'Objects-to-think-with' in a Climate Emergency

Ada Day 2019 saw us planning and co-designing an event themed around the climate emergency with computing teachers from Sirius Academy North in Hull.

Students from years 7, 8, 9 and 10 designed and built working prototypes over the day, with each team submitting a new wearable idea into the Ultimate STEM Challenge national competition.

The images above show the variety of activities, all linked to the computing curriculum and school enrichment programme, with the chance to test out and strengthen some STEM pedagogies linked to a constructionist approach to learning.

prototyping wearables

Pear programming?

That's an opportunity for student voice to be part of evaluating learning through pair programming! What's the perception of learning as a navigator and the impact of sharing what you know?

Themes around technology to mitigate climate change ranged from projects to collect outdoor and indoor air quality data, conservation projects for endangered animals and plastic pollution with its toxic impacts on humans, animals, waterways, oceans, and the environment.

The day also offered students the chance to collaborate with engineers and conservationists on a new project linked to protecting the oceans from plastic pollution.

With planning to embed into the formal curriculum and additionally into learning through the Lego First League initiative, first objectives focused on understanding networks and data transmission between digital devices.

unplugged data packets activity

We know that unplugged computing activities are a powerful learning tool for understanding concepts and it was important for us to co-design an exercise based on protocols and transferring data. Mapped to KS3 and KS4 schemes of work, the students explored reliability and considerations when receiving and transmitting data across networks.

Look carefully and you might spot the students developing their own protocols as 40 sets of song lyrics travel across this network in Hull, with some of those data packets facing uncertainty (teacher sabotage!) from an unreliable internet.

How can technology help us to understand and question the world around us?

Recent adult workshops and learning programmes in schools and universities have flagged up the capacity for data to spark more even questions, conversations and hypotheses.

Not always answers, as we've take the Internet of Curious Things activities across more areas of the curriculum and project themes including improving air quality into more communities, and that's given an opportunity to share findings across different regions.

Our mission is to deliver improved digital skills and inspiration to enable social good, and that inevitably links the UN Sustainable Development Goals to give context, purpose and a global perspective to activities.

un sustainable goals We get involved in discussions about empowering everyone to make the world a better place with technology, and have become great advocates of using low-cost sensors to underpin understanding of innovative possibilities. That raises questions in itself.

Putting tools (including those low-cost sensors) into the hands of more groups to understand the world around them has seen a rise of problem-finding, as described through Engineering Habits of Mind, in project-based learning programmes.

This year has seen some interesting research coming out of a project where low-cost sensors have been deployed across school sites in Southampton, and the continued discussion it has supported about a long-term field comparison of multiple low-cost particulate matter sensors in an outdoor urban environment. This quote in particular resonates with what we're trying to support:

"Low-cost sensors.........they may provide useful information on personal exposure to PM" (Bulot et al, 2019)

For the students at Manchester Met University who had their own theories about levels of pollution around campus, the groups embarking on the first Science Walk in Roundhay Park during Leeds Digital Festival or our latest project with adults funded by LNER, it is the knowledge, understanding and application of data collection that is empowering more people to make healthy decisions using physical computing.

Putting tools and decision making into the hands of communities.

Raising even more questions to investigate together.

Air Your Views: Weaving Data Stories

“We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” Ada Lovelace.

Just as Ada Lovelace spoke about weaving patterns in the nineteenth century, the children at Hollinsclough Academy took computing inspiration from her again today to weave their own data stories about air quality in C21st.

children weaving aq data 4

As part of our Internet of Curious Things programme of activities funded by the IET and iMechE, every child from the age of 5 years up actively contributed to physical computing projects, science poetry and outdoor STEM walks to collect data about particulate matter.

Groups explored the algorithms needed to control each sensor project and used the environment around the school grounds to test out their hypothesise. Using pupil voice as a mechanism to share their findings to a wider audience, we also collaborated with local artist Cora Glasser to express data as an outdoor artform.

children hands nicholas eyes sensor

Initially introduced to some of the issues about air pollution through the brilliant Nicholas Eyes book, children were challenged to imagine and invent their own magic powers to improve the quality of air that we breathe.

children collaborating around a table with air quality sensor project

children holding outdoor aq sensor

Visit the school this week and you'll be able to view the children's 'Data Sculpture Park' with your own eyes.

No magic needed to appreciate their efforts of computational thinking and using sensors to collect and analyse data. Ask them to explain their thinking and talk about how they made decisions about constructing the art and colour based on data.

children weaving aq data 2

children weaving aq data 3

weaving project visualisation aq

weaving project visualisation aq2

Inspiring Young Scientists in Salford with a new collaboration - 'Made to Measure'

Made to Measure: How can we use data to improve the air that we breathe?

We're delighted to announce that we'll be collaborating with teachers and children at St Mark's CE Primary in Salford as part of a new programme led by The Royal Society.

