As we prepare the next set of wellbeing resources and equipment, here is a new page that provides a quick overview of the video feeds from Space To Learn.
Video clips of each can be found here: www.flickernet.net/cameras
As a red squirrel sanctuary, Autumn in Mourne Park reveals many hungry / busy squirrels – as can be seen from the Transmission Zoe today (table service?!) and on the new SquirrelCam.
The Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub in Jesus College Oxford was the setting for an inspiring gathering on Thursday. Speakers from the world of environmental sensing shared their experiences. Panels answered questions relating to many aspects of electronic analysis of the natural world. I felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet, and to learn from, many highly motivated and dedicated professionals.
Describing the Mountains of Mourne to a classroom of children in England can only go so far in capturing what they are really like! Perhaps most challenging to articulate is their sheer brooding mystique.
I am hopeful that the new MountainCam will help to establish the context for Space To Learn, and to set the scene for the woodland / river sensing that we undertake on the slopes of the mountains as they sweep down to the sea.
Thank you to everyone who attended the second ASK Woodland Coding event. This time we began by exploring ways to display and to transmit images with which to express our feelings, after which we created an environmental sensing machine. Full report here.
Looking forward very much to Friday this week when we will be welcoming ASK back for their Space To Learn experience.
Six more children with their parents and carers will have the opportunity to build and code Micro:Bit devices that will help them to communicate what they are feeling as they explore the woodland of Mourne Park.
Heartfelt thanks to Meet & Code, in association with Digit<all>, for their kind support.
Our ongoing mission to include the mighty Whitewater within the Mourne Park inspired teaching materials, has reached an important milestone now that real-time video of the river compliments the other Space To Learn broadcasts.
The therapeutic benefits of seeing and hearing the river from afar will form part of our teenage mental health and wellbeing project, in association with Oxford Brookes.
It was an unexpected bonus to find that a wasp’s nest had been built within sight of one of the close-up cams. The learning that has come from watching the wasps – and considering their role in the local ecosystem – was as such, also a bonus.
Now, however there are far fewer wasps to be seen. These three photos, taken over a period of one month show why: the nest appears to have disintegrated. More questions than wasps.
The area of woodland which we have cleared to become Transmission Zone 1: mainly an outdoor robot racing track, has just had some visitors!
What a fun time of it we have had over two days at Kilkeel Primary School then in Mourne Park, Space To Learn. The P5, P6 and P7 classes each built a solar powered Micro:Bit sensing unit that was installed deep in the woodland to take sensor readings that are now being broadcast via the monitoring camera.
Sincere thanks to Helena McCabe, William, Richard, Lee, Claire and all at KPS for their welcome and support throughout the project and in their wonderful school.
A lone Pine marten and a badger cross paths just a few minutes apart!
Not sure what would have happened if they had met.. Once a robot is on patrol in this zone, there will be an extra camera with which to analyse the nocturnal activity of these elusive mammals.
Looking forward to welcoming Kilkeel Primary School to Space To Learn, Mourne Park on Wednesday.
The location for their STEM experiments to be sited is ready and transmitting (via a doubly extended PoE connection!)
Our Physical Computing club: dedicated to the study of the environment that can be found on the island, and in the duck pond, outside the classroom window of Key Stage 2, Bishopstone Primary School. Follow our adventures here: www.flickernet.net/bishy3
About Flickernet 24/25:
Supporting underprivileged young people
Assisting schools in the South West of England
Outdoor learning and remote sensing facilities (Space To Learn), in Northern Ireland
Core principles:
We have a Christian ethos, seeking to meet the needs of those who face disadvantage by providing access to technology and the natural world: in combination
Pupil-led investigations and project-based learning ensure creative control for those who may not have experienced an open-ended learning approach before
Immersive experiences to help those who suffer from anxiety or who are in need of other mental health support, to benefit from the calming sensations of the woodland
Engagement with the natural environment from afar, with added agency due to the remote connectivity systems.
