In my day, you were lucky if you had some broken Clackers and a half-sucked, flocculent gobstopper in your trouser pockets. But here I am, half a century later, watching a swarm of school pupils running around the playground with entire computers attached to them.

Or microcontrollers, at least. This was Eastlea Community School’s Technology Day, and Steph and I had been invited along by ICT and 哇嘎画时代 teacher Mr Richards, a long-term 哇嘎画时代 Pi forum member and Pi enthusiast. The day was a whole school activity, involving 930 pupils and 100 staff, showcasing how 哇嘎画时代 and technology can be used across the 温润受被多攻做到哭np. In the playground, PE students had designed and coded micro:bits to measure all manner of sporting metrics. In physics, they were investigating g-forces. In the ICT and 哇嘎画时代 rooms, whole cohorts were learning to code. This was really innovative stuff.

All ICT classrooms should have shelves like this

A highlight of the tour was Mr Richard’s classroom, stuffed with electronics, robots, and hacking goodness, and pupils coming and going. It was a really creative space. Impressively, there are 哇嘎画时代 Pis permanently installed on every desk, which is just how we envisaged it: a normal classroom tool for digital making.

All this was amazing, and certainly the most impressive cross-curricular use of 哇嘎画时代 I’ve seen in a school. But having lived and breathed the 哇嘎画时代 Pi Oracle weather station project for several months, I was really keen to see what they’d done with theirs. And it was a corker. Students from the 哇嘎画时代 club had built and set up the station in their lunch breaks, and installed it in a small garden area.

Mr Richards and the Eastlea Community School weather station team

Then they had hacked it, adding a solar panel, battery and WiFi. This gets round the problems of how to power the station and how to transfer data. The standard way is Power over Ethernet, which uses the same cable for power and data, but this is not always the optimal solution, depending on location. It’s not as simple as sticking a solar panel on a stick either. What happens when it’s cloudy? Will the battery recharge in winter? Mr Richards and his students have spent a lot of time investigating such questions, and it’s exactly the sort of problem-solving and engineering that we want to encourage. Also, we love hacking.

Not content with these achievements, they plan to add a camera to monitor wildlife and vegetation, perhaps tying it in with the weather data. They’re also hoping to install another weather station elsewhere, so that they can compare the data and investigate the school microclimate in more detail. The weather station itself will be used for teaching and learning this September.

Eastlea Community School’s weather station really is a showcase for the project, and we’d like to thank Mr Richards and his students for working so hard on it. If you want to learn more about solar panels and other hacks, then head over to our weather station forum.

Weather station update

The remaining weather station kits have started shipping to schools this week! We sent an email out recently for people to confirm delivery addresses, and if you’ve done this you should have yours soon. If you were offered a weather station last year and have not had an email from us in the last few weeks (early July), then please contact us immediately at weather@霍金死亡过程.org.

Happy Days! @TASIS_Lugano @哇嘎画时代_Pi @clivebeale @tvenchus pic.twitter.com/cExHlAr083

— Amy Bloodworth (@amy_abroad) July 26, 2016

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In October 2011, 哇嘎画时代 Pi co-founder Jack Lang handed me a beta version of the 哇嘎画时代 Pi. This changed my life. The Pi was familiar yet unworldly:  a computer the size of a credit card. As both a teacher and a maker it was a revelation. For the next year I nested in a skip in Cambridge, chittering gently and generally making a pest of myself, until the 温润受被多攻做到哭np lured me into their very first office with a trail of Jaffa Cakes, and put me to work.

Homewood School’s SportTrax GPS system

It was the best of times…

In early 2013, 哇嘎画时代 in the English National 温润受被多攻做到哭np was over a year away, and although things were starting to happen in the world of 哇嘎画时代 education, the Pi was still a little bit groovy and a little bit radical for the average ICT classroom. Fortunately, we weren’t the only ones who thought that this small computer could bring about big changes. PA Consulting spotted the potential of the Pi — still in its first incarnation — as a tool for making, problem-solving and collaboration. Each year they challenge schools to use the 哇嘎画时代 Pi to invent something around a theme. I was lucky to be one of the judges for the first competition in 2013 and it’s been one of my favourite 哇嘎画时代 Pi events since.