Made to Measure is a multifaceted project, aiming to empower every child at St Mark's to develop computational thinking skills and invent with smart sensors to create a more connected and healthy world.

The emphasis will be on building and coding physical computing projects to improve the air that we breathe, linking local problem-finding around Salford to the UN's’ Sustainable Development Goals, giving purpose and real world relevance to children's learning.

This will be a school-wide project over the next academic year with linked age-appropriate activities threaded through the environmental theme of air quality and understanding pollution, culminating in a showcase event where different outcomes are shared by the children.

embroidery materials including fabric, needles and thread

The school's team of digital leaders will support peer-to-peer learning and promote pupil voice as a powerful way to address climate emergency and action we can all take to make a difference.

Scientific investigations will cover these main areas:

  1. Consideration of algorithmic design
  2. How can we make the invisible visible?
  3. How to apply computational thinking

Children will collect and analyse their data collections before sharing findings and messages to the wider community.

Creative outcomes with data visualisation will include textile projects and perhaps intergenerational activities when the children will learn from others to match analogue embroidery techniques to data science.

Watch out for more news about what the children make to share what they've measured.

How can we use data to improve the air that we breathe?

Singing Canaries: Pupil Voice in a Climate Emergency

Background

It's over 30 years since canary birds where replaced by hand-held digital devices to detect harmful gases, but the cautionary metaphor of 'a canary in a coal mine' is still relevant today according to a latest project driven through pupil voice.

The use of caged birds, to alert miners to the invisible dangers of gases such as carbon monoxide, has been a theme for discussion with children about the effects of air pollution today. That's led them to investigating the impact on humans and nature as cities around the UK declare climate emergencies, and the group has created their own caged bird to convey thoughts about action.

Event-driven programming

  1. Create a flock of pom-pom birds
  2. Design an algorithm to drive the servos 180 degrees and turn the canary on the perch

At which level of PM2.5 or PM10 will the canary move on its perch to signal danger?

pom pom canary

Data quandary

Using particulate matter data collected from one of their own projects, the children looked at guidelines from DEFRA, the WHO and local council to learn more about targets and levels.

What caused confusion for some of the group was to see target levels of air quality still with an amount of pollution above zero.

What level would you suggest starts being a danger to our health?

collage of craft canary birds

Algorithmic design

What's emerged is a real and wicked problem to solve and be communicated through this data storytelling project.

The immediate problem is to finalise the script with a number that is the level of pollution that will trigger the canary to twist on the perch in the cage. Once that's decided, they'll share their work through GitHub. screenshot github air quality code

Pupil voice

  • Are we now the modern canaries in a polluted world?
  • Do we fully understand the impact of pollution on our own health?
  • What steps can we ALL take to improve the air that we breathe?

Maker box:

  • Triot board
  • Particulate matter sensors
  • GPS module
  • 180 degrees servo motors

2019: New activities with The Internet of Curious Things

Exciting news!


We're delighted to receive another grant from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), supporting us to extend the Internet of Curious Things programme into more schools during 2019.

The Engineering Education Grant Scheme (EEGS) aims to engage young people aged 5-19 in learning about engineering and to develop the professional skills of those involved in supporting Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning and careers awareness.

Peter Finegold, Head of Education and Skills at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said:

“The Internet of Curious Things project is a fantastic example of the kind of projects the EEGS scheme aims to promote. The UK is facing a critical engineering skills shortage and showing young people how creative and exciting engineering can be is a key way of inspiring the engineers of tomorrow.”

David Lakin, Head of Education at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, said:

“In order to tackle the engineering skills gap we need more graduates and apprentices to enter the profession, and this can only happen if more school-age children – girls as well as boys – are attracted to, and choose to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects.

The IET is investing considerable resource in EEGS to support vital projects like The Internet of Curious Things, which highlight the exciting, creative and rewarding world of engineering careers to young people.”

Teachers

If you'd like to find out more about the new programme, and see how we can work together to 'inspire an engineer', REGISTER YOUR INTEREST ON THIS LINK.

In the meantime, here's some feedback from some of the young people that engineered new solutions this year:

word cloud of children's responses to a digital workshop

The Engineering Education Grant Scheme (EEGS) provides support for UK based educational projects that increase engineering knowledge in young people.

We're grateful to the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) in supporting us to collaborate with more schools and teachers next year.

institute of engineering and technology logo

institute of mechanical engineers logo

Behind the scenes at This Girl Codes

Background

This Girl Codes is an exciting example of a partnership approach to STEAM with Junction Arts that's impacted on the aspirations, confidence and skills of a community in rural Derbyshire.

Over the last year children from local schools, in Y5 and Y9, and community groups have explored their cultural heritage through creative challenges with the aim to reduce digital exclusion and empower everyone taking part to believe that ‘they can’.

