A chocolate cake has candles, a chocolate almond coating and a small chip, about the size of the palm of your hand. This technological device has a button that, when pressed, sings the happy birthday song. It also has a marquee that spells out a wish of happiness to the honoree.
This type of development was created by 11-year-old students in the fifth year of school at the Uruguayan American School thanks to the importation of Micro Bits (microcomputers), a revolutionary technology in the United Kingdom that teaches children to program and that Uruguay imported due to the interest of a teacher.
What are they? They are chips, four by five centimeters, with LED lights, two buttons, an accelerometer and a compass. Students can program it to display numbers, letters and other symbols (a heart, for example) by connecting the little device to a computer. On the PC, students execute commands: they choose what they want the device to do and adapt it to its usefulness.
Another example was the making of a toy guitar. The idea is that this object can be used by young children as a form of entertainment. They also developed a Lego car which makes the typical sound when starting a real vehicle. And they are also working on an interactive book: it is a text which in each page the microcomputer will emit a sound according to what is narrating the story.
With Micro Bit, students can perform more complex tasks, according to the challenges set by the student. In fact, it could control a DVD player or be an input to manufacture traditional remote controls for video games, according to the BBC.
This Uruguayan class had access to 10 microcomputers to work with. The teacher only showed them the example of the guitar and the rest of the inventions were driven by the students themselves.
"People who are out of work could use this to earn an income," commented one of the students.
How they arrived.
The idea came from the British news channel BBC, which has a technology development division.
It is now led by the non-profit Micro Bit Educational Foundation, and is supported by tech giants such as Microsoft, Samsung and Cisco.
These small devices were completed in July 2015 and began to be distributed to more than one million children in the UK free of charge. As of this year, the foundation is giving them to schools in the United States and China. However, they can be purchased for $16.
Sylvia Fojo, Uruguayan Computer Science teacher of these students, traveled to England and learned about this technology. Falling in love with the project, she asked its creators if she could have access to a sample in order to give it to children in Uruguay. They gave her a sample. "We are the first country in South America to receive them. We are pioneers in the region," she says proudly.
According to Fojo, the interest is to change the concept of education to "do-it-yourself" and for children to feel more innovative and productive when they go to class.
"Our goal is to reach 100 million people with Micro Bit and change their lives with technology," Zach Shelby, the foundation's new director, told the BBC.
British girls interested in technology.
The BBC surveyed 147 girls before they received these microcomputers and another 208 schoolgirls, from a different group, after they were given these devices.
23% of the girls who had not interacted with this technology said they would study computer science in the future. When asked about those who did use the Micro Bit, 39% said they would "definitely" work in this field when they grow up. The foundation is keen to encourage enthusiasm for the subject among girls.
Source: El País
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