and we have got requests from several other places, too.

On September 29, 2017, in the framework of the European Researchers’ Night,  Zach Shelby, Micro:bit Education Foundation’s CEO met Experience Workshop’s Finnish students. Our students led workshops for children from other schools and got a lot of useful advice from Zach regarding both micro:bits and methodological aspects of workshops like theirs.

Experience Workshop’s Micro:bit Inventor Program

Hungarian schools in our micro:bit program

ANK 1 School, Pécs, Hungary

Teachers: Ildikó Szabó, Hajnalka Heidecker, Zoltán Odrobina, Ákos Vecsei

Report1 / Report2 in English and in Hungarian / Presentation3 / Report4 / Report5

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ELTE Trefort Ágoston High School, Hungary

Teachers: György Regele, Ákos Vecsei

Ákos Vecsei’s report

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Jókai Mór School, Pécs, Hungary

Teachers: Éva Ottné Hajczinger, Ákos Vecsei

Students’ report / Ákos Vecsei’s report

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Kaposvár University + Csokonai Vitéz Mihály School, Kaposvár, Hungary

Teachers: Erika Lakosné Makár, Dr. Eleonóra Stettner, Ákos Vecsei

Report1 / Report2 / Presentation3 / Report4 / PowerPoint5 / PowerPoint6 / Ákos Vecsei’ s report

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TRAFÓ Center for Contemporary Art

Teachers: Ildikó Szabó, Zsolt Lavicza, Ákos Vecsei

Ákos Vecsei’s report

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Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, Pécs

Teacher: Ákos Vecsei

Ákos Vecsei’s report 

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Experience Workshop’s Micro:bit Inventor Program in Finland

Christian School in Jyväskylä, Finland

Teachers: Jukka Sinnemäki, Eszter Schlakker

Joonatan Kuosmanen’s BBC micro:bit chess clock invention (Jyväskylä Christian School, Finland) 

Teemu Koivisto’s digital dice (Jyväskylä Christian School, Finland)

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Laukaa School, Finland

Teachers: Henri Leoinen, Mirka Havinga 

Henri Leoinen’s report

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Viitaniemi School

Teachers: Merja Sinnemäki, Leena Kuorikoski

Merja Sinnemäki’s teacher report

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Experience Workshop’s Micro:bit Inventor Program in Germany

Heusenstamm School

Teacher: Dirk Bittner

Report

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Zach Shelby was Experience Workshop’s guest at the Researchers’ Night (University of Jyväskylä):

Kids Inspiring Kids Erasmus+ project closing event: Details

Zach Shelby’s talk at Agora ICT Forum by University of Jyväskylä’s Faculty of Information: Details

If you are interested in launching Experience Workshop’s BBC micro:bit program in your school either in Finland or Hungary or elsewhere, please contact us at info@experienceworkshop.org

More Details:

Micro:bit itself is a small circuit board, which kids can program via a web-based interface to do many things, including flashing up numbers, letters and scrolling messages on the LEDs. Plus, since there’s a built-in accelerometer and compass, it can detect movement and tell which way it’s pointing at.

You can use your BBC micro:bit for all sorts of cool creations, from robots to musical instruments – the possibilities are endless. This little device has an awful lot of features, like 25 red LED lights that can flash messages. There are two programmable buttons that can be used to control games or pause and skip songs on a playlist. Your BBC micro:bit can detect motion and tell you which direction you’re heading in, and it can use a low energy Bluetooth connection to interact with other devices and the Internet – clever!

The micro:bit is an educational and creative tool to inspire a new generation of young people. It can be used across the curriculum, not just in STEM subjects. It can help give young people the knowledge and skills to move from being consumers of digital information, to being designers and creators of new tools to enhance learning, to solve problems or just to have fun, enabling them to make the most of 21st Century life and the economy.

Links:

BBC micro:bit homepage

BBC micro:bit homepage in Finnish

KIKS Micro:bit collaboration wiki

Materials:

Family guide to micro-bit

First steps with microbits for control and physical computing

Cross-curricular STEM activities with microbits

Bloodhounds and micro-bits

Credits:

Thanks to Adrian Oldknow, Tony Houghton, Philip Meitner, Philip Moffitt, Ákos Vecsei, Jukka Sinnemäki, Merja Sinnemäki, Leena Kuorikoski, Mirka Havinga, BBC micro:bit Foundation and Kitronik for making this happen!