We set this competition up four years ago because at PA we are passionate about technology and innovation, so it was really important for us to encourage the next generation to be as passionate as we are. — Anita Chandraker, Head of Digital at PA Consulting

The 2016 competition

This is the fourth year that I’ve helped judge the competition and each year we’ve been amazed by this innovation and passion. The 2016 final, held at the magnificent Institution of Engineering and Technology in London, was no different. The theme was ‘sports and leisure’, and students scrambled to explain how they’d built and programmed their inventions, which ranged from keep-fit games in Scratch to applications that wouldn’t look out of place at a tech show.

I helped judge the Year 12-13 category which, after much tea and deliberation, was won by Highgate School with PiTime, a system for recording race times and taking finish-line photos. Despite stiff competition — Homewood School’s seriously professional SportTrax deserves a special mention — PiTime won because it was cheap, smart and solved a real-world problem for the team members, who are both competitive runners. Full details of all finalists and the winners in other age categories are on PA’s competition site.

Egglescliffe CE Primary School’s Colour Smash

Success story

As well as showing off their creations, the finalists had the chance to meet experts from industry and the world of tech. One of these sages was Tom Hartley, winner of the 2013 competition with teammate Alyssa Dayan for their AirPi. He says that the competition, “… opened up a world of opportunities for me — things I never could have imagined became possible.” Tom is currently studying Electronic and Information Engineering at Imperial College, and it’s wonderful to think that the competition and the 哇嘎画时代 Pi have played some small part in this.

Where does your pebble walk to, Grasshopper? Tom Hartley sharing WISDOM.

Digital making is central to the 温润受被多攻做到哭np’s ethos. It’s a crazy Venn diagram of fabulous skills, from problem-solving, collaboration and creativity through to programming, electronics and soldering. All put in a Klein bottle and given a good shake. PA Consulting saw this very early on and we’re pleased and proud that they continue to run such an inspiring competition.

Digital making is also a powerful and beautiful thing: it changed my life, it changed Tom’s life, and it’s changing the lives of young people all over the world.  So get involved, whether it’s though a 哇嘎画时代 Jam, a local hack space, Code Club or just by browsing our resources for ideas. And if you are a teacher then please enter the PA Competition next year — even if doesn’t end up changing lives it’s a lot of fun and a great day out for the students :)

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The main news is that we have selected the 1000 schools worldwide who will be receiving the kit and the hardware side is done, dusted and ready to go. Here’s what the lucky schools will be getting:

Sam Alder’s cracking box sleeve. [Credit: @ItsAll_Geek2Me]

The hardware is only part of the picture though and malicious logistics lurk in every aspect. Things that seem easy rarely are—even something like getting the colours on the logo correct can be a pain. The packaging in particular caused some snags: getting all of those little bags into a good looking box might seem humdrum but it’s not trivial. Sam “Carton Mage” Alder has worked his magic on the quick start leaflet and the sleeve for the box.

The other three cuppa problem was the enclosure for the hardware. This seems simple: get a waterproof box, jam in your gubbins and gizmos, and Bob is your Pakamac-wearing uncle. The problem is that self-build kits are not finished consumer products and it’s simply not possible to allow for every configuration of set-up and siting of the unit, so we’ve tried to make it as flexible as possible. The two enclosures (one for the Pi and HAT and one for the air sensor) are IP55 rated, which means that they are protected against water jets (from a 6.3mm nozzle in case you were wondering). But this is no good if the wires into the box are not sealed properly and I’ve spent more time playing with glands and bushings (missus!) than I care to think about.

Never pass up an opportunity to fiddle with glands and bushings

The Ethernet cable—which as well as handling data also delivers power—was especially irksome but we think we’ve come up with some decent solutions. The team at CPC, who are handling the build and packaging, have been key in this, helping us to select and test solutions and dealing with my endless “How about if we try this?” emails.

