You might have heard that we’re well underway with our new research project exploring physical computing in primary schools (EPICS) with the BBC micro:bit. We’re looking at how engagement with the BBC micro:bit can develop young people’s confidence, creativity, and awareness of technology. You can read more about our project here.
We’re currently working with a small number of primary schools across the UK, and we’ll be following these children (who are now in Year 5, or Primary 6) for the next few years.
We’re also looking for a larger number of primary school teachers to take part in a micro:bit class activity and pupil and teacher questionnaires. We’ve designed a short micro:bit activity to carry out with your class, which doesn’t require you or your pupils to have any experience in programming a micro:bit, and some short questionnaires for you and your pupils to fill in. Full details about what’s required are here. We’d like you to take part before the end of November, so there’s plenty of time!
The first 25 teachers who complete their teacher questionnaire will receive a £20 Waterstones voucher, and all teachers can choose to enter a prize draw to win a set of computing-related books for their school.
You can choose to carry out the micro:bit class activity plus questionnaires, or just fill in a teacher questionnaire.
Thinking of doing the class activity? Jessie has recorded a 2-minute video explaining what you’ll need to do:
Can’t do the activity and would just like to fill in the questionnaire? That’s fine, head straight to the questionnaire here. This questionnaire will be open until the end of December.
As always, if you just want to keep up to date with the project and our findings, look out for our future blog posts.
