EPICS: Exploring physical computing in schools

status: ongoing

The Exploring Physical Computing in Schools (EPICS) project is a five-year, longitudinal, mixed-methods project investigating primary school pupils’ attitudes and beliefs about physical computing across the UK.

Physical computing involves combining programmable hardware with software to create an interactive, physical system that senses and responses to the real world. An example of such a device is the BBC micro:bit. Through the  BBC micro:bit – the next gen campaign, over 500,000 micro:bits have been distributed to UK schools. Previous research has found that the micro:bit is beneficial for young people, in terms of their motivation, creativity, and programming skills. Young people find the micro:bit engaging and like how tangible and easy to use it is. However, researchers don’t yet know whether initial experiences with the micro:bit translate into long-term impacts on their attitudes and beliefs such as confidence and creativity. 

Our EPICS research project aims to investigate this, specifically how engagement with physical computing—for example, using the BBC micro:bit—can support the development of pupils’ interests and attitudes. This includes their creativity, technological self-efficacy, and socio-technological agency. We’re also interested in how pupils’ teachers and parents might influence the development of their digital capital through these physical computing experiences. We will also be looking at whether there are any gender differences in how pupils engage with physical computing.

Research team

Study design and resources

The project began in March 2024 and will run until February 2029. The project is UK-wide, and we are working with schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We will be working with a smaller group of primary schools over a five-year period and a larger group of primary and secondary schools. 

Study design

We have started working with a small group of children who are 8 and 9 years old (Year 4 in England and Wales, Primary 5 in Scotland and Northern Ireland) to find out how their interests and attitudes develop over the five years. The research also involves engagement with their teachers and parents. To investigate this we will be conducting interviews and focus groups with pupils, teachers and their parents.

We will also be working with a wider group of primary and secondary schools in the UK to see how representative the children’s attitudes and beliefs are of pupils more generally, as well as how schools’ use of physical computing changes over time. UK-wide surveys from pupils and teachers will be used to collect this data. We plan to carry out these surveys in 2024, 2026 and 2028. 

Funding

We are grateful to the generous donation provided by the Micro:bit Educational Foundation, the BBC, and Nominet, for allowing us to carry out this research.