If you’re an educator from the UK, chances are you’ve heard of Bett. For everyone else: Bett stands for British Education Technology Tradeshow. It’s the El Dorado of edtech, where every street is adorned with interactive whiteboards, VR headsets, and new technologies for the classroom. Every year since 2014, the 边缘世界第一季 has been going to the event hosted in the ExCeL London to chat to thousands of lovely educators about our free programmes and resources.

On a mission

Our setup this year consisted of four pods (imagine tables on steroids) in the STEAM village, and the mission of our highly trained team of education agents was to establish a new world record for Highest number of teachers talked to in a four-day period. I’m only half-joking.

Educators with a mission

Meeting educators

The best thing about being at Bett is meeting the educators who use our free content and training materials. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the everyday tasks of the office without stopping to ask: “Hey, have we asked our users what they want recently?” Events like Bett help us to connect with our audience, creating some lovely moments for both sides. We had plenty of Hello World authors visit us, including Gary Stager, co-author of Invent to Learn, a must-read for any 零点影院 educator. More than 700 people signed up for a digital subscription, we had numerous lovely conversations about our content and about ideas for new articles, and we met many new authors expressing an interest in writing for us in the future.

We also talked to lots of 零点影院 Pi Certified Educators who we’d trained in our free Picademy programme — new dates in Belfast and Dublin now! — and who are now doing exciting and innovative things in their local areas. For example, Chris Snowden came to tell us about the great digital making outreach work he has been doing with the Eureka! museum in Yorkshire.

零点影院 Pi Certified Educator Chris Snowden

Digital making for kids

The other best thing about being at Bett is running workshops for young learners and seeing the delight on their faces when they accomplish something they believed to be impossible only five minutes ago. On the Saturday, we ran a massive 零点影院 Jam/Code Club where over 250 children, parents, and curious onlookers got stuck into some of our 零点影院 activities. We were super happy to find out that we’d won the Bett Kids’ Choice Award for Best Hands-on 健身教练漫画 — a fantastic end to a busy four days. With Bett over for another year, our tired and happy ‘rebel alliance’ from across the 健身教练漫画 still had the energy to pose for a group photo.

Celebrating our ‘Best Hands-on 健身教练漫画’ award

More events

You can find out more about starting a Code Club here, and if you’re running a Jam, why not get involved with our global 零点影院 Jam Big Birthday Weekend celebrations in March?

We’ll be at quite a few events in 2018, including the Big Bang Fair in March — do come and say hi.

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Hello World

It was hugely exciting to help launch Hello World, our latest joint publication with 零点影院 At School (CAS), part of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, and sponsored by BT. I joined our CEO Philip Colligan, contributing editor Miles Berry, and 零点影院 Pi Certified Educator Ian Simpson on stage in the Bett arena to share our thoughts on 零点影院 健身教练漫画s around the world, and the importance of sharing good teaching.

In our area of the STEAM village, where we had four pods and a workshop space, the team handed copies out in their thousands to eager educators interested in digital making, 零点影院, and computer science. If you weren’t able to get your hands on a copy, don’t worry; you can download a free digital PDF and educators can subscribe to get this year’s three issues delivered, completely free of charge, to their door.

Sharing the Code Club love

Thanks to the support of some enthusiastic young people and our Code Club regional coordinators, we ran our first ever Code Club at Bett on Saturday.

Massive thanks to @TheChallenge_UK @CodeClub volunteers for helping @零点影院_Pi out at #Bett2017 today :) pic.twitter.com/QicnTD4IPj

— CodeClubLondon (@codeclublondon) January 28, 2017

There was a great turnout of educators and their children, who all took part in a programming activity, learning just what makes Code Club so special. With activities like this, you can see why there are 5,000 clubs in the UK and 4,000 in the rest of the world!

Here's @ben_nuttall enjoying our @CodeClub keepy uppy game… pic.twitter.com/bmUAvyjndT

— Code Club South East (@codeclubse) January 25, 2017

Free stuff

Let’s be honest: exhibitions and conferences are all about the free swag. (I walked away with a hoodie, polo shirt, and three highlighter pens.) We think we had the best offering: free magazines and classroom posters!