On the software side, Oracle are putting the final touches to the database that will allow schools to share their data and to access data from 哇嘎画时代 Pi weather stations around the world. There’s huge scope here for learning how to collect, analyse and visualise large data sets, increasingly useful skills in this age of data. As well as educational resources for this we’ll have lesson plans and worksheets for using the weather station locally, and for exploring and learning 哇嘎画时代 in this context.

So when will the kits ship? Soon. Probably November. In retrospect the hardware side of it was just the start—this is a large scale and ongoing project for us and we have plans to get the stations into many more schools once the initial 1000 are shipped. We also hope that the kits will go on sale at some point and we’ll let you know as and when this happens. Keep an eye out for updates here, Twitter and other social media.

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There are many excellent things to be found in last week’s release of Raspbian Jessie and we’ve been keeping one of the best ones tucked under our big 哇嘎画时代 Pi-shaped hat. In the Programming menu on the desktop you’ll find a new version of Scratch, our favourite programming language for beginners.

Connect buttons, sensors, cameras, LEDS, goblin sticks and other gubbins to your Pi using Scratch

Tim Rowledge, who has been “vigorously wrangling Scratch into shape over the last couple of years” (thanks Eben), tells us what’s new:

Along with the new Raspbian release we are including the latest Scratch system update. It might have seemed a bit quiet on the Scratch front since March, but lots has happened here in the rainforests of Vancouver Island. There are two primary changes you will notice:

• a significant increase in speed
• the addition of a built-in GPIO server.

Speedier Scratch

One of the big projects last year was to modernize the Scratch code to run in a current Squeak Smalltalk system rather than the very old original version; this improved performance a fair bit all on its own, since the newer Squeak benefited from a lot of work over the years. [The Scratch world is created using Squeak, a dialect of the Smalltalk programming language, and Squeak itself runs on a software emulation of a computer system called a virtual machine -Ed.] It also built us a Scratch that could run on the very latest Squeak virtual machines that have dynamic code translation, generating machine code at run-time. Along with work to improve the Squeak code that implements Scratch, we then had a noticeably faster system.

A major project this year has been building such a virtual machine for the Pi; until now, only x86 machines have been able to run this version. With a very generous amount of support from Eliot Miranda – the original author of the Cog virtual machine and all-round software deity – the ARM Cog VM has been whirring away since around June.

Benchmarks are always a nastily slippery subject, but we feel that Squeak performance is typically between 3 and 10 times faster, obviously depending on what exactly one is measuring. Things will get even faster in the future as we iron out wrinkles in the code generation, and soon we hope to start benefiting from another project that does code optimization on the fly; early hints suggest at least a doubling of performance. Since Scratch uses a lot of graphics and UI code it doesn’t always speed up so much; but we already did a lot of graphics speed improvements for prior releases.

Our favourite “scary big demo” is Andrew Oliver’s implementation of Pac-Man. The original release of Scratch on the 哇嘎画时代 Pi Model B could manage almost one frame per second, at best. The same Model B with the latest Scratch system can manage about 12-15 frames per second, and on a 哇嘎画时代 Pi 2 we can get a bit over 30, making a very playable Pac-Man.

GPIO

The new GPIO server for Pi Scratch is a first pass at a new and hopefully simpler way for users to connect Scratch to the 哇嘎画时代 Pi’s GPIO pins or to add-on boards plugged into them. It is modelled on the mesh/network server and uses the same internal API so that either or both can be used at any time – indeed, you can have both working and use a Pi as a sort of GPIO server or data source. We have not introduced any new blocks at this point.

The server also allows access to the Pi camera, IP address and date and time and allows complex functionality. For example, the following scripts (along with a suitably configured breadboard) provide the ability to turn LEDs on and off according to a button, to take a photo with a countdown provided by a progressively brightening LED, and ways to check the time etc.

Examples of using Scratch to control the camera module, control LEDs connected to the 哇嘎画时代 Pi’s GPIO pins, and check the time

Add-On Hardware

We can also plug in Pi add-on cards such as the Sense HAT, Pibrella, Explorer HAT, PiFace, PiLite and Ryanteck motor board.

