F-2 microbits

F-2 microbit pet

Today, your students will make the ideal pet for a team member, using craft materials and a microbit.

Your pet will standalone, disconnected from a laptop, using only mini-computer (BBC microbit ) and a battery pack.

OBJECTIVES: By the end of this lesson, students will:

    • apply design thinking to a project to meet someone else's needs.

    • use the microbit with a battery pack to build standalone Pet.

    • understand that the microbit is a tiny computer with inputs, outputs and processes.

TEACHER RESOURCES : Craft materials are required for lesson

Do Now (5 minutes)

    1. Watch the video What if robots replaced teachers? (2:11)

    2. Discuss: Name some jobs robots performed?

      1. Homeroom: -Greeter.

      2. Chemistry Class: -timer.

      3. Music Room: -played fiddle.

      4. PE: tracked exercise using shake sensor.

      5. Maths: tracked distance, using rotation sensor.

      6. Lunch: delivered strawberries.

      7. Recess: collected trash.

      8. After school: battle!

    3. Would you like if robots replaced teachers? Would it be scary?

Mini-Lesson (5 minute Demo)

Design thinking: The goal of this activity is to gather information from a partner so that students can design a micro:bit pet for their partner. Student handout.

Note: If you have a lesson of 45 minutes or less, it will be unrealistic to spend 20 minutes on this process. Use your discretion.

The main idea of this segment is that we design for real people and continually iterate based on their feedback.

Build ideal pet for target student. ( Your group partner)

    • Build software using microbit LED display. Let kids be creative. A simple LED smile on start, to different displays when you press the A and B buttons.

    • Build hardware using craft material. Small boxes work well for a body. Sticky eyes. Color paper. Pipe-cleaners.

Share pets with target student. Gather feedback and iterate design.

Agenda:

( 10 mins) Build pet for a user Student handout.

( 20 mins) Build software

( 20 mins) Build hardware

( 10 mins) Share

Project (20-30 minutes)

Close-Out (5 minutes)

    1. Share pet with target student. What would you tweak (change or develop) in your pet design, after listening to their feedback?

Standards CSTA

    • CSTA 2-CS-02 :Design projects that combine hardware and software components to collect and exchange data.

    • CSTA 2-IC-22 :Collaborate with many contributors through strategies such as crowdsourcing or surveys when creating a computational artifact.