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micro:bit Projects
with Python
and Single Board
Computers
Building STEAM Projects with
Code Club and Kids’ Maker Groups
—
Martin Tan
micro:bit Projects
with Python and
Single Board
Computers
Building STEAM Projects
with Code Club and Kids’
Maker Groups
Martin Tan
micro:bit Projects with Python and Single Board Computers: Building
STEAM Projects with Code Club and Kids’ Maker Groups
Martin Tan
Doncaster Heights, VIC, Australia
Acknowledgments�����������������������������������������������������������������������������xiii
Introduction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv
iii
Table of Contents
iv
Table of Contents
v
Table of Contents
vi
Table of Contents
Capacitors���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������228
Diodes����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������229
Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)�����������������������������������������������������������������������230
Integrated Circuit (IC) Chips�������������������������������������������������������������������������231
Soldering!����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������231
Tools You Will Need for Soldering����������������������������������������������������������������232
Other Useful Things to Have������������������������������������������������������������������������235
How to Solder����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������236
Teaching Kids to Solder�������������������������������������������������������������������������������237
Handy Software Tools����������������������������������������������������������������������������������237
Embedded Programming����������������������������������������������������������������������������������242
Some Useful Concepts to Understand���������������������������������������������������������242
Approaching a New Microcontroller Electronic Project (Digital)�����������������������244
Software and Hardware Support for Proposed Components�����������������������245
Support for Languages We Are Proficient In������������������������������������������������245
Availability of Parts to Scale Things Up�������������������������������������������������������246
Draw a Diagram, Create a Schematic����������������������������������������������������������246
Breadboard Prototype����������������������������������������������������������������������������������246
Going Further�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������247
Introducing the Raspberry Pi Pico���������������������������������������������������������������247
Next Steps���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������276
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������279
Chapter 7: Cheat Sheet�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������279
Electronic Components��������������������������������������������������������������������������������279
vii
Table of Contents
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������339
viii
About the Author
Martin Tan wrote the first Code Club Moonhack projects in Scratch and
Python, used by over 10,000 kids in Australia. He has taken kids to demo
robots and coding projects in parliament, delivered training to Code Club
Australia, and contributes to various Maker communities online. Martin
blogs on Maker topics, runs a Maker store, and works in IT security,
contributing to various open source projects and community conferences.
Most of his endeavors feed into his hobbies, which also include music,
locksport, and various techy pursuits.
ix
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About the Technical Reviewer
Ioana Culic is currently a PhD candidate in the field of Internet of Things
and the cofounder of Wyliodrin, a company that offers educational and
industrial IoT solutions. She is a Teaching Assistant at the Politehnica
University of Bucharest and has also been teaching IoT technologies to
high school and university students at different events for the last five
years. Despite the technical background, writing has always been Ioana’s
passion, and she managed to mix the two. She has published several
articles in magazines such as The MagPi and Make and books on Internet
of Things technologies. Ioana has been porting JavaScript to TockOS.
xi
Acknowledgments
During our journey helping kids to learn programming (coding) and
other maker skills, there were many people who helped as we strived to
empower kids to push themselves further and leverage their newfound
skills to express their imagination and ideas. Whether it be donating time,
knowledge, or even just being supportive when I would excitedly rant
about how proud we were of the kids, it made a lasting difference to the
kids, and for that we are thankful. In this section, I also wanted to mention
some specific contributions.
Firstly, thanks to David Mander at Milgate Primary School for taking
the initiative and leap of faith to register a code club and for the many
hours spent after school making sure that the code club would run and
helping with all our extra excursions and events and dealing with the
anxiety of all the administrative requirements that came with these.
Thanks for your support in the face of much frustration at trying to prepare
things and push our club to eventually embrace text-based coding and
electronics.
From the early days: Thanks to Jay for your consistent presence in the
early years of our code club and starting the trend of alumni school kid
volunteers. And thanks to Ryan for lighting a fire under everyone in that
first year and onward with your unique game demos, and in later years,
Jamie for breaking out your super fun multilevel games.
To all the parents who volunteered their time over the years, especially
Glen and Rula who stuck around for multiple years and provided great
support and belief, which made such a difference, and helped us fumble
through some frustrating times.
xiii
Acknowledgments
xiv
Introduction
Although programming (coding) was once a skill for a very specific role,
nowadays, computers or microcontroller chips are ubiquitous; when
coupled with today’s human-friendly modern coding languages, the scope
for applying this skill is now much broader. However, in the same way that
reading or writing is useful for recreational and personal interests rather
than relegated to purely academic applications, coding and creating with
technology is now much more accessible to everyone. By embracing these
skills for creative and artistic pursuits or just to help simplify the way we
interact with our tools, the areas that once took us away from enjoying life
can now free us from the restrictions that technology previously placed on
us. For kids, this is realized through maker groups and code clubs, which
meld a previously academic skillset to apply for our own recreation or to
express our ideas into something tangible to others. Sadly, we often hear
of a disconnect between people who want to learn and the more technical
folk – the latter explaining things in their own context, without realizing
their use of jargon and what seems like abstract terminology for those that
bridge into other disciplines such as teaching. When listening to teachers,
I’ve often heard things like, “IT people don’t get it when they try to explain
to us” or “How do I implement this for a class or group?” Similarly, our
code club kids ask for project examples within their life environment, so
they could see how maker skills could be immediately useful.