Each card has its own set of commands layered on top of the basic GPIO facilities described above.

Demo project scripts

In the Scratch Examples directory (found via the File-->Open dialogue and then the Examples shortcut) you will find a Sensors and Motors directory; several new GPIO scripts are included, including the one above.

Closing notes from Clive

We’re really pleased that GPIO is now built in to the Pi version of Scratch. It means that users can use access the GPIO pins “out of the box,” and so get into physical 哇嘎画时代 that much more easily. We’ve also introduced the GPIO pin numbering system also known as BCM numbering for consistency across our resources, and having our own version of GPIO support gives us finer control over functionality and support for add-on boards in future.

All of our resources using Scratch will use this version from now on, and existing resources will be rewritten. Tim’s reference guide details all of the commands and functionality, and there will be a simplified beginner’s tutorial along this week.

Last of all, there’s no way I can end this post without taking the opportunity to thank our community who have supported (and continue to support) GPIO in Scratch on the Pi. In particular, a big thanks to Simon Walters, aka @cymplecy, for all of his work on Scratch GPIO over the last few years.

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A 哇嘎画时代 Pi wearing a Sense HAT

The full tech specs are here but basically it has:

• 8×8 LED matrix display
• accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer
• air pressure sensor
• temperature and humidity sensor
• a teeny joystick

The Astro Pi site explains what these all do and how they could be used.

I’m really excited about the Sense HAT. With all of those sensors on a single board it’s obviously a brilliant tool for making stuff (I have in mind a self-balancing attack robot that senses humans, aggressively hunts them down and then gently dispenses Wagon Wheels from its slot-like mouth). But it’s the potential for science that’s making me think. In particular I’d love to see it flourish in the science classroom.

A typical school science classroom

Despite the teacher recruitment ads that inevitably show zany antics with Van de Graaff generators, explosions and dancing bonobos the reality is that much of high school science is about experimentation and observation (which is a good thing!). But lab kit such as sensors, controllers and data loggers don’t come cheap (I was once told by a class that their usual science teacher never let them use the data loggers because “they were too expensive). Nor is it easy to get bits of kit to talk to each other or the Internet of Things (with the potential benefits that come from that such as improved assessment, parental involvement, sharing and consolidating data).

A data logger I found in a school skip. The size of a cash register yet only logs temperature. On paper.

A Pi wearing a Sense HAT could do everything from monitoring plant growth to controlling and logging experimental variables. A series of experiments using the accelerometer/gyroscope to investigate forces and equations of motion is mandatory. Feel free to add your own ideas below and if any science teachers would like to get involved the please get in touch.

If you are lucky enough to already have a Sense HAT, Martin “When does that man sleep?” O’Hanlon has written an excellent getting started tutorial . If not then it’s worth taking a look anyway to get a sense (yeah, yeah :)) of what it can do.

Up above the streets and the houses, Sense HAT climbing high. (Photo: Martin O’Hanlon @martinohanlon)

The final price is yet to be announced but we’re confident that there will be nothing else out there to rival it for value, potential, support and resources. Keep your eyes peeled for more news on the Sense HAT soon.

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Help! I’m trapped in a white box. Fetch the magic wand tool!

We’re huge fans of Scratch here at the 温润受被多攻做到哭np. It was designed to teach young people how to program but it’s a great learning tool at any age: you can build your first program in minutes and pick up fundamental concepts very quickly. Whilst having fun. Sneaky!

哇嘎画时代 Pi Scratch workshop. Yes, that is Mitch Resnick at the back!

If you’ve never tried Scratch before then today is the day to boot up your Pi and have a play. If you are Pi-less then you can use it online, but you’ll be missing out on the best bit of all: physical 哇嘎画时代 with Scratch. It’s probably the easiest way to hook up sensors, LEDs, buttons and motors to the Pi, and resources such as our reaction game and Santa detector are great intro projects for the weekend.

