NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION SHOW | BELGRADE | 9–11 FEBRUARY 2017

1. What to do when they’ve had too much Scratch?
Neil Rickus
Senior Lecturer in Computing Education, University of Hertfordshire
@computingchamps
computingchampions.co.uk/serbia2017

2. Next 30 minutes
• Help alleviate “Death by Scratch”
– Focus on concepts
– Link in physical computing
– Other block based programming
environments
– Text based programming
• bit.ly/death_by_scratch – Phil Bagge blog post

3. Focusing on the concepts
• At KS2 (7-11 years), pupils need to write programs, which
including the following concepts:
– Sequencing
– Selection (if, then, else)
– Repetition
– Variables
– Inputs / outputs

4. Adding additional hardware
• Picoboard
• WeDo 2.0
• Pibrella
• Micro:bit
• Makey Makey
• SenseHat

5. Why physical computing?
• Opportunity to develop understanding of programming
concepts
• “Light bulb” moment!
• Links to other areas of the curriculum
– Science and DT, but many others
• Solve real world problems
– Not just “making a game today”
– Engaging to girls – casinclude.org.uk

6. More physical computing
• See my other presentation….
• computingchampions.co.uk/serbia2017

9. Picoboard / Lego WeDo 2.0
• Picoboard
– Cost - £40 board and connectors
– More info - www.picocricket.com/picoboard.html
• Lego WeDo 2.0
– Cost – £130 core set and software
– More info – education.lego.com/wedo2.0

11. Pibrella / micro:bit
• Pibrella (for use with a Raspberry Pi)
– Cost - £10 board (+ £30 for the Raspberry Pi)
– More info - pibrella.com
• micro:bit
– Cost – £13 board; £16 starter kit
– More info – microbit.org

14. SenseHat
• Sensehat (part of Astro Pi - astro-pi.org)
– Cost – £25 board
– More info – www.raspberrypi.org/products/sense-hat/
– N.B. Emulator available on Raspberry Pi
• Gyroscope; Accelerometer
• Magnetometer
• Temperature
• Barometric pressure; Humidity

16. Makey Makey /
• Makey Makey
– Cost - £40 board
– More info - makeymakey.com
– Example projects - vimeo.com/60307041

17. Block based programming environments
• Snap
• Kodu
• Minecraft (part of Kano)
• Tickle
– Physical devices, including drones

23. Reinforcing concepts
• Hour of Code – code.org
• Light Bot
• Code Combat
• bit.ly/gridofapps2016

25. Moving to text based programming
• Tickle
• Alice
• Swift Playgrounds
• Logo
• Sonic Pi
• Python

30. Don’t forget the rest of the curriculum
• Select, use and combine a variety of software (including
internet services) on a range of digital devices to design
and create a range of programs, systems and content that
accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing,
evaluating and presenting data and information
• Computer networks
• Search engines
• E-safety

31. Neil Rickus
Senior Lecturer in Computing Education,
University of Hertfordshire
@computingchamps
computingchampions.co.uk/serbia2017
TES EdTech special
digital.tes.com/EDTECHJAN17/ (pg. 41)
Hello World
helloworld.cc (pg. 44)