How can we teach students about technology in a playfully way?
That was the challenge we in MakeKit where given before this year’s Nordic Edge KnowHow EdTech Conference.
Other participants during the conference where: Google Education, Gamoteca, University of Malaya, Snøhetta and LEGO-Education.
Challenge accepted!!!
Together with 6 students from Øraker school here in Oslo, Norway we set aside a few hours for problem-based cross-curriculum learning. A big thanks to Øraker and the teachers there who allocated time and recourses.
4 of the students had no experience with micro:bit, and 2 of them had some experience form attending an elective subject. None of them had experience with building kits like this.
We started out by figuring out what the different groups wanted to build.
Groupe 1 – Wonder:kit Invention (with a Chocolat drink mixer)
Groupe 2 – Wonder:Kit Hover:bit
Groupe 3 – Wonder:Kit Air:bit
All groups quickly started finding the right parts and building the kit according to the instructions. We were surprised by the continues concentration of the students and the ability to search for necessary information.
During the session, we covered topics like:
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Math, and how it is implemented in the code.
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Physics and Aerodynamics of both the drone and the hovercraft.
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Algorithmic thinking and Problem-solving, and how to find solutions for the invention
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Material and their environmental impact, what is the life course of different materials.
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Programming and how to control different sensors and motors.
Limited time
Normally we do workshops over the course of 6-8 hours, and this gives us time to do go in a bit more depth on a few subjects.
But now we only had a little over 2 hours do complete the different kits, and the race was on. This meant that this session would be a bit out of the ordinary and that we had to do everything as fast as we could.
Normally we would recommend integrating this into day to day education and using the kits as a way to demonstrate and make experiments in subjects. This will result in deeper learning and students will get a much better learning experience. This also means that you as an educator don’t have to set aside any extra time. It just means using the kits as a tool in the education you are going to do anyway.
As a bonus, the students will have something to look forward to during the classes.
The final
It is always exciting at the end and the suspense, «will the kit actually work?».
In the end, all 3 groups succeeded in demonstrating their kit. And we got to see the mixing of chocolate drink, the drifting of the hovercraft and the flying of the drone.
All students where so excited and they got to experience a new way of learning about multiple subjects for the first time.
We in MakeKit are so happy to have been part of the KnowHow EdTech Conference and we hope all who attended got to share in the sense of achievement that both the students and we in MakeKit felt during this session.
Some pictures of the journey:
A short video of the third and final segment:
Want to learn more about our kits and the educational system Wonder:Kit, please reach out to us on sales@makekit.no
Best regards from Team MakeKit