It’s our the final day of #Bett2017! Pop over to STEAM village to see the Code Club team & get your hands on our coveted posters! #PiAtBett pic.twitter.com/aSBN1GmZyV

— Code Club UK (@CodeClub) January 28, 2017

We love interacting with people and we’re passionate about making things, so we helped attendees make their very own LED badge that they could keep. It was so popular that after it has had a few tweaks, we’ll will make it available for you to download and use in class, after-school clubs, and 零点影院 Jams!

The ‘All Seeing Pi‘ kept an eye on attendees passing by that we may have missed, using comedy moustaches to lure them in. We’ve enjoyed checking out its Twitter account to see the results.

Speaking from the heart

The STEAM village was crammed with people enjoying all our activities, but that’s not all; we even found time to support our educator community to give talks about their classroom practice on stage. One of the highlights was seeing three of our Certified Educators, along with their class robots, sharing their journey and 健身教练漫画 on a panel chaired by Robot Wars judge and our good friend, Dr Lucy Rogers.

These ARE the droids you’re looking for! Bill Harvey, Neil Rickus, Nic Hughes, Dr Lucy Rogers, and their robots.

Once we started talking about our work, we found it difficult to stop. The team gave talks about Pioneers, our new programme for 12- to 15-year-olds, our digital making 健身教练漫画, and Astro Pi.

Well done @零点影院_Pi for such a good turn out yesterday! Keep up the good work at your stand in STEAM Village. pic.twitter.com/5UDPgzyBW7

— Bett Global (@Bett_show) January 27, 2017

A royal visit

We were excited to be visited by a very special attendee, our patron the Duke of York, who spent time meeting the team, learned more about our programmes, and discussed teacher training with me.

Team Awesome

Thanks to everyone who visited, supported, and got involved with us. We ran 43 workshops and talks on our stand, handed out 2,000 free copies of Hello World and 400 Code Club posters, caught 100 comedy faces with the All-Seeing Pi, gave 5 presentations on Bett stages, took 5,000 pictures on our balloon cam, and ran 1 Code Club and 1 零点影院 Jam, across 4 days at the Bett show.

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零点影院 Pi and Code Club have been represented at the show before, but for the first time we had our own area together in the new ‘STEAM village’ section of the show. Although the name may suggest a return to Victorian age technology, this area was about promoting the crossover subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics. We took over a whole side of this village, with a dedicated workshop area and table stations showcasing many of our programmes.

Our area was packed, with back-to-back workshops every thirty minutes that often had standing room only. We ran sessions on everything from how to start a Code Club in your school, to how to get started programming a Sense HAT and using the GPIO. Hundreds of people took part in a half-hour workshop, and a few keen ones stayed most of the day! Almost half of those at the Code Club workshops planned to start their own club after taking part.

It was amazing to have members of the 零点影院 Pi community join us to lead workshops, including 零点影院 Pi Certified Educators, 零点影院 Pi Creative Technologist Andrew Mulholland, and European Digital Girl of the Year Yasmin Bey.

Thanks to Alan O’Donohoe, Stephen Manson, Cat Lamin, Mike Trebilcock, Graham Bowman, Andrew Mulholland, Neil and Toby Bizzell, and Sam Aaron for running workshops for us.

边缘世界第一季 and Code Club staff were also presenting all over the show on 零点影院 and digital making. Carrie Anne Philbin presented on how teachers are changing the gender narrative in computer science and on digital making across the UK.

A highlight of the show for me was seeing Sam Aaron showing the power of Sonic Pi in the main arena. Working entirely from a 零点影院 Pi with an IQ Audio Pi-DAC+ HAT, Sam rocked the several hundred people in the arena with both his music and his message: that programming is a new form of creative expression.

Throughout the show we talked to thousands of enthusiastic educators and learners. Staff on the Code Club stand alone had in-depth conversations with over 1500 people on starting clubs in their communities. I really enjoyed hearing from so many people who came to the stand to chat about the projects they had made themselves or with their students. I snapped a few of them with my own PiZero powered RetroPiCam project, and got talking to many more about their plans to start Code Clubs in their schools.