Therapeutics and mental health care, including for the neurodivergent: opportunities for technology and the woodland environment to be combined into new and effective therapy methods
Pupils of all ages are shown real projects that have been designed to help others, or the environment: this provides inspiration for their own projects
Teachers and home educators are encouraged to join their pupils in developing innovative methods of interacting remotely with the enivronment
Training for teachers, along with the physical space to explore new technologies, including support for their own innovative approaches to learning
Multiple live feeds from within an ancient woodland in the Mountains of Mourne, Northern Ireland provide real-time access to STEM experiments
Real data, drawn from sensors that are spread throughout an area of special scientific interest (ASSI) inspire learners to develop their own projects which, in turn, can be physically located within the same woodland for them to monitor.
In 2025 our focus on the wellbeing of young people will be the main Flickernet offering.
InFindingOut:
Our combination of therapeutic woodland experience and cutting edge STEM experimentation, provides young people and their teachers with a new outlook.
We aim is to deliver this for free by partnering with organisations who seek to support the growing mental health challenges that are encountered by young people today.
There follows a blog which it is hoped can be helpful in charting the journey that Flickernet, (mainly Phillip Anley!), has taken. Having taught full time in schools from 2005, Phillip has been working independently again through Flickernet Ltd. since 2022. Phillip is also a Director of Digital Writes CIC and of Mourne Country Park Ltd. Phillip divides his time between England and Northern Ireland.
One last camera online for now: AvenueCam. This solar powered camera stretches the WiFi connection to the current limits: providing a view over the avenue that leads further into Mourne Park.
This live feed, along with the established set of existing broadcasts, provide learners with an instant link into the natural environment upon which their classroom studies are based.
The aim of this camera is to monitor the red squirrels as they traverse this route as well as to monitor activity from a freshly dug fox hole below!
The Transmission Zone is a general purpose broadcast area for remotely monitored experiments that need a bit more space.
Central to the space is a young oak tree that is awaiting having a squirrel feeder attached to it. This will be provided by John Francis, who manages the red squirrel population in Mourne Park.
In front of this is taking shape an area for the outdoor robot system, which is currently under development in association with Kevin from Kitronik. More details soon.
Space To Learn provides a test-bed for projects that inspire STEM learning. This Micro:Bit experiment measures three aspects of the environment in the woodland around it: the moisture levels of the forest floor; the ambient temperature; and the light level under the canopy.
Pupils will be building their own versions of these in the Autumn, whilst comparing what they create with the live view on screen.
Teachers have the opportunity to develop their own versions and to explore the potential for environmental sensing and project based learning connected directly to the woodland in Northern Ireland.
Summer in Northern Ireland is well underway with preparations focused on the upcoming Autumn Outdoor Coding sessions.
The WatchBox prototype is due for deployment in October. An ideal tree is now ready – with a new video stream of that tree in place . The data link to that tree will be helped by its proximity to an access point and plenty of sunlight will support the solar.
Transmission Zone (outdoor robot testing area and squirrel feeder location) has now got a defined perimiter indicated by luminous cord!
The camera formally known as CloseupCam 1 has become WaspCam.. It was about to have a Micro:Bit experiment added when I was stung! In attempting to move the unsightly cable I got stung twice more! WaspCam it is then – the nest is situated clearly in view and busy!
After many months of building, coding and debugging – eight noble robots lined up on the starting line for the first ever Robot Racing Club Inter-School Tournament!
With commentating teams ready in the Commentating Box and the technology primed, the first race began.
Hosts Bishopstone Primary School took an early lead. Visiting school St. Mary’s were quick to respond with their BossBot making some fierce lunges in the centre. BuggyBots and ClawBots jostled for dominance in the arena – all controlled by very focused and brilliantly supportive pupils who lined either side of the arena.
Three thrilling rounds later, the day belonged to Bishopstone – but the smiles on the faces of St Mary’s Primary School pupils as they boarded the minibus back to central Swindon said it all: seeing their project come to life in this competition had helped them to understand that inputs and outputs, coupled with careful code, are more than abstract concepts when they make the difference in a real race such as this.
Video below!
To study the code used please visit: www.flickernet.net/rrc
Beginning to consider what a more exciting logo might look like..
