The Great micro:bit Education Giveaway
We recently announced the winners of our Great micro:bit Education Giveaway - in which we distributed 25 micro:bit Club packs to selected educators all over the world.
To qualify for the Giveaway, applicants were asked to write a series of blog posts detailing the projects they undertook in the classroom after receiving their kits. The response was fantastic, and while we ultimately had to narrow it down to three winners, we couldn't put this giveaway to bed without celebrating some of the highlights from the dedicated and creative STEM professionals who took part.
With that in mind, here are some of our favorite micro:bit projects from our applicants:
micro:bit Creatures: Creating a Kinetic Scene with micro:bit - julianrendell
Julian worked with his class of 8-12 year olds to create an interactive story, using the micro:bit to make motors move, lights flash and speakers buzz. Each student built a part of the scene, developed a program to bring it to life, and then learned how to coordinate their devices actions with the other creations.
Interactive Around The World Basic Facts Practice - tguellich
Thomas Guellich found a novel way to use the micro:bit to make mental arithmetic and absorbing simple facts more engaging for his students. By turning the micro:bit into a wearable random number generator - which can be activated by a shake of the wrist - he devised a fun and competitive game in which two partnered students generate two numbers simultaneously and race to be the first to correctly multiply them.
Zoe Ritchie decided to introduce the micro:bit to her local community centre during a series of after school maker sessions aimed at young and vulnerable children. It wasn't all smooth sailing, but her determination to use all the resources she had at her disposal to get the children engaged made for one of the most inspiring projects to come out of this giveaway. We can't wait to see what Zoe does next!
Hour of Code: Animated Snow Globe - darrell.little
Darrell Little used his micro:bits to develop a fun activity for the 'Hour of Code' educational sessions he runs for his local county library. His use of simple animation effects to simulate a snow globe is a great idea you can replicate with your own students.
G:RL Power Code Fest Americas - gusmerckel
Over 200 girls from Perú, Colombia, Chile and Mexico gathered to participate in G:rl Power Code Fest Americas, an event that gave them the opportunity to share and ideate a small prototype incorporating the micro:bit that could potentially help improve global health and well being. Top projects included a brain game to improve mental elasticity and memory, a personal training device and a virus game to encourage physical exercise.
We'd like to commend everyone who participated in the micro:bit Education giveaway for the passion and dedication with which they approached their projects. Other highlights included zren's excellent blog series documenting his first foray into micro:bit after 23 years of teaching, jaypage's efforts to develop a learning unit to incorporate micro:bit into the Australian technologies curriculum and lrjones' reflections on bringing the micro:bit to her local GEMS (Girls Excelling in Math and Science) camp.
Don't forget to check out the three winning projects as well, from rancell, andyforeverest and straytech - all of whom won a fabulous micro:bit prize package for their efforts.
More micro:bit resources
10 micro:bit Projects in 10 Days
An Introduction to Computer Science with BBC micro:bit: The Full Curriculum