The approach was somewhat unusual in that it took female experiences rooted in Bolsover, both historical and contemporary, to become the focus for the future through the arts.

Interactive Light Night

A final event on 28th September created a visual and sound spectacle for the community of Bolsover.

It was an 'Interactive Light Night' - driven by the community themselves with their movements and how they interacted with the environment around them.

Creators of IOT-enabled digital flowers gathered at the Castle and their projects were temporarily installed as a new digital rose garden within its walls. As the community approached the Venus Garden and Little Castle on the estate, they sparked interactivity in a way that hadn't been seen before in the town.

Building dialogue between the community and Bolsover Castle

Installing infrastructure, to facilitate data-driven interactivity, into the fabrication of a 17th century estate isn't easy. That said, we knew that taking lessons learnt from previous projects alongside numerous site visits, lots of testing and different network solutions, that we'd make it happen.

At each step of this project we've responded to the artist's brief and Cora's interpretation from the original submission:

"Capturing the imagination and creativity of KS3 girls with This Girl Codes. Phase 2 now brings alive voices from Bolsover through a visual arts project taking the form of a new love story through data science"

One element of the project was to continue the rich dialogue with English Heritage and Bolsover Castle, with its unique community heritage story, building upon links formed and experiences had during phase 1 of This Girl Codes. Junction Arts was particularly interested in encouraging the town to ‘talk’ to the Castle.

Placing smart sensors across the estate to collect environmental and location data, sharing through a server, gave us the capability to rebroadcast our intentions and share those intended and creative outputs. 30 digital roses had been designed and programmed by the Y9 students at The Bolsover School and they acted as data collection points for temperature, collected with Codebug and Envirosense boards.

aerial map of bolsover castle

Technical Architecture

Data from Codebug Connect devices with Envirosense and GPS placed around the castle grounds was also sent to a central server that had been secured within the Venus Garden.

That server then rebroadcast all of the data for the central signals to drive lights installed around the estate and produce a live data feed into Sonic Pi. Read more about sending OSC to Sonic Pi here.

In essence, outputs from the community's movements around Bolsover Castle and the environmental data logged during the evening became an 'interactive light night' display with a light show and music representing those inputs.

The smaller roses created at the community workshop days were controlled with Connect and responded through LED colour changes during the evening as the temperature dropped. Likewise, lights temporarily installed for the event also reacted according to GPS and environmental data communicated through the estate.

behind the scenes explaining tech set up at this girl codes final event

Light Night in Bolsover

girl wearing green jacket carrying digital rose

digital rose garden installed at bolsover castle

Educational Aims

Activities engaged student voice to solve real-world challenges facing the local community of Bolsover.

The 'Cavendish' digital roses gave an opportunity for groups to explore event-driven programming techniques and engineer a new and creative solution.

girl connecting a codebug board to a sensor using crocodile clips

5 girls with digital roses this girl codes

Creative Brief

Inspiration was taken from the original ‘Love’s Welcome to Bolsover’ in 1634, with this new female centred story created with STEAM based activities.

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was a resident of Bolsover in the seventeenth century. As a poet, philosopher, writer and playwright she was confidently publishing under her own name at a time when most women writers published anonymously.

Her strong voice, achievements and legacy are at the heart of this project. The Blazing World, which she published in 1666, is one of the earliest examples of science fiction.

She was the first woman to attend a Royal Society meetup in 1667. That example in itself was shared through the introductory storytelling, as is Samuel Pepys's diary writing from that day which led to debate and change discussions with the groups of students.

2 adults and 2 children with digital roses

Linking with the Bolsover Model Village, Florence Sykes created a rose garden for the coal miners and her annual strawberry tea events are legendary! Personalised ‘Florence’ roses were digitally created and contained messages of hope to and for the town of Bolsover.

To find out more about the project and funding partners click here

digital rose with castle wall illuminated behind it

Images courtesy of Junction Arts, artist Cora Glasser and Foundation for Digital Creativity.

Extending Pupil Voice at Bolsover Castle

As we move through the 'This Girl Codes' programme, activities start to focus on the wider community with new workshop dates announced.

Margaret Cavendish visited The Royal Society from Bolsover in May 1667, and this week Y9 students from The Bolsover School displayed their own new STEM innovations at Bolsover Castle.

This is how curriculum based projects, linking 'The Internet of Curious Things' to environmental issues, look when we work with Junction Arts:

Students have been validating their projects through user testing at the castle and comparing data collection with other systems already in place - success, the data was an exact match!

2 students sharing digital rose projects in front of Bolsover Castle

As students share their voice to a wider audience through the Cavendish Roses, they'll also be supporting the programme as mentors to others joining digital making sessions over the Summer.

By the end of September the new digital rose garden at Bolsover Castle really will be an IOT visual spectacle.

