Teaching Physical Computing with Calliope Mini

Abstract of the project:The German microcontroller, Calliope Mini, is ideal for introducing Physical Computing to Primary school students. It consists of 25-LED matrix, LED, processor, motor ports, grove connectors, etc. Our 5th-grade students had no difficulty in understanding its main usage through Coding with blocks.

Scientific fields: Science, Coding, Computer Science

Materials: 2 Calliope, 2 PC'S with Internet connection

(online editor https://calliope.cc/en)

Number of students: 4 (in pairs)

Duration of the activity: 2 didactic hours (45 min each)

An introductionto Physical Computing: What is Physical Computing? Why is it important? How can we implement activities with Physical Computing? What platforms can we use?

An introductionto Calliope Mini: https://calliope.cc/en/idee/ueber-mini

Activity 1 : Connect to the online editor and choose on "Let's start", and then "Editor"

This is Calliope programming environment (Blockly), which has an emulator of Calliope Mini

Activity 2: Let's write ourfirst program and test it with the emulator - Show a heart From "Basic" blocks, choose On start and show icon heart on Calliope matrix for 2 sec (pause ms 2000). After the 2 sec, clear screen.

Activity 3: For saving our program, we go down on screen, we write the name of our program (First_program) and push the Save button. We connect the Calliope Mini with the USB cable to the PC. The program is downloaded and we choose "Show the file". We open the Downloads. With drag-and-drop we put our program into "MINI (D:)" device.

The Copy window is on screen and our Calliope Mini runs our first program.

Activity 4: Function of Calliope Mini with its battery. Connect the cable of the battery to the Calliope mini. Switch it on. What do you see? Remember that Calliope Mini always runs the last downloaded program!

Activity 5: Our second programis about measuring temperature and showing it on the LED matrix with the appropriate message. The measurement of the temperature must be in a loop.

Hint:The temperature is a number that iscalculated as an Input.

Try to change the color of RGB LED. Try to add sounds. Don't forget to save and download your program to Calliope Mini!

Activity 6: Make your own program combining commands from Basic, Input, Music blocks. Remember to download your program!

Activity 7 Self-assessment: What did you like most? Was it difficult? What do you think should be improved?

Accordingto their answers, the students liked it a lot, but they noticed that theCalliope environment is in German with little English translations, a remarkthat I noticed too! Nevertheless, Calliope Mini is a great tool for teachingPhysical Computing in young ages and I recommend it!