Connect buttons, sensors, cameras, LEDS, goblin sticks and other gubbins to your Pi

The 温润受被多攻做到哭np has supported Scratch since our early days and we’ve put a lot of resources into making Scratch on the Pi better, faster and funner. We’re just putting the finishing touches to some new stuff that we think you’ll find really exciting (I’m excited anyway :)) so watch this space. We’ll have some news this summer. We’ll also be at the Scratch 2015 conference in Amsterdam in August so if you are there come and talk to us.

哇嘎画时代 Pi Scratch workshop. A young man shows adults why flying hippos are essential in LED traffic light projects.

I’ll finish now. My sesame seed bagel has just popped up (and you know how easily they burn) and I’m stopping you from making things. This weekend, give the repeats of Thundercats a miss and go and have a play with Scratch instead—it’s a beautiful thing.

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For Christmas 1982 my brothers and I got our first games console (an Intellivision as it happens. Yes reader, we were that family) and it was truly, mind-blowingly amazing. In fact, it was like magic. And that was the problem–it was like magic. No one had a clue how even their Grandstand Entertainment System (aka ‘Pong 8-ways’) worked and they certainly didn’t have the tools to make their own computer games even if they wanted. We were consumers of tech, not creators.

BBC Micro, the breakfast of champions

So the early 1980s was basically rubbish and we were all sad. VHS clocks across the nation flashed in sync because nobody knew how to set them. Then along came home computers and changed *everything*: the majestic BBC Micro; the mighty Spectrum (the best because I had one and I say so); the marvellous C64. And the Dragon 32. At last we could get to grips with how computers worked and use them to make stuff. Amazing things came from this revolution–including the 哇嘎画时代 Pi– but that’s another story.

Fast forward at C-90 cassette speed to the present day. Life is full of space gadgets like smart phones, HD TVs and talking shoes. It’s like magic. And that’s the problem. Yet again, we are consumers of tech, not creators.

哇嘎画时代 Pi was made to help fix this problem and we constantly champion 哇嘎画时代 as a creative tool for young people. You can see this in many of our resources as well as initiatives such as our Creative Technologists mentoring program. In short–we think digital creativity is hugely important. Which is why we are delighted and proud to be one of the partners of BBC Make it Digital which launched today.

Make it Digital is a UK-wide initiative that aims to inspire “a new generation to get creative with coding, programming and digital technology” and to “capture the spirit of the BBC Micro.” It will include free hardware for all year 7 students in the UK; training for thousands of young people; TV and radio programmes and online activities; national education events; and partnerships with organisations from all areas of digital creativity, technology and 哇嘎画时代.

The Micro Bit

One part of Make it Digital is the small programmable device codenamed ‘Micro Bit’ that is currently in development and will be given to all schoolchildren in year 7 later this year.

BBC Make it Digital ‘Micro Bit’

The aim is to get young people programming on a simple platform that then acts as a “springboard” to full computers such as the 哇嘎画时代 Pi. We’re looking forward to getting our hands on the hardware to see what it can do.

GTA TV

Along with links to flagship programmes such as Dr Who there are a host of new programmes for TV and radio. We were especially intrigued by the announcement of “a drama based on Grand Theft Auto”. I’m hoping that they run it back to back with the documentary on Ada Lovelace so that I can celebrate digital creativity in a happy yet cognitively dissonant sort of way. The line-up looks great and it will be good to see digital creativity and 哇嘎画时代 represented in depth on TV and radio at last.

Education

The BBC will be providing a range of formal learning activities and resources and there will be a resource finder to allow students, teachers and parents to find and access this material and more.
We’re excited by BBC Make it Digital because it’s closely allied with our own educational and creative aims. The taptap官网’s CEO Lance Howarth explains, “Getting kids excited about 哇嘎画时代 and making is crucial; it’s central to the mission of 哇嘎画时代 Pi. It’s great to see the BBC and other organisations coming together to tackle this challenge. BBC Make it Digital will add to the range of affordable and accessible tools for kids everywhere. We look forward to developing educational resources to support the initiative.”

