An Introduction to Microbits

In this lesson, you'll learn about Microbits, their applications, and their importance in educational robotics.

Learning Goals Learning Outcomes Teacher Notes

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1 What is a Microbit?
2 Microbit Applications
3 Importance of Microbits in Educational Robotics
4 Video
Quiz

1 - What is a Microbit?

A Microbit is a small, programmable microcontroller designed for beginners to learn programming and electronics. It is widely used in educational robotics due to its simplicity and versatility. The Microbit features a 5x5 LED matrix, two buttons, and various sensors such as an accelerometer, compass, and thermometer.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

done | 5 points

2 - Microbit Applications

Microbits can be used in a variety of applications, including robotics, wearables, and interactive art installations. They are a popular choice for educators because they provide a hands-on approach to learning programming and electronics, allowing students to create projects that interact with the physical world.

done | 10 points

3 - Importance of Microbits in Educational Robotics

Microbits play a crucial role in educational robotics because they make it easy for students to learn programming and electronics concepts. Their simplicity and versatility enable students to create a wide range of robotics projects, from simple LED animations to complex robots with multiple sensors and actuators. Microbits are also affordable and accessible, making them an ideal choice for schools and educational institutions.

done | 10 points

4 - Video

The video provides a comprehensive introduction to microbits, small programmable computers designed for teaching and learning coding. It discusses their history, features, functionalities, and broad applications, ranging from children to adults. The video also briefly touches upon how to program them using block-based or text-based coding languages, like JavaScript or Python, with a highlight on the additional step of transferring code to the microbit.

Duration: 2:22

Video transcript: course we'll be using these micro bits to demonstrate different aspects of Robotics we can program them as they are or we can connect them to different robotic kits where they act as the programmable brain of the robot let's take a deeper look at them and what they can do so what is a microburst well it's a very small programmable computer designed especially for Learning and teaching coding they were designed by the BBC along with some universities and version one of it was released in 2016. the name microbit is a call out to the BBC micro that was developed by the BBC for computer literacy program back in the 1980s yes computers in the classroom go back that far this new version is more powerful and comes with some new features such as a microphone and a touch sensitive logo okay enough nerding out on the history of them what can they actually do well they have a microprocessor inside them and they're packed with sensors and things you can program and interact with they have an accelerometer for sensing movement a magnetometer that acts as a compass for sensing Direction a microphone a speaker a display consisting of 25 LED lights two programmable buttons Bluetooth and USB port for connectivity and can be powered by either USB or an external battery pack so you can take them mobile they're designed for ages 10 plus but can be used by younger children and as they're very powerful and versatile they can also be used to teach coding and Robotics to older students and adults as well the other brilliant thing about them is that you can connect them to other accessories such as robot cars LED lights and tons of other robotic kits how do we program them well in a similar way to scratch you can make programs using a website where you can create your code using blocks or even using a textual programming language such as JavaScript or python the extra step that you need to take is that you need to download your code from the website to your computer and then send that code in the form of a file onto your micro bit once you do that your code plays out on the microgrid device itself we'll go into more detail on how to program micro bits and the microprocessor in them in the next unit

done | 15 points

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