How to stop sticky fingers getting into the cookie jar

With schools in New Zealand springing back in action, I don’t know who’s happier: the kids finally being able to see their friends in seven weeks; or the parents who have been scouring the internet for ideas to keep the kids busy during the lockdown.

Facebook was full of inspirations and I particularly liked the Alka-Seltzer experiment, involving oil, water, food colouring and a fizzing tablet. It reminds me of lava lamps, which have always drawn my attention and had a calming effect when I watch the different colours flowing up and down the lamp. If you have missed out on some of these experiments, here are 32 more you can try.

I also enjoyed watching Dr. Michelle Dickenson (Nanogirl) give us some ideas on how to make science fun. Particularly when she and her companion, Moe, talked about the Covid19 lockdown.

But on to something more pressing! My cookie jar is now completely empty and that is not just because of the kids, dad has been helping himself too. Maybe I should take a leaf out of BBC Micro:bit’s book and learn how to set an alarm so nobody steals my Tim Tams from the cookie jar…

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And as if we haven’t been sequestered , our precious bundles are all back at school. Although I miss them, I’m glad the science teacher can take back the rein and answer all the questions like: “How does this work?”,  “How do I do that?”

Come to think of it… compared to what I did at school back in the days, it’s no wonder students are excited to go back to school to learn. It’s a lot more fun and engaging! They design their own posters, make their own games, create their own videos and websites. These are all skills that they need for their future jobs. 

Which then leads me to realise that all of these skills have some kind of underlying coding elements in them. Whether we’re using a sensor or want to publish a game, we need to understand how to create and analyse data.

Using Kai’s Clan, you can add a BBC Micro:bit to your code and if you tell the sensor to tilt you can have a logic statement showing your robot avatar (airplane) is tilting as well. These robots avatars can now be designed by students in Tinkercad, Minecraft, or Google Poly. Students will see their physical robots merge with their robot avatars and experience the virtual world in augmented reality or 3D.

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