MicroBlocks and the Mozilla Web of Things

[mozfest-bot]

[ UUID ] 3e0a8aff-0ce8-4909-a01a-670517eea2b2

[ Session Name ] MicroBlocks and the Mozilla Web of Things [ Primary Space ] Digital Inclusion [ Secondary Space ] Openness

[ Submitter's Name ] B ernat Romagosa [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] MicroBlocks [ Submitter's GitHub ] @bromagosa

[ Other Facilitator 1's Name ] Jens Mönig [ Other Facilitator 1's GitHub ] @jmoenig

What will happen in your session?

MicroBlocks is a new FLOSS programming language, inspired by Scratch, that runs right inside microcontroller boards such as the BBC micro:bit, NodeMCU, and many Arduino boards. Thanks to a collaboration with the Mozilla IoT team, it now interfaces neatly with the Web of Things ecosystem. In this session you'll learn how you can use MicroBlocks to create games, jewelry, or digital measurement tools, and connect turn them into network-enabled devices. Bring your laptop! We'll provide some micro:bits to share; feel free to bring your own, too.

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

Participants will learn about MicroBlocks and will create their own network-enabled devices, ready to be controlled and monitored from their own laptops or mobile phones.

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

We would require a projector.

Time needed

90 mins

[gbaman]

This sounds like a very interesting session to perhaps also run with young people in YouthZone? We are already doing a range of micro:bit activities (and will have a class set). We also will have a Raspberry Pi lab for workshops like this. What would your thoughts be @bromagosa @jmoenig on running this session with young people as well?

@MozillaFestival/2018-youth-zone-wranglers

[bromagosa]

We'd definitely be very interested in running the session with young people!

[kgiori]

Hi @gbaman -- a few of us from the Mozilla Project Things team will be attending to support this MicroBlocks + Mozilla Web of Things workshop, which I think is a fantastic opportunity for youth STEAM learning and education. How many micro:bit boards and how many RPi's will you have? How many "sessions" could Bernat and Jens offer of this workshop in the youth zone? FYI: We'll also be proposing a talk/workshop/exhibit submission to show off DIY smart home operation and promote developer engagement with Mozilla's open source "Project Things" (Web of Things) effort, and show how it works with commercial off-the-shelf smart home devices. (This latter submission would target geeky consumers and tech professionals.)

[gbaman]

@kgiori we have around 30 microbits (although have easy access to more if needed) along with we hope 20-30 Raspberry Pis in the main lab this year. Raspberry Pis in the main lab (and potentially a secondary one) aren't finalised. Last year we ran with if I remember right around 50 Pis across 2 rooms in YouthZone, but that is up for change every year, nothing is set in stone yet.

As for the number of sessions, in general for YouthZone (I can't speak for other spaces) we get such a large amount of sessions submitted and have such limited capacity in the physical space that most sessions only run once over the weekend. This was the case for I believe 95%+ of our sessions last year.

As for the second session you mention, I am assuming this won't be aimed at YouthZone anyway?

[kgiori]

@gbaman - correct, this submission by @bromagosa is best for the youth zone, whereas our other submission is best for adults, developers, makers, etc.

For the other one, we will propose a presentation, but we would also ideally like to setup a demo on tables set up in a common area that we would staff as much as possible. The demo tables would act as an "exhibit". Anyone could stop by to learn more about the Mozilla IoT project, whether they attended the other talk or workshop or not.

[kgiori]

@gbaman great news from Nordic Semiconductor -- they have agreed to donate micro:bit boards for this workshop. What is the maximum number of "youth" that could fit into the room? Each attendee will need a laptop or computer of some sort to program the micro:bit boards in real time. Will there already be computers or do attendees need to bring their own? And if having laptops is not possible, we would still like to give the micro:bit boards to those who attend the workshop so that they can go home and play with them.

[gbaman]

@kgiori that's great to hear! Our largest workshop room last year was around 35 stations (Raspberry Pis). In general we did have some stations with young people paired up as well on our most busy sessions, while rest of the sessions in that room probably averaged maybe 25-30 attendees.

As for laptops, we may be able to get a small set of laptops this year instead, but in general this is a little more difficult and we find a majority of young people attending do not bring their own laptop as well.

Final workshop allocations etc though are equipment dependant (we are able to sort different allocations each year) and sessions we accept dependant, so we can't guarantee anything just yet. All that type of thing won't be finalised till the end of September / start of October.

[kgiori]

Good news! I have confirmed up to 40 micro:bit boards being donated by Nordic Semiconductor for this workshop. The youth will love them!

[kgiori]

@gbaman -- and if this workshop can be hosted where there are RPi's available, we can show how to sense and control LEDs, buttons, temp, xyz position, etc, on the micro:bit, from the Mozilla Things Gateway GUI. In other words, kids will learn MicroBlocks and how to interact via a web GUI hosted by the RPi and viewed thru, naturally, Firefox. :)

[gbaman]

@kgiori we will keep it in mind. Assuming the session is accepted, it would end up in the laptop room or Pi room, all depends which has space etc. Scheduling it done a little later after curation so we won’t know till then.