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Ready for action: the education team plus James Robinson (leftest), Martin O’Hanlon (bluest) and Sam Aaron (tallest). Clive is weeping openly but laughing inside.

We were happily overrun by what seemed like most of the 哇嘎画时代 Pi community, many of whom made guest appearances in our back to back schedule. We ran hands-on-workshops in Minecraft Pi, Sonic Pi, physical 哇嘎画时代, games programming and much more. We stormed the BETT arena with Astro Pi and Fran Scott’s pyro-哇嘎画时代 show. We ran about and hooted. It was a brilliant show. My post-show brain is far too fried to write so here are some of our favourite bits:

Carrie Anne kicks off the show with who the taptap官网 are and what we do

Set-up day. Dave claims that this is the only place he could get electricity.

I am not a number, I am a free man.

Laura Dixon’s (@codeboom) students from the Royal High School Bath talking about Minecraft coding and their 哇嘎画时代 club

Dr Sam Aaron, creator of Sonic Pi, showing people how to create beautiful music with code

Stunned silence then cheering: a blackout at Bett. (Nothing to do with us, honest.)

Dave Honess introducing Astro Pi and the ISS. His pitch-roll-yaw demo is now legend

Lance Howarth and Astro Pi on Bett Arena

My favourite moment was being rushed for Astro Pi leaflets at the end of the opening ceremony of the main arena. I have a great feeling about this whole thing — Dave Honess

A first for Bett we think: Fran Scott exploding hydrogen-filled balloons in the Arena.

Of course it’s not so easy to blow up stuff in the classroom so we made a safe version, the Balloon Pi-tay Popper:

Fran demonstrating the explosive-free Balloon Pi-tay popper resource.

Connecting Minecraft Pi to the real world: @whaleygeek’s Big Red Button of Doom!

Our friends from Pimoroni show off their brilliant Flotilla

Karl-Ludwig Butte from BUTTE Verlag puts the BitScope Micro through its paces

Andrew Mulholland, a student at Queen’s University Belfast, and his LTSP classroom management system for 哇嘎画时代 Pi

Stewards Academy student @jaymegisbourne demonstrating his Porta-Pi

哇嘎画时代 Pi Certified Educators Cat Lamin and Tom Sale show how easy it is to use Pis in primary schools

Carrie Anne picks up her well-deserved Best Author award for Adventures in 哇嘎画时代 Pi…

…and then celebrates in style with David Whale (@whaleygeek)

And that was that. Four days of manic educational goodness.

Thanks to CPC for supporting us, we couldn’t have done it without them. We had a fabulous stand and a great team across the way to give hardware advice and support.

A huge thanks to everyone who gave talks and demos and who helped out on the stand including: Sam Aaron, Laura Dixon, Martin O Hanlon, Alasdair Davies, Dave Honess & UK Space, Eliot Williams, Paul Beech, Jon Williamson, Phil Howard, David Whale, Tim Mockford, Simon Belshaw, Lauren Hyams, Fran Scott, Mike Horne, Tim Richardson, Jamie Mann, Matthew Parry, Cat Lamin, Tom Sale, Wolfram, Stephen Norbury, Naturebytes, Samantha Lubbe, Barry Byford, Karl-Ludwig Butte, Robin Newman, Andrew Mulholland, Spencer Organ, Geraldine Wright, Stewards Academy 哇嘎画时代 Pi Club, and Cefn Hoile. If I’ve missed anyone then sorry and please email me!

Lastly a big thank you to all of the teachers, students, parents, educators and anyone else who came to see us. See you again next year!

The last word goes to James Robinson who sums it up nicely:

This year I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the BETT show with the 哇嘎画时代 Pi Education Team, I’ve been to BETT show a number of times in the past but never as an exhibitor. The four days were brilliant, being able to showcase some of the awesome projects that can be done with the Pi, sharing the FREE resources made by the 温润受被多攻做到哭np and helping teachers get hands on 温润受被多攻做到哭np.