If you can't make it on the day, you'll be able to view the open data as we use LoRaWAN to share more widely.

An inspirational and lasting message for everything that #ThisGirlCodes stands for 🌹🌹🌹

poster displaying dates of digital community events in Bolsover, 21st July, 21st August and 1st September 2018

group of girls holding digital rose projects inside Bolsover Castle

This Girl Codes: How partnerships are driving a STEAM exploration through our cultural heritage

This Girl Codes is an exciting example of a partnership approach to STEAM that is impacting on the aspirations, confidence and skills of women and girls in rural Derbyshire.

The programme is led by Junction Arts, supported by The Foundation for Digital Creativity and links to local community and education partners.

Exploring our cultural heritage through creative challenges has already engaged a group of primary-aged girls during phase one. This next chapter builds on these successful learning outcomes and moves to The Bolsover School and intergenerational activities across community sites in the town.

girl glueing acetate rose petals

The aim is to reduce digital exclusion and empower everyone taking part to believe that ‘they can’. The approach is somewhat unusual in that it takes female experiences rooted in Bolsover, both historical and contemporary, to become the focus for the future through the arts.

Taking inspiration from the original ‘Love’s Welcome to Bolsover’ in 1634, this new female centred story is being created with STEAM based activities. Community curated data points around the town and Castle collect environmental data through the ‘Internet of Curious Things’ digital element of the project.

acrylic tube with leds in a rose stem

This Girl Codes now brings alive voices from Bolsover through a visual arts project that takes the form of a new love story for the town. Data visualisation in a new storytelling format!

Margaret Cavendish

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was a resident of Bolsover in the seventeenth century. As a poet, philosopher, writer and playwright she was confidently publishing under her own name at a time when most women writers published anonymously.

Her strong voice, achievements and legacy are at the heart of this project. The Blazing World, which she published in 1666, is one of the earliest examples of science fiction.

She was the first woman to attend a Royal Society meetup in 1667. That example in itself is shared through the introductory storytelling, as is Samuel Pepys's diary writing from that day which leads to debate and changes discussions with the groups. A scandal?

She was the second wife of William Cavendish, resided at Welbeck Abbey and was a frequent visitor to the castle.

girl glueing acetate rose petals

Florence Sykes

Linking with the Bolsover Model Village, she created a rose garden for the coal miners and her annual strawberry tea events are legendary! Personalised ‘Florence’ roses are being digitally created and contain messages of hope to and for the town of Bolsover.

finished digital rose projects on a table

The roses have LEDs along their stem, and the groups are using event-driven programming techniques so to fluctuate the displays depending on live data changes. The creation of a mass of digital roses that respond to the surrounding environment will create a visual spectacle, as a new rose garden at the Castle, in September.

close up of rose petals from a digital project

Activities continue to facilitate student voice with real-world environmental challenges facing the local community. In this project women and girls are sharing their findings and creative solutions to a wider audience, whilst developing a range of STEM and human skills through STEAM.

another 3 students sharing digital rose projects

Capturing the imagination and creativity of KS3 girls is fundamental to This Girl Codes and engaging them in hands-on creative experiences receives positive feedback.

For reference, the wearable tech used is Codebug with the latest Envirosense and 'Invent Things' portal.

teens around a table cutting and curating acetate roses

The second phase of This Girl Codes is led by Junction Arts and funded by the People's Lottery.

junction arts logo

funding logo

Sports Performance Engineering at the World Cup

An exciting finale to our latest ‘Internet of Curious Things’ programme funded by the Engineering Education Grant Scheme.

Carr Manor Community School in Leeds hosted a World Cup themed event to inspire young digital makers, linked through the Year of Engineering initiative and their season of Sport in Engineering.

As an ‘all through’ school, providing an education for children from the age of 4 to 19, their set up is fairly unique and gave opportunities for peer mentoring activities throughout the day alongside paired programming tasks.

Children from Years 5 and 6, and different schools, took part in design challenges to invent new goal line technologies for the tournament. Their focus was on improving football performance and making a difference to a team’s success.

Research centred around data-driven decision making, with global environmental comparisons using the Met Office website. Groups explored the possible effects of weather conditions on players and developed their own solutions to become a football manager’s ‘12th player on the pitch’.

A few more details about the day below, from one of the school’s digital media and liaison teachers, and taken from their internal newsletter:

"Year 5 spent the morning programming environmental sensors on Codebugs to make a humidity detector.

They were set the challenge to invent a new sport technology that would immediately sense the humidity and activate a light based on the reading. This would alert athletes that a break was required and allow them to take in fluids to ensure maximum performance.

Year 5's had a great time exploring how the Internet of Things can connect athletes and make a difference. Some of the Year 5's displayed such great work and ideas that they stayed on as mentors for a Year 6 who were visiting in the afternoon!"

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