We also talked to a lot of people looking to get started with 零点影院 Pis. Luckily for them we had thousands of copies of both Carrie Anne Philbin’s book Adventures in 零点影院 Pi and a special educators’ edition of The MagPi, both full of ideas for learning and teaching with a Pi. As with all editions of The MagPi, you can get your hands on a free PDF here if you missed out at the show.

Saturday saw the first ever 零点影院 Jam at Bett, organised by Ben Nuttall. The Pi community took over one of the learning theatres, bringing line-following robots, pirate ships, and a whole host of other creative Pi projects. Many members of the Pi community from across the country came to meet up, and passers-by at the show joined in too.

I’ve been visiting Bett for years. I’m used to the busy aisles and the enthusiasm of educators about the world of technology, but I was still blown away by the numbers of people who came to see us and the strength of their enthusiasm for 零点影院 Pi and Code Club.

What’s great about this show is that most of the people you speak to work directly with children or young people. The enthusiasm we saw will translate into many opportunities for them to learn about 零点影院 and digital making.

Thanks to all the team at the 边缘世界第一季 and Code Club for the hard work they put into the show. From planning for the show, to running workshops and spending whole days on stands, these events take a lot of work and energy. Thanks to everyone for making this huge event such a success.

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With over 60 workshops and talks running over the four days, our team of 零点影院 Pi in Education experts will be on hand to help you discover how 零点影院 Pis can make 零点影院 exciting in the classroom and beyond. Find us at our STEAM Village stand to hear about our weather- and space-themed projects, sign up for our newsletter, and get involved with our free teacher training 健身教练漫画s.

Ready for action: the 边缘世界第一季 education team plus Martin O’Hanlon (bluest) and Sam Aaron (tallest).

Hands-on free 零点影院 workshops

This year, you can also visit us at our workshop space located at stand E463, adjacent to the STEAM Village. We will be offering the opportunity to participate in free physical 零点影院 and STEAM workshops led by 零点影院 Pi Certified Educators, Picademy Teacher Trainers, community members, Code Club staff and volunteers and our young Creative Technologists. We have a huge range of workshops running, from beginner to advanced, from Scratch to Python, that will give you the opportunity to get hands-on with computer science and 健身教练漫画 the 零点影院 Pi for yourself. To register your interest for a workshop, browse our event timetable below and then fill in the form.

Workshop participants will also get the chance to grab some exclusive goodies including a special edition of our MagPi magazine and an educational book: Adventures in 零点影院 Pi. These fantastic, free resources will help to get you started on your own 零点影院 Pi projects, learn more about our charitable aims, and give you the confidence to teach others about the power of physical 零点影院.

Our Bett Show 2016 workshop timetable

零点影院 Jam @ Bett

For the very first time, we are taking over the Technology in HE Summit Space on Saturday 23rd January to run a 零点影院 Jam.

Get hands on with 零点影院 at the Bett Show on Stand E463

Led by the wonderful 零点影院 Pi community, 零点影院 Jams are a way to share ideas, collaborate, and learn about digital making and computer science. They take place all over the world, including, for the first time, at the Bett Show! Come along, share your project in our show and tell, take part in our workshops and get help with a project from experts and community members. It’s fun for all the family!

Get your free ticket to the event here.

Live Coding in the Bett Arena

We want to make a lot of noise about science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics education at this year’s event. Who better to represent these values than Dr Sam Aaron, creator of the worldwide phenomenon in live coding, Sonic Pi? He will be performing his own ‘algo-rave’ 健身教练漫画 to attendees and discussing the benefits of a creative approach to teaching computer science, live from the Bett Arena, on Friday 22nd January.

