other useful sites

There are many amazing people out there who have already produced great projects and written them up to share.

Rather than repeat them, I will add here links to those people's sites. Good ideas deserved to be shared and promoted.

Who knows what that will inspire you to do :).

Project sites

• All sorts:
  • AdaFruit - Collection of lessons - Ranges from an overview of built-in & add-on inputs and outputs to NeoPixels and programming micro:bits using the Arduino IDE and their many library sketches (programs in a C++ language).
  • MicroBits and Bobs, Mr D Burrin - Teaching and learning resources (from beginners to advanced with C++) by Mr D Burrin, Head of Computing, The Vale Academy, Brigg.
• Games:
  • Pinball: DIY micro:bit pinball game - Wonderful maker project using bits of wood, pegs, Christmas tree lights and simple swing gates from carboard wrapped in foil and copper tape.
  • Word Game and Countdown Timer: Coding Word Games With MicroBit, Mr Aspinall - Uses multiple micro:bits to display random vowels and consonants plus one devoted to a "countdown" timer. Good for literacy and expanding vocabulary.
• Music:
  • Paper Piano: Microbit paper piano - A 7 key piano made of paper and aluminium foil plus alligator clips. Makecode code means accessible by younger students, plus demonstrates mapping many keys using combinations of pin inputs (i.e. 7 keys using 3 pins).
  • Xylophone: micro:bit monsters - Episode 12 - micro:bit water xylophone - Lovely Dad and daughter duo project using servos, a servo controller, pegs and water filled jam / marmalade glass jars to create a Xylophone.
• Radio communication:
  • Using the micro:bit 'Radio' service: Connect two micro:bits, Martyn Davies - Demonstrates a simple method for how 2 (or more) micro:bits can communicate using radio and uniquely identify/refer to each other so they can exchange messages.
• Robotics:
  • Connect 4 Human vs Robot: Connect 4 playing robot arm driven by BBC Microbit in a Satellite Microkit - Developer describes as "This demo captures an image from the camera, performs JPEG decoding, Image Analysis, Game Engine and Robot Arm control all on the microbit".
• Science:
  • The Brooke Primary School Space Programme - Excellent list of projects using sensors for their very own "Space Programme".

RESOURCES AND references

• Coding:
  • MicroPython: BBC micro:bit MicroPython documentation , micro:bit MicroPython- Python that runs on the BBC micro:bit (and other microcontrollers) is called MicroPython. This means you ran write code for and flash it to the micro:bit to run as MicroPython.
• Serial USB connection: Bridging the micro:bit and its host device
  • bitio - David Whale
  • ScratchX for MacOS only
  • ScratchX for Windows - Ákos Vecsei's Scratch controller connecting a micro:bit to its host over a USB cable. Fills the gap as ScratchX is a Chrome extension limited to MacOS. Includes a MicroPython controller to run on the micro:bit plus a Scratch demonstration script showing how the micro:bit's sensors and pins can be passed to a Scratch script. Lots of potential for younger students to built micro:bit controlled apps/games/experiments.
  • Arduino and Python methods of connection using Python's pyserial