How can EcoCode enhance sustainable computing with the micro:bit?

Contextual computing is really important to provide young people with the ‘why’ or the ‘hook’ to engage in computing.  That’s exactly how EcoCode has been constructed, through the lens of sustainability and the context of exciting new research such as transparent solar cells, frogs that come back to life, spider silk, cosmic rays and event llama antibodies.  Yes, all these scientific contexts provide children with a real interest to explore more and find out how such research and understanding of the natural world can help to develop sustainable solutions.

The open availability of micro:bits makes these small programmable devices perfect for developing coding, AI, data science, and engineering skills collaboratively.

One thing we love at Digit<all> is to work with underserved, underrepresented and underprivileged young people, especially trialling resources that we created.  I had the pleasure of working with a East Wichel Primary School in Swindon to trial the new spider silk and cosmic ray primary resources with some wonderful and energetic Year 4 and 5 pupils.

In the cosmic rays workshop, we coded micro:bits to detect different levels of light. We used laser pens to activate radio transmission and provided a remote method of identifying unusual increments in light intensity. Additionally, we learned how cosmic rays can be detected and how they can cause erroneous data logging in equipment like weather and environmental monitoring systems."

The EcoCode project is a programme in collaboration with UKRI and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories.  You can find out more about EcoCode here: www.digitall.charity/ecocode

...where you can:

• Register for face-to-face workshops

• Register for online code-along sessions

• Download EcoCode resources

  
  

A huge thanks to the wonderful children and teachers at East Wichel Primary School, Tig and I had a great time.