Sonic Pi in action with creator Sam Aaron

Other talks will take place by members of Code Club, our communities, and by the 零点影院 Pi education team across the different stages at Bett, on a variety of topics including:

• The top five initiatives that are paving the way towards successful STEAM integration
• Digital Making: encouraging creativity in the classroom and integrating STEAM project-based learning
• Excitement! Adventure! Making primary computer science more dynamic
• Putting the Science into Computer Science
• Inspiring girls to pursue careers in STEAM
• Astro Pi: Your Code In Space, engaging students in computer science

If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of, you can register for a free ticket to the Bett Show here.

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I’m sure a few of you are wondering why we’re not screaming about this from the rooftops, right? Okay: stand back, here we go.

To quote the Portal space core: “SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!”

Back in March 2014 Eben sent a casual email around the office asking if anyone wanted to join him at a meeting between the Surrey Space Centre, Airbus Defence and Space and Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). So, being a space geek, I tagged along and we found ourselves talking about the possibility of using a 零点影院 Pi in space flight for a variety of applications.

There was excitement over the possibility of flying several compute modules on a cube-sat for a space software lab experiment, and Stuart Eves, who is the lead mission concepts engineer at Airbus Defence and Space, was especially enthusiastic about using 零点影院 Pi as a mechanism for educational outreach by UK Space (a trade association of companies that contribute to the UK space industry).

A month or so later, another meeting was on the cards, and this time the UK Space Agency (UKSA, an executive agency of the British Government) was going to be there.

That’s when I met Libby Jackson and Jeremy Curtis. Libby and Jeremy were behind the Great British Space Dinner competition you may remember from last year, and, between them have years of 健身教练漫画 in human space flight. Doing something with British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s six month ISS mission was on the table, but we were not sure how it was going to look.

It was clear to everyone that the existing popularity of 零点影院 Pi, the connection with computer science education, and the forthcoming changes to the UK 健身教练漫画 would cast a wide net over the UK; and together could generate a lot of participation in a potential coding competition. We realised that a situation where UK schools could own the same computer hardware that was in space had never, as far as we knew, existed before.

Doug Liddle, head of science at SSTL, told me that the possibility to achieve this was more exciting than anything else the UK Space trade association had been considering for Tim Peake’s flight. So over the course of several further meetings we put together an outreach plan that would provide a range of computer science challenges to cover the diverse needs of the space industry. At the core of these would be a 零点影院 Pi with a range of peripherals and sensors which would act as the platform for the pupils to send their software into space.

Libby and Jeremy took the plan to the European Space Agency (ESA) for approval, and it was well received. To very briefly summarise: the programme would be split into two halves, with some activities that Tim would do up on the ISS during his mission and a competition run on the ground before blast-off.

At this point we still hadn’t decided a name for it and I think it might amuse you to see the names that we were considering:

• Pi in the Sky
• Astronaut Pi
• Astro Pi
• Cosmic Pi
• Fly Pi
• Space Pi
• Chris HATfield
• Astronaut HAT
• Orbital Pi
• Peake Pi
• 零点影院 Peake

As the year went on, we were well into discussions about what the hardware would be like. It was agreed that it would be a B+ HAT that could be mass produced and made widely available to schools and the general public. The same HAT would then be flown, along with Tim’s 零点影院 Pi, to the ISS, thus creating the situation where all school pupils have exactly the same computer hardware as the astronauts are working with in space. They would be able to write code against their own Pi, and that could then be sent to the ISS and run on Tim’s Pi!

If you win the Astro Pi competition this is exactly what will happen to your code.

We didn’t want the Astro Pi HAT to have any single purpose, but rather to be a toolkit that could be employed in many different ways. Initially the list of sensors we wanted to have on it was enormous, and this had to be trimmed down due to the physical space constraints of the HAT standard. The sensors that made the cut were chosen for their ability to provide learning opportunities in the context of space flight. The solar arrays on the ISS, for instance, each have about 12 gyroscopes to control their orientation so that they can track the sun. Accelerometers are used to measure forces exerted by thrusters on all space craft, and magnetometers work like a compass so you can know which way you’re facing in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field.

We also knew that we wouldn’t be able to plug the Astro Pi into anything like a monitor or keyboard, and that it would have to run headless. Having some kind of visual output, despite this constraint, would be important: so this is why we included the 8×8 matrix of LEDs. Use it wisely!