Over several years, a group of volunteers and I have muddled our way
through adventures with our Australian code club, hosted at the local
primary school. This has taken us to conferences, Parliament, and our code
club kids were featured on TV and online media; had begun to incorporate
their code club skills into their social lives and school projects. Along the
way, we struggled with logistical and IT-related challenges and the quest
xv
Introduction
to make sure kids were engaged and constantly challenged to grow, rather
than just occupied. We sought to give kids ownership of these skills so
that these would not just be something they “learned about at school” but
rather something that empowered them to use across other aspects of their
lives, rather than just an academic topic. Sometimes, we failed or ran out of
time, but the net effect was that we gradually progressed over the years. As I
looked back and had my memory jogged by others as we tried to remember
the details, we realized that we had come a long way from that first day of
code club. When David, one of the school teachers; Jay, a former student
recently graduated to high school; and myself initially shuffled into a room
with a small group of kids and some computers, we wondered whether we
could even get a working program to run – now, almost a decade later, we’re
seeing kids using these skills at home and able to interact with AI interfaces,
hopefully more seamlessly and with a little less trepidation.
xvi
Introduction
Intended Audience
The intended audience for this book is teachers, parents, and volunteers
who are running or looking to run a maker group or code club for kids
aged from eight years old to those beginning high school (in Australia, the
latter is generally around 13 years old). If you’re a school-aged kid, you
can also enjoy digging through this book for the projects and find ideas for
getting your own maker group happening – all it takes is a few friends to
get together! A maker group or code club is in essence two or more people
getting together to learn and create. The book does not assume any technical
experience, as I have aimed to explain terminology in layperson’s terms
before applying it – so you will both learn and be able to talk about the
1
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xvii
Introduction
Overview of Chapters
The chapters of this book are structured as follows:
Chapter 1: Initial considerations for your code club or maker group,
support resources, initial curriculums to use, logistical solutions to
common problems, and how we improved over time, in practice.
Chapter 2: Finding IT resources and help for your code club and
how to have the required software tools and IT infrastructure set up on
computers and in your space.
Chapter 3: This covers general Python programming concepts
and program structure and how to get the right Python programming
environments to suit your requirements and any location limitations.
Chapter 4: I talk about using more tactile approaches with e-textiles
starting from a basic electronic circuit to a programmed digital e-textile
project with readily available materials, for example, a baseball cap.
Chapter 5: Going “off map” and creating your own project; included is
a self-watering plant project created at our code club.
Chapter 6: Introducing collaboration with others, including a group
project we tested and used and systems you can use to collaborate with
volunteers or other coders. Contributing to community projects is also
discussed.
xviii
Introduction
Prerequisites
The only prerequisites are enthusiasm and a few kids that want to learn. If
you are already teaching kids how to code and have access to computers,
even better! However, this book will outline how to access what you need
and where to find help. When we started our local code club, we only
had a handful of kids, a teacher, an older student, and one person (me)
xix
Introduction
Other Resources
Throughout this book, I’ve included footnotes with various online
resources, including groups that publish free tools and materials for the
community. I also explain where to start getting involved in contributing
to community projects and how kids can also start collaborating to such
projects or even methods they can use to work collaboratively with one
another.
As you progress through this book, you’ll find that it is equally divided
into three main areas of knowledge:
xx
CHAPTER 1
Getting Started
Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get
to where you’re going.
—The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
This chapter covers the initial considerations for getting started with
your code club or maker space. I have included examples from the
experiences from our earlier code club years with challenges faced and
give an overview of our strategies to address these. Chapter 8 will dive into
exploring these strategies in detail, using specific how-to examples and
useful templates. As you’ve probably guessed, there’s no technical content
in this chapter, but rather it is a way of outlining some of the more essential
lessons we learned after several years of running a code club.
So, let’s get started! One of the things to consider when starting a code
club or maker space is roughly what your short-term and long-term goals
are. I say “roughly” as any progress is a reasonable achievement, providing
that the kids stay eager and keep coming back for more. Goals will change
and develop as you progress. For example, an achievable goal can be as
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