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  • Author Author: mrbeech
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By Invitation Only - Minode Kit - Review

mrbeech

Table of contents

RoadTest: STEM micro:bit - Minode Kit

Author: mrbeech

Creation date:

Evaluation Type: Development Boards & Tools

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: N/A in my experience

What were the biggest problems encountered?: None

Detailed Review:

The kit provides a useful extension to the Micro:Bit for working with year 4&5 children.

 

I used this primarily with a class that had experience of blockly and working with CodeBug so the initial learning curve was quite shallow. The Additional package that needs to be loaded was simple enough but some children would forget to load it at the start of a new project which led to a bit of unnecessary frustration for them. If there could be a direct url that I could like to a bookmark for them that brought up the Blockly editor and pre-loaded the additional package, that would be handy.

 

The kit itself is well made and sturdy enough for children of the age I was working with and the wires are easy to replace as they use standard connectors if you needed to make longer ones for example.

 

The additional package all made sense and the fact there was no documentation in the box was a real positive for me (I would have removed it anyway) as it lead to some fantastic experimentation from the learners (and me) to find out how each element worked. We have only begun to experiment with a few of the inputs/outputs but they have all been massively enthused by working with this product - I only wish I had more than one fo them!

 

If you were looking for an additional feature that would add to this product, the Micro:Bit has provision to run from a battery pack using 2 AAAs so if the Mi:Node had this funtionality too, it would enable some more inventive placements around the school. For example, my students wanted to use it to alert teachers to high noise levels and running from batteries would have made this simpler.

Anonymous

  • The best thing we can do is consider this a work in progress.

    The best thing you can do before finishing this review is reading all the how-to and detailed information on what it is expected a Road Test should be...

  • Hi Daniel

     

    You say that you wished the Mi:Node could be run from a 2 x AAA battery pack like the micro:bit itself. Did you try attaching such a battery pack to the micro:bit while it was slotted into the Mi:Node? I would have thought this would be sufficient to power most of the components that were supplied, including the noise level sensor and loudspeaker. It certainly works with other edge-connector boards for the micro:bit (except for devices that require high power).

  • Great job mrbeech getting others involved we might see the full effect of the roadtest but get a great sense that it has the ability to be a great learning experience for them and hopefully produced some sort of "bug" in them to carry on and want to get their own kits (or others) for learning and experimenting.  What age range where you testing with? not sure what year 4&5 are.   Curious I have a few people that I think this might be a great kit for them for Christmas this year.   First roadtest is always a learning curve and seems like a lot of pressure you did great.  I enjoyed your input there.

  • in reply to mrbeech

    I am more than happy to flesh this review out with any extra information that people want.

    Perhaps you may want to look at some other Road Test reviews.

    Photographs depicting children are a bit sensitive, and I avoid faces where ever possible to prevent them being used incorrectly by some people. (this is a public access forum)

     

    has produced some fairly good guidelines of what he expects from a Road Test.

     

    Cheers

    Mark

  • in reply to fvan

    Hi!

     

    Sorry, this is my first Road Test and I didn't really know what people would want to see! I am more than happy to flesh this review out with any extra information that people want.

     

    Apologies, I never thought of taking pictures of it in use with the children (and school is now closed for the holidays) but I have brought the kit home so can take pictures of it in use by me - I will try to do this ASAP.

     

    Do let me know what you want to know!

  • Hi ,

    is this review still in progress, or is this the final report? It'd be nice to see some pictures of the kit, as well as the children interacting with it.