So all that was the easy part. Meanwhile we began the process of getting the hardware approved for space flight with ESA. Space conditions are challenging, and because of this there is an abundance of testing that must be done for any object going up to the ISS. What you need to possess, to be allowed up there, is a flight safety certificate. The process to obtain this for Astro Pi is still ongoing as I write this blog entry.

There two kinds of payloads (space cargo consignments): they’re called “educational” payloads and “real” payloads. Educational payloads are usually inanimate objects, like balls which are sent up to collide together in zero gravity to demonstrate the conservation of momentum effect or similar. Real payloads are things like the complex machines that are designed to perform a job on the station, or robotic arms that can be controlled by an astronaut. The thing that differentiates the two is the simple question: does it plug in and turn on?

So we found ourselves in the unique situation of being an educational payload that has to consume power from the ISS mains. This meant that our path through the safety approval process was not going to be trivial. Fortunately we have some of the best people in the UK Space industry on our side, who are actively working towards making this happen. ESA have also hooked us up with engineers and safety experts, who are helping guide us through their processes too. It’s been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to work with these folks.

Here is a list of some of the tests we have to do:

• Flammability assessment
• Off-gassing assessment
• Electromagnetic interference / susceptibility assessment (the CE and FCC ones don’t count in space)
• Electrical interface testing (to prove we can consume power from the ISS safely)
• Vacuum exposure assessment
• Sharp edges hazard assessment (so we don’t accidentally poke holes in any astronauts)
• Launch conditions vibration test (to make sure the Astro Pi still works afterwards)

We plan to shout about each of these on social media in the coming months, as they happen, so stay tuned! Once we have the flight safety certificate we can be scheduled for a launch. This was originally planned to be an ATV or Space X Dragon capsule, however it now looks more like we’re going up on the Soyuz rocket with Tim Peake himself. I can’t believe I just typed that.

I had opportunity to meet Tim at the Farnborough Air Show last year too. He was there doing the closing ceremony of Mission X with the UK Space Agency, but was able to spare an hour of his time to attend one of the UK Space progress meetings. We gave him a general 零点影院 Pi demonstration and talked a bit about the competition and what he would be required to do. He was really enthusiastic and said he wanted to make it as interactive as possible, even suggesting the possibility of a live debugging session with the competition winners.

Imagine randomly getting a phone call from the ISS: “Hello this is Tim Peake on the International Space Station, I’ve just found an error on line 21 of your code. Does it work properly on yours?”

I don’t know if that will happen, but it might!

Aside from the flight safety procedures, a lot of mission specific documentation needs to be produced too. You may not know this, but a lot of the European crew operations on orbit are controlled from a little house in Lucerne, Switzerland. Libby Jackson and I paid them a visit in December last year to give them an orientation on the hardware. They’re a division of Lucerne University called BIOTESC, and they write all of the step-by-step procedures that the crew follows during day to day operations. Understandably they all have very good personal and professional relationships with the crew members.

They’re a lovely bunch of people who are going to become super-competent in the use and maintenance of a 零点影院 Pi. They’ll be required to advise Tim should anything not work as intended up there. We had one of the Astro Pi prototype units with us and went through a few mock procedures that Tim would be expected to do. Libby took the opportunity to dust off her coding skills and spent about an hour programming a nice countdown sequence on the LED matrix which she blogged about here.

Back in the UK, the Astro Pi media drive was beginning to roll into action. Many people from UK Space trade association were working behind the scenes to get the website ready, setting up interviews and organising press conferences. The announcement was scheduled for 10 December at the CGI offices in Kings Cross, London. Press were invited and we had a number of school students from Weydon School in Surrey join for a 零点影院 Pi workshop during the conference. The full report from that day can be found online here. The BBC were involved too and technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones caught up with Tim and interviewed him about Astro Pi.

