The Year Ahead

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.

Three different core experiences to choose from

All link together ensuring best fit for your requirements 

As a quick guide: Micro:Bit Marvels is aimed at schools and home educators to provide fun projects that emulate those that are often suited to actual deployment in the woods of Space To Learn. It includes options such as robotics; environmental sensing and cross-curricular demonstrations

Connect and Play offers learners a more fluid technology experience featuring a wider range of electronics and design technology led projects that can include recycled equipment and game design

Phillip is available to hire as a STEM Advisor at reasonable rates. He travels throughout Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and County Down.

  • A wide range of activities built on the best of Micro:Bit
  • Featuring the most interesting extensions and peripherals
  • Teachers love to deliver curriculum objectives using these widely supported devices.

Please click below to be taken to the Micro:Bit Marvels page – with details about the many Micro:Bit extras that we can demonstrate for you.

It started in the woods..

Flickernet was formed in 1999 at the centre of a private estate in Northern Ireland. 

25 years later the corner of that same estate is at the centre of a clear mission to find practical advantages there, with which to help others.

Learning

Calming

Inspiring

Having fun is the best way to learn. With devices such as Makey Makey and Raspberry Pi, connections can be made with technology old and new: creating interfaces that bring old toys to life; build novel controllers; and provide the space to explore electronics and coding combined.

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.

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Tournament Day!

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

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Pressure Pad / Robot Wheels

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!

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Robot Claw Clash

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!

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Chatbot

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!

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Fumes machine

Swindon Borough Council – custodians of the Magic Roundabout – have kindly agreed to my request to site a particulate sensor on traffic lights in town. It is hoped that the busy toad will provide a new data stream to add to the mountain air / classroom feeds that are already in place.

All being well, the fumes produced by passing traffic will show pm 2.5 readings that can be viewed in realtime to provide a direct comparison to those found in a pupil’s own classroom and that found within ancient woodland in Northern Ireland. Zjeremy the robot brings the sensor into classrooms – see www.flickernet.net/data or www.flickernet.net/pm25

A preliminary visit to the site has revealed open WiFi access from the nearby Co-Op which could help!

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Robot Racing Club

Delighted to announce the start of RRC -with the ever-wonderful St Mary’s Primary School! We are currently exploring which kit works best, and hoping to develop this new club in support of neurodivergent pupils soon. Thank you to Colm and the team for providing every opportunity to explore new technologies with his wonderful class – from Unity-built gaming to the upcoming WatchBox – these pupils are pioneers!

www.flickernet.net/rrc

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