AI is great, but the woodland featured in this creation does not yet feel accurate – Mourne Park is predominantly a beech wood with venerable trees creating a canopy through which the Whitewater river flows, sometimes in considerable torrents. The AI rendering reduces this to a rather generic coniferous wood!
CloseUp Cam1 is now in operation!
It is a long time since I attended Kilkeel Primary School, but the large assembly hall door was just as I remember. There was a familiar sense of anticipation too..
Meeting with Helena McCabe and two of her IT team was tremendously productive. We have planned out a future KPS visit to Mourne Park to see Space To Learn in action.
Just in time, I have the Transmission Zone camera up and running. It required a PoE extender and presented an opportunity for a sound focusing experiment. The clearing is ideal: easy to access from the main teaching area, yet undisturbed wild woodland. There is a badger / fox path running straight through it.
More information about Space To Learn here
Delighted to meet up with Isaac, a former primary school pupil today at The University of Gloucester ComX event, showcasing original game design projects.
Isaac is poised to enter his final year of studies. It was equally shocking to both of us that so many years have gone by! Isaac attributes an early introduction to Physical Computing as an inspiration for his choice of degree course. It was a privilege to be shown how far his talents have now taken him.
The “Bash Bash Box” is nearing completion: final testing (fun!)
The first Robot Racing Club Inter-schools Tournament will be taking place within a few weeks. A total of sixteen robots are revving their motors in anticipation!
Building touch control kits with Years 3 and 4 so that Scratch programs can be controlled through external inputs (Makey Makey) whilst sending images to an external output (Micro:Bit)
Continuing an exploration into remote sensing and the ability to experience an environment from afar – the latest WoodsCam overlooks a badger set, extending the range of the cameras further into the woods.
In preparation for the inter-school robot race, we are creating interactive arena features at Bishopstone. For the purposes of automatic activation, we are building pressure pads with sufficient sensitivity that robot wheels can trigger them!
The inter-school Robot Racing challenge is hotting up! With both Bishopstone and St Mary’s Primary schools fielding teams of robots that increasingly move in the right direction – the moment is fast approaching for Race Day! For updates on team progress, please see www.flickernet.net/rrc
To liven up the arena, we have been developing claw-bots that will chomp at unsuspecting robots as they pass!
Keith and I are working on a new project for shared computer control and coding. We will be creating a 3D environment in which the controller and the nature of what is controlled, will be open for pairs of pupils to develop together. We are calling it Rainbow Rebellion. More details to follow soon!
For an interactive demo, please click here!
Thank you to all of those who attended the first ever Bloviators debate. It was a great chance to test out the format and to explore what debating looks like when it has to be spontaneous! Of the three motions that were on offer, the motion that was voted for by those in attendance was that human beings present too much of a danger for alien life to risk making contact with us. Jamie and Miles successfully opposed the motion, pointing out how much we have to offer the wider universe!
Going forwards we will tweak the format further and take it to some local educational establishments. It is hoped that Bloviators can return to the Cirencester Baptist Church in June.
Randomizing the teams through a spinner / Fisher Price button kept us all on our toes!
Another name for Minecraft is BashBash – or at least in our house anyway! We first played it on a Raspberry Pi 3b – a rather simplified version, but nonetheless fun. Given the need that I find to demonstrate to pupils what a huge range of inputs are possible (cue tin foil, pressure pads, capacitive touch experiments etc) – there developed a good excuse to build a box with many connections.
Rather than have a light toggle or a buzzer sound when a connection is made – what if those input triggers meant that a Minecraft world was moved through, built and bashed? More to follow!
If, like me, you were a fan of the Tomy robot collection from the 1980s, then you may also recall the tantalising sensation born out of an awareness of what those robots were unable to do, which was almost as invigorating as what they could do.
Take Chatbot: it was equipped with a mechanical voice recorder that was primed by pulling a large level down whilst speaking a message, then triggered by remote control. Hours of fun ensued driving it around with occasional spoken messages being relayed.
Chatbot was not without limitation, however. It could not engage in further conversation – or be instructed to move – or check on the road conditions outside.
Now that it is 2024, Chatbot could – and over the coming weeks I hope to reveal one way of achieving an upgrade to this venerable robot!