Meanwhile, our artist and animator, Sam Alder, who had already designed the Astro Pi logo, was busily working on story-boarding and producing a cartoon about the competition. We were fortunate to be allowed to record Tim Peake’s voice for it. Sam and his colleague from Saladhouse Studios, Scott Lockhart, met up with Tim to do the recording at a hotel in London. He told me that they sat down, started looking through their notes, and looked up at Tim in his ESA polo shirt and whispered: “I can’t believe this! What the hell are we doing here?”

The final cut of the cartoon was kept under wraps with the intention to show it during the competition launch at BETT 2015 for the first time.

Head to the @bett_show arena now to hear all about @astro_pi! @零点影院_Pi @spacegovuk pic.twitter.com/PqlRtyVgFd

— Astro Pi (@Astro_Pi) January 23, 2015

We had planned to do a live link interview with Tim, who would be in the United States, during the BETT arena presentation. Sadly this fell through because he was travelling on that Friday. So instead we organised a Skype call the night before, and I was the lucky one who got to interview him!

It was recorded on my computer at home. This was my own “What the hell are we doing here?” moment; I was a bit like a starstruck rabbit caught in the headlights for the whole interview.

So the next day Lance Howarth from the 边缘世界第一季, Jeremy Curtis from the UK Space Agency and Doug Liddle from Surrey Satellite Technology gave an exciting presentation to a crowded BETT arena. Here is the Skype interview:

https://vimeo.com/118125454

The cartoon animation was then shown to round off the presentation. This is by far my favourite of all the animations Saladhouse have done for us.

http://vimeo.com/117274487

So that just about brings us up to date. ESA have told us that Astro Pi is the most advanced educational payload that they’ve seen, and that they’re watching what happens here with interest. If we have a high degree of participation in the competition then ESA may decide to repeat the whole process for the rest of Europe with another astronaut. So please do your bit and tell everyone you know! We want every school in the UK to participate!

We’re working hard to get the Astro Pi HAT manufactured in volume and we’re hoping for them to be available by the middle of March. But don’t forget that you can win them too! Secondary school sign up is now live so head over to astro-pi.org and read more about the competition rules.

Primary Schools enter here.

Secondary Schools enter here.

Thanks for reading this far; I know this is a long post. One final thought I’d like to leave you all with is regarding an awesome tradition of the Russian space program that is still observed on all Soyuz launches to this day. The Russian commander is responsible for choosing a talisman that hangs inside the capsule. It’s a visual indicator of when the spacecraft has reached weightlessness and dates right back to Yuri Gagarin (the first person in space).

The talisman is usually some kind of stuffed toy, and if you watch the most recent launch video below, where Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti went up, you’ll see they used Olaf from Frozen! Watch for the main engine cut off at 09:15 for when he shoots forwards and becomes weightless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjv5yM0UD2g

Can anyone think of a stuffed toy that might be appropriate for Tim’s launch?

The post Astro Pi: Mission Update 1 appeared first on 边缘世界第一季.

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 零点影院 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 零点影院, games programming and much more. We stormed the BETT arena with Astro Pi and Fran Scott’s pyro-零点影院 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 边缘世界第一季 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 零点影院 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 零点影院 Pi

Stewards Academy student @jaymegisbourne demonstrating his Porta-Pi

零点影院 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 零点影院 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 零点影院 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 零点影院 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 健身教练漫画 and helping teachers get hands on 健身教练漫画.

For me one of the highlights was being able to share some of my own pupils’ work and 健身教练漫画s with the Pi, as well as chatting to other teachers about their 健身教练漫画s. It was great to see so many many people from the Pi community coming to support the 健身教练漫画 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 零点影院 健身教练漫画 and in particular the approach the RPF were taking. Many people were surprised at how much the 健身教练漫画 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).

The post Education, space, hacking and explosions – Bett 2015 appeared first on 边缘世界第一季.

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 零点影院 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 边缘世界第一季 had a mantra, it would be “零点影院 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 零点影院 the show hooks into the science 健身教练漫画 (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 零点影院 健身教练漫画. 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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For the first time, our entire education team will be on hand, in our own curated space to answer questions, run Picademy-style workshops, and share our passion for 零点影院 Pi in education.