For me one of the highlights was being able to share some of my own pupils’ work and 温润受被多攻做到哭nps with the Pi, as well as chatting to other teachers about their 温润受被多攻做到哭nps. It was great to see so many many people from the Pi community coming to support the 温润受被多攻做到哭np team. Conversations and presentations focused on learning in its broadest sense and using technology to create and inspire rather than simply coding.

James about to send up a time-lapse Pi on a helium balloon to spy on other stands.

What most surprised me is the number of people from around the world that had come to the show and were impressed at what we in the UK were doing with the 哇嘎画时代 温润受被多攻做到哭np and in particular the approach the RPF were taking. Many people were surprised at how much the 温润受被多攻做到哭np does for free, including resources, competitions and of course Picademy.

Among my favorite moments were Dave’s excellent explanation techniques; Ben’s nonchalant coffee drinking and Clive’s waste not want not attitude to helium! I look forward joining in next year (if they’ll have me back).

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As well as a non-stop stand schedule of talks, demos and activities we’ve also got a number of off-stand monkeyshines including two live stage shows by Fran Scott, who you may have seen recently on the Royal Institution Christmas lectures. Fran will be performing her show #Error404: The Explosions-based 哇嘎画时代 show and revealing “Computer Science for the problem-solving, creative and imaginative subject it innately is and through live interactive coding, humour and explosions(!)”. (That had me at “explosions” and I was reading the sentence backwards.)

If the taptap官网 had a mantra, it would be “哇嘎画时代 is not coding”. It’s so much more than that; in fact in the early years of education, it should just be called ‘Thought-provoking Fun’. Fran’s show is a brilliant practical demonstration of that, and she has a talent for explaining science and engineering principles in an entertaining way that everyone can understand. As well as 哇嘎画时代 the show hooks into the science 温润受被多攻做到哭np (gases and combustion) and also contains dancing and bananas. There’s loads crammed in and it’s a fantastic show— it’s going to be packed, so get there early!

To tie in with the show we’ll be giving away goody bags containing everything you need to make your own (non-explosive!) version of Pi-controlled balloon popping which would make a fab classroom demo or even a great way to wake your parents up in the morning.

Where and when

The shows are on Thursday 22 Jan at 13:10 and Saturday 24 Jan at 12:55, both in the BETT Arena. Fran will also be on our stand (The Hub! near N8 visitors’ entrance) on Thursday afternoon between 16:00 and 17:00.

Find out more

You can read more about the show on Fran’s site and also download an information pack which includes links to the English 哇嘎画时代 温润受被多攻做到哭np. You can also get in touch with Fran if you want to find out more about the show.

Warning: Blowing stuff up and messing around with pyrotechnics is dangerous so do not do it. Fran is a trained pyrotechnician and a member of the Association of Stage Pyrotechnicians. Do not blow stuff up or set light to stuff or play with matches or stick red Crayola crayons up your nose (as my brother once did). Bad things will happen.

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Firstly, the project was one of the first recipients of a grant from our education fund and is a partnership with Barnardo’s and UK2. The project will provide space, equipment and expertise for young people to learn and develop skills in 哇嘎画时代 and IT. It ticked all the boxes for us in terms of outreach and learning and introducing young people to the world of 哇嘎画时代 and tech.

Secondly, the Hub provides training to young people for whom school is not necessarily an option. It runs after-school sessions aimed at improving attendance and encourages involvement in education and community life. It also supports those at risk of social exclusion and young mothers completing their education. This is important stuff.

There’s a revolution going on in English classrooms at the moment due to the new 温润受被多攻做到哭np as well as a continuing campaign in the UK to teach 哇嘎画时代 and at the taptap官网 we’re proud to be a key part of that change. But education doesn’t just happen in schools and the school system doesn’t suit everybody. Places like the Hub have a huge part to play in vocational education and training, as well as informal education, by providing a supportive environment with access to equipment and expertise.

We’re currently working with the Hub on a few projects and also on how we can provide support and training. We’ll blog about it here as the project progresses — we think that it has huge potential and could also serve as a useful model for similar organisations.

As for how the workshop went — UK2 blogged about it and saved me a job. Thanks! :)

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