bitlink

We’ve got something we want to share.

For the past 18 months, Bitlink has been working with teachers in Tasmania to help build resources to help teachers to teach children about digital technologies.

We’ve built a kit of electronics featuring a BBC micro:bit programmable computer and a range of sensors to help children learn about the Internet of Things - the everyday computers that are interacting with the real world. You can learn more about the kits on our kits page.

We think the kit is great, but what we’re really proud of is the resources that go with it. We worked with teachers to come up with an engaging way for childrens to learn basic programming concepts and think more deeply about the way that computers interact with the real world. To do this, we built and tested 20 lessons across a range of themes include Smart Homes, Smart Farms and Smart Cities.

Every lesson has real-world themes, like building a step counter, measuring soil moisture, or how traffic lights work. Our lessons use challenges – we set up a problem and give children the tools they need to complete the challenge. Everything is carefully scaffolded so that children are building what they have already learned. Our lessons are publicly available – you can see them all on our students page. We designed it for classrooms, but if your child has a passion for learning they can follow our lessons with a kit at home.

To help teachers, we’ve built a suite of resources to help them. Every lesson comes with a lesson plan, setting out the learning intentions and success criteria. If you like to use slides, we’ve built a deck for every lesson that includes guiding and reflection questions. We’ve also provided solution code if needed, and we’ve linked every lesson to the Australian curriculum.

Oh, we also made some really engaging video resources to help teach our lessons. Maker’s Treehouse is a friendly TV series where a group of friends solve problems using our kits. Every lesson has a makers treehouse episode that sets up the themes of the lesson, with a second part that reflects on what has been learned. Each module also has a documentary-style video that talks about how people in industry use the Internet of Things to solve problems. You can see more on each lesson page or our production page.

If you're interested in learning more about our kits and resources, we would be more than happy to have a chat with you! You can book a time to chat with James or Troy below.

Thanks so much for having a look at what we're doing. We're really proud of our work and we want to keep making more great educational content. If you're interested in purchasing one of our kits, then please have a look at our store page.

If you think that you know someone who would be interested, then we would love it if you could share this page with them.