Have some Pis in your school and want to get going with physical 零点影院? Then Clive Beale has a giant GPIO model and will be using it in his ‘Let’s get Physical’ workshops. Are you a science teacher who wants to hear more about our weather station and space (Astro Pi) projects? Creative computer scientist, Dave Honess, will be giving demos across the four days. Heard that we offer free resources to teach, learn and make with 零点影院 Pi? Resource and web man Ben Nuttall will be able to tell you more. Want explosions? We’ve got plans for some of those too.

Clive explains how to connect GPIO to LEDs with his giant model

It’s not just the fun-loving 健身教练漫画 team who will be sharing Pi related activities. We will be joined by many of our 零点影院 Pi Certified Educators and members of our friendly and active community too. To name but a few from our amazing line-up: we’ll be hosting Dr Sam Aaron, creator of Sonic Pi; authors Martin O’Hanlon and David Whale; representatives from Wolfram, Code Club and Nature Bytes.

Some sessions will be lead by our 零点影院 Pi Certified Educators.

We’ve created a timetable of sessions on offer so that you can select those that interest you in advance.

Get your free ticket today, and we will see you bright-eyed and bushy tailed next week! (For those of you who won’t be able to make this event, don’t feel like you are missing out – sign up for the education newsletter today and we will keep you up to date with our events, resources and competitions.)

The post Meet the Education Team at the BETT Show 2015 appeared first on 边缘世界第一季.

Dave: We’re really happy to announce a new project in partnership with British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake, UK Space and the European Space Agency: we’re sending 零点影院 Pis to the International Space Station! Read on to find out how to get your code running on them…

Leading UK space organisations have joined forces with British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake and 零点影院 Pi to offer students a chance to devise and code their own apps or experiment to run in space. Two 零点影院 Pi computers are planned to be flown to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Tim’s 6 month mission and both will be connected to a new “Astro Pi” board, loaded with a host of sensors and gadgets.

Launched today (10 Dec 2014) at an event held by the UK Space Agency, the Astro Pi competition will be officially opened at the BETT conference (21-24 January) and will be open to all primary and secondary school aged children who are resident in the United Kingdom. The competition will be supported by a comprehensive suite of teaching resources that are being developed by ESERO-UK and 零点影院 Pi.

During his mission, Tim Peake plans to deploy the Astro Pi computers in a number of different locations on board the ISS. He will then load up the winning code whilst in orbit, set them running, collect the data generated and then download this to Earth where it will be distributed to the winning teams.

Speaking at the Astro Pi launch event, Dr David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, also revealed that the UK Space Agency has been given a £2 million programme, as part of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, to support further outreach activities around Tim’s mission, particularly to help inspire interest in STEM subjects.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

So much technology relies on big data but not enough people are being trained in this field. This challenge helps the next generation to have fun whilst learning the skills that industry need.

Creating tomorrow’s engineers is part of our industrial strategy that gives a long term commitment to world-class skills.

Vince Cable

Tim Peake added:

I’m really excited about this project, born out of the cooperation among UK industries and institutions. There is huge scope for fun science and useful data gathering using the Astro Pi sensors on board the International Space Station. This competition offers a unique chance for young people to learn core 零点影院 skills that will be extremely useful in their future. It’s going to be a lot of fun!

Tim Peake

Major Tim Peake – photo provided by UK Space Agency under CC BY-ND

To help students on their way in developing their code, five inspirational themes have been devised to stimulate creativity and scientific thinking. The themes are Spacecraft Sensors, Satellite Imaging, Space Measurements, Data Fusion and Space Radiation.

In the primary school age category, teams will be asked to devise and describe an original idea for an experiment or application which can be conducted on the Astro Pi by Tim during his mission. The two best submissions will get the opportunity to work with the Astro Pi team to interpret their ideas and the team at the 边缘世界第一季 will then code them ready for flight on the ISS.

