On the 10th May, we welcomed João Sá, who is currently a teacher at Avelar Brotero Secondary School, in Coimbra. There, he leads the Programming, Robotics and Design Club, stimulating and supporting students to develop STEAM projects. João is also a teacher trainer in the field of educational technologies and digital empowerment of schools, seeking to inspire and help others to provide teaching and learning experiences updated and adjusted to the time we share. Restless and irreverent, in an endless search for balance and encouraged by social, scientific and technological changes, he keeps on learning and teaching.
It was in one of the workshops he held in the First Edition of the EdTech Summit in Portugal that teachers Fátima Cunha and Filipa Pereira got to know his work and challenged him to do an activity with the Micro:bit existing boards in our school, previously acquired within the project Ciência Viva.
English Code: Programming activities with Micro:Bit
Students carried out a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) project using the Micro:Bit to do programming on an activity focused on Digital Flashcards.
João started with an introduction to the use of the board and the programming associated with it. Afterwards he challenged the students with various tasks that were carried out very well and with a lot of enthusiasm.
Among the challenges were:
- Challenge #1 Animated Animals;
- Challenge #2 Dice;
- Challenge #3 Digital Flashcards (focused on the content of the “prepositions of movement”);
- Last but not the least the already known game: Rock, Paper Scissors.
At the end the students were ready for new challenges and João was keen to remind them that this was just the beginning and that from now on they could get creative with the very versatile Micro:bit.
We would also like to thank the Robotics Club and teacher Augusto Mesquita for their collaboration.
By Teachers Fátima Cunha and Filipa Pereira
