Putting control into K33 projects

IET Programmable Components

KS3 scheme of work – www.data.org.uk

• Funded by the IET (FREE!)• Designed by the D&T Association• Year 7, 8 and 9 units of work• Tried and tested• Variety of strategies• High quality resources

https://www.data.org.uk/resource-shop/secondary/11-to-14-years/programmable-components-celebrations/

https://www.data.org.uk/resource-shop/secondary/11-to-14-years/programmable-components-multi-light-and-coin-operated-charity-box/

https://www.data.org.uk/resource-shop/secondary/11-to-14-years/programmable-components-all-in-a-spin/

Principles

Engaging outcomes

Confident practitioner

Up close and personal

Reverse pedagogy

Spiral curriculum

Engaging outcomes

• Authentic products

• Take home factor• Subversive

learning

Confident practitioner

• Most of it is in your mind!

• Start small, think big

• Practice makes perfect – have a project on the go

Up close and personal

• Make the invisible visible – models (inc. analogies and similes) are ‘convenient lies’, but useful nonetheless

• Make sure pupils can see what you see – e.g. visualiser, video, images, etc.

Reverse pedagogy

• Start with a ‘black box’

• Frontloading is okay, but can turn beginners off

• Quick wins leading to long gains

Spiral curriculum

• Build on the foundations

• Whole Key Stage• Revisit, expend

and extend• Expansive and

restrictive – a balanced curriculum

Design and technology activity

mainly designing

exploring technolog

y in society

mainly making

designing and

making

Expansive / restrictive curriculum

restrictive expansive

focused practical projects

design, make and evaluate projects

TYPES OF ACTIVITIES AND PEDAGOGIES…

An effective school curriculum has a variety of…

What’s current…

…in programmable components

Microcontrollers

Designed for schools:• PICAXE www.picaxe.com - open source

community

• Genie www.genieonline.com - learning package

Designed for industry:• Arduino www.arduino.cc - large community

• Mbed https://mbed.org - cloud programming

What’s new and up and coming…

…in programmable components

Crumble

“The Crumble is an easy-to-use programmable controller. It can drive 2 motors forwards and backwards at variable speeds. It has 4 IO (Input/Output) pads which allow connections to switches, LDRs, low power LEDs and so on…”• uses a Scratch-like

interface

http://redfernelectronics.co.uk/crumble/

Particle Photon

“The Photon is a $19 tiny Wi-Fi development kit for creating connected projects and products for the Internet of Things. It's easy to use, it's powerful, and it's connected to the cloud…”

https://www.particle.io

Teaching electronics and control

• Resources:– Soldering irons (1 each if possible)– Off the shelf or in-house printed circuit

board?

• Models:– Flow of current ≠ flow of water (but is

similar)– Role play:• acting electron paths in series and parallel

circuits• ‘I, Teacher’: programming instructions