Following the first introductory session, some of the kids decided to take home the BBC Micro:bit and the Kitronik Inventor’s Kit. One of the kids, Chinmayee, decided to write up her own experience of using the kits.
This is what Chinmayee wrote:
Kitronik’s “Inventor’s Kit” for the BBC Micro:bit is a collection of essential circuit components for imaginative young coders.
The kit comes with a booklet containing many experiments which explain carefully and in a child-friendly manner what each of the components does and how to use them in a complex circuit.
The Cambourne Electronics and Robotics Club (CERC) entered into a prize draw to win many Inventor’s Kits for the groups. CERC was chosen as one of the 10 winners! In the most recent meeting, we were introduced to the kit and were allowed to take one home so we could explore the kit further.
In the booklet, the projects need to be done in order because each project builds on the last.
We started Project 1: Say Hello to the BBC MicroBit!
This project included building a simple circuit and coding the Micro:bit to show a smiley face when “Button A” was pressed on the circuit. When “Button B” was pressed the Micro:bit was coded to display a string of words, saying “hello world!”, on its 25 LEDs.
Next, we moved onto Project 2: Using a Light Sensor and Analog Inputs
This project was my favourite! I programmed the Micro:bit and set up the circuit, which included using a phototransistor to detect the number of lumens and send the data to the Micro:bit which would then show a moon image if it was less than 200 lumens or a sun image if it was 200+ lumens.
Subsequently, we moved on to Project 3: Dimming an LED Using a Potentiometer
In this project, we used a potentiometer to control the amount of light emitted by the LED. First, we set up the circuit on the breadboard then we coded the BBC Micro:bit.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed using the Kitronik Inventor’s Kit. I feel it is a very good resource for computer education.
We are really excited to see that the kids not only are so engaged with their projects but also are interested to communicate their observations.
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