Fun activities for the holidays
Are you a parent with children at home looking for things to do? Or perhaps you are a teacher in the Northern Hemisphere, who wants to introduce their students to some fun BBC micro:bit projects that they can use over the holidays? Why not show your children or students how to program a compass, thermometer, and activity picker so that they can do orienteering, measure summer temperatures, and banish holiday boredom.
Decide what to do with the activity picker
The long summer holidays can sometimes feel monotonous. But don't worry! You can program your micro:bit to suggest some fun activity ideas from a water fight to a picnic. When students press button A on their micro:bit, it chooses a random number between one and six. Different activities are shown depending on the number chosen. This program is great for teaching students about variables and selection.
Find out how to make an activity picker.
Try orienteering with the micro:bit’s magnetometer
Your students might like to try out orienteering this summer. It’s a great way to exercise your mind and body as well as discover new places. Orienteering involves navigating between checkpoints marked on a map, often racing against others. There is no need to buy a compass as students can use the micro:bit’s compass sensor or magnetometer to measure the Earth’s magnetic field. There are two fun compass projects to try out:
A compass that shows its bearing from magnetic north in degrees.
A compass that shows which way is north.
Measure the weather
Will summer 2021 be filled with sunshine or be a series of damp and dreary days? Ask your students to make their predictions based on previous years’ weather patterns then use their micro:bits to measure temperatures over the summer. In the max-min thermometer project, students can track the highest and lowest temperatures during the day by leaving this program running on a micro:bit. This project will help students to learn more about variables and comparison operators such as ‘less than’ and ‘more than’.
Can't agree on what to do? Let your micro:bit decide!
Turn your micro:bit into a simple compass
Track high and low temperatures with your micro:bit