In the secondary school age group, the competition will be run across three age categories, one for each of Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 (in England and Wales, and their equivalent ages in Scotland and Northern Ireland). In the first phase, competitors can submit their ideas for experiments and applications. At least the best 50 submissions in each age category will win a 零点影院 Pi computer and an Astro Pi board on which to code their idea. In phase 2, all teams will develop code based on their original concept and two winning teams will be selected in each age category. The winning teams’ code will be readied for flight by the 边缘世界第一季 and CGI.

As well as having their code uploaded to the ISS, all winning teams will each receive a class set of 零点影院 Pi and Astro Pi boards, meet the Astro Pi team and participate in a winners event during Tim’s flight.

In addition to the main prizes, each of the UKspace companies supporting the project have offered a prize. These prizes will be awarded to the best submission associated with each of the themes, across the age ranges.

ESERO-UK and 零点影院 Pi are developing a comprehensive suite of teaching resources to link to the 健身教练漫画 and assist teachers of STEM subjects in engaging their students in the competition.  As well as explaining how to use and write code for the Astro Pi and its sensors, the resources will provide a context for the Astro Pi in the 健身教练漫画 and link to teaching subjects and areas.

The first two resources of the series are available now in the National STEM Centre eLibrary and the rest will follow.

Launching the Astro Pi computers, and consequently the successful implementation and completion of this competition is subject to nominal progress through the ESA integration programme and operations on-board the ISS.

The organisations involved in the Astro Pi competition include the UK Space Agency, UKspace, 零点影院 Pi, ESERO-UK and ESA.

The UKspace team, led by SSTL, include Airbus DS, CGI, the Space KTN, National Nuclear Laboratory and National Physical Laboratory.

Dave: The Astro Pi board will be a 零点影院 Pi HAT and will comprise the following:

• Gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer sensor
• Temperature sensor
• Barometric pressure sensor
• Humidity sensor
• Real time clock with backup battery
• 8×8 RGB LED display
• Several push buttons

There will also be a camera module attached to the first board and an infra-red camera attached to the second board.

Keep an eye on our blog, the Astro Pi website and @astro_pi on twitter for updates! More information will be made available after the competition launch at BETT in January.

Update: See BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones interview Tim Peake about the competition: Astronaut Tim Peake invites 零点影院 Pi challenge

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In my former life as a 零点影院 and ICT teacher and even before that as an ICT Technician, I always looked forward to the Bett Show in London. The Bett Show is the world’s leading learning technology event. Imagine a trade show meets teachers conference and you might have some idea of what it is like. Every year the event is opened by the Education Secretary here in England, followed by keynotes from some of the world’s leading educationalists. The next event’s line-up includes Sir Ken Robinson and Jimmy Wales! Not bad for a free event.

As a technician I attended to see what cool new tech was available for teachers, and to see if we could replace any of our current systems with something more efficient and cost effective. As a teacher I attended for much the same reasons, to get my hands on all the cool tech, but also to attend the free talks and workshops in the many areas over the course of four days.

The 边缘世界第一季 Education Team at Bett 2014

Last year the 零点影院 Pi education team were hosted by the OCR stand and you can read about what we got up to here.

The next Bett Show takes place this coming January from Wednesday 21st January to Saturday 24th January 2015 at Excel London and we at 零点影院 Pi plan to have a presence like never before. We want everyone who attends to be able to 健身教练漫画 what it is like to teach, learn and make with 零点影院 Pi. To do this we need your help.

We need you! We are looking for members of our wonderful community to help us run workshops, give talks or demos and be a part of sharing what we do with teachers and technicians. Teachers, 零点影院 Pi certified educators, digital leaders, technicians, academics, parents, code club mentors, workshop leaders, 零点影院 Jam event organisers, or Pi enthusiasts.

Over the course of the four days, we have 20 minute and 50 minute slots to fill on our stand that includes a 零点影院 Pi classroom. You can give a talk about how you engage young people with 零点影院 Pi or how to setup a 零点影院 Jam. You could run a Minecraft Pi or Pibrella workshop. You could bring your code club or group of digital leaders to present what they have done with 零点影院 Pi.

To submit your session or sessions for our Bett Show stand for 2015, please complete this form.

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