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 students about digital technologies.

We’ve built a kit of electronics featuring a BBC micro:bit programmable computer and a range of sensors to help students learn about the Internet of Things. The kit is designed for classrooms, with students working in pairs on their projects. 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 students 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 students the tools they need to complete the challenge. Everything is carefully scaffolded so that students are building what they have already learned. Our lessons are publicly available – you can see them all on our students page.

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 lesson, with a second part that reflects on what students 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.

So how can you help?

We’re very proud of what we’ve built, and we’re really keen to get it into the hands of as many teachers (and students!) as we can. If you know a teacher who you think would find what we do interesting, then we would love it if you could send them a link to this page.

If you are a teacher (or a parent) and you would like to learn more about our kits and resources, and how they might work for your school, we would love 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 content for teachers and students - we've got so many ideas for more great things to build! We really appreciate your help in getting the word out.