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Hey Sarah,
This is a really thoughtful way to use Bad Connection with your class. I particularly like the idea of building in regular discussion breaks rather than letting the game stand on its own.
Those pauses should give pupils a chance to explain the choices they are making, question what is happening and connect the scenarios back to their own online experiences. The follow-up discussion is a great addition too and should help make the SPHE learning much more meaningful.
A really practical and purposeful way to use the world.
Hey Sarah,
This is a lovely way to build on the Name Tag tutorial. Adding an interesting fact gives the coding a clear purpose and makes it much more personal for the children.
I really like that you would have pupils test the code and share their finished work. A great, accessible activity for 3rd Class and a really nice introduction to coding with the micro:bit.
Hey Eoghan,
I really like how you are thinking about using this with your class. Pausing between each part of the world for discussion is exactly what would make the experience meaningful, rather than simply having pupils play through it.
The whole-class check-ins could be especially powerful here. Giving pupils time to talk through the warning signs, explain why a situation feels wrong and decide what they could do next should help them connect what happens in Minecraft with situations they may encounter online themselves.
I also love the idea of finishing with the trusted adults activity. It gives the lesson a really practical takeaway and makes sure pupils leave knowing exactly who they could speak to if something ever made them uncomfortable online.
This feels like a really thoughtful way to use Minecraft as the setting for some very important SPHE learning.
Hey Lisa,
This is a great starting point for a chaser game. The explorer and monster idea is simple, easy for pupils to understand and gives you a nice base to build the Maths learning around.
I had a look at the game and it seems you may have run into a small game-design issue. The player and enemy appear to start at the same coordinates, and because you have an overlap event that triggers game over, the game can end almost immediately. Simply changing the starting coordinates of either the player or the monster so they begin in different parts of the screen should solve that.
It is actually a great debugging example too, because the code is doing exactly what it has been told to do, it is just the starting positions that need adjusting.
A really nice concept, and once that small fix is made it should work much more smoothly.
Hey Noreen,
This is a really strong AI literacy activity. Using a realistic but deliberately inaccurate local history profile gives pupils a very concrete reason to question what they are reading, rather than accepting something simply because it sounds convincing.
I particularly like the line-by-line checking against trusted sources. That fits really well with the idea of pausing, questioning and checking an AI output, and the structured checklist should give pupils a clear process they can reuse in other contexts too.
Your critical question around responsibility for misinformation could lead to a brilliant discussion, especially around the role of the person creating, checking and sharing the information.
The annotated texts and completed checklists should also give you really clear evidence of pupils’ thinking and learning.
A very practical and age-appropriate way to explore accuracy, misinformation and responsible AI use.
Hey Michelle,
This is a fantastic way to take the Dice tutorial and turn it into a much bigger learning experience. I really like that the micro:bit has a clear purpose within the challenge rather than being used in isolation.
The tower idea brings in so much naturally, particularly measuring, designing, building, testing and improving. I also love the extensions of counting backwards from 100cm and using two dice, as they give you easy ways to adjust the level of challenge for different pupils.
It is great to see you already planning to use this with your SET group in September too. One small addition could be to explore the strength or stability of different materials, which would make the Science connection even more explicit and use the shake function of the micro:bit to assist with them!
A really creative and practical integrated STEM activity.
This is a really strong reflection on where you are currently and where you would like to develop next. You already have a good foundation in digital literacy with your 3rd class, and I like that you are now thinking about how those skills can move beyond individual tasks into more collaborative learning.
The idea of beginning with something unplugged, such as a board game, before moving into coding or a digital project is a great way to support computational thinking.
I also really like your focus on making the learning fun and play-based, while valuing the process rather than only the finished product. Those problem-solving, communication and collaboration skills are just as important as what pupils eventually create.
One thing I’d be interested to hear is, what roles might you give pupils within the group to make sure everyone has a meaningful part in the problem-solving process?
This is a really thoughtful review of Bad Connection. You have clearly picked up on the fact that the learning goes well beyond simply completing the Minecraft activities.
Your link to SPHE is particularly strong, especially around personal safety, relationships, decision-making and asking for help. I also really like your point about slowing the lesson down. Giving pupils time to discuss the scenarios and explain what they noticed could make those moments even more valuable than progressing quickly through the world itself (which may be what a lot of students may want to do!).
One thing I’d be interested to hear is, how might you structure those discussion pauses so that pupils feel comfortable sharing their thinking without feeling that they have to talk about their own personal online experiences?
A really considered approach to using the resource with a senior class.
Hey Michelle,
This is a really thoughtful reflection and I particularly like how clearly you have connected digital learning with giving pupils greater independence and confidence in a SET setting.
Your plan for computational thinking is very well focused too. Starting with just one process and one unplugged activity feels realistic and gives you a chance to see how pupils respond before building from there.
I also really like that you are gathering evidence from both sides, your own observation notes and the pupils’ digital reflections. Asking what they enjoyed, found challenging and learned should give you some really useful insight, while also continuing that focus on pupils taking greater ownership of their learning.
A very strong and manageable next step and one that could feed naturally into your school’s SSE over time.
Hey Noreen,
This is a lovely choice for an introductory activity. The Name Tag project is simple enough to build confidence early on, but you have already identified some really nice ways to extend it through wearable technology, Maths and discussion afterwards.
One quick note on the link you shared. It looks like this may be the URL from the editor itself rather than the share link for your project. To share a MakeCode project, use the Share icon in the top-right corner of the editor and follow the steps I outlined in the tutorial of this module. You can also use this page for guidance: https://makecode.microbit.org/share
I really like the idea of using the LED grid for coordinates too. That could be a very natural way to connect the coding activity back into Maths.
A great, accessible starting point for pupils.
Hey Niamh,
Absolutely love this one. The Gaeilge focus is brilliant and we are delighted to hear that the translation of the platform is being recognised. We were thrilled to work on that translation with the amazing team over at COGG, so it is lovely to hear it potentially being used in a real classroom context like this.
The game itself is great too and the design of Zoomie the supernova is pretty iconic!
On the scoring issue, it was actually a really simple debugging fix. You had the change score block correctly inside the overlap block, but it was also sitting inside the C-shaped on game update block that creates the projectile. That meant the score increased every time a projectile was created as well as when Flymo collected one. Removing that extra score block should solve it.
Really creative work and such a strong example of combining Gaeilge, coding and game design in a way that feels relevant and engaging for pupils.
Hey Emily,
Valentine’s Day Dash is such a lovely idea. The theme is really fun and I like that you have kept the game mechanics simple and clear while still bringing in counting, movement and spatial awareness.
It is great to hear that the debugging messages helped when something went wrong too. That process of spotting an error, finding the part of the code causing it and fixing it is exactly the kind of computational thinking we want pupils to experience.
One little MakeCode tip for your original bird idea, if you use the search bar at the top of the block categories and search for “scale”, you should find a block that lets you change the size of a sprite. You can use that to make the bird smaller, so you might still be able to bring it back in if you ever revisit the game!
A really fun game, and it is brilliant to see how much you were able to create while working through the module.
Hey Sinead,
This is a really strong and very practical AI literacy activity for 4th Class. I particularly like that the pupils are not simply being told that AI can make mistakes, they actually have to compare an AI-generated text with a trusted source, spot differences and decide what they would believe. That makes the idea of accuracy and misinformation much more concrete.
Your question, “Does it sound right, even if it’s wrong?” is a great one. It gets to the heart of why we need to pause, question and check AI outputs rather than accepting something because it sounds confident.
The paired discussion and editing element is a lovely addition too, as it gives pupils a chance to explain their reasoning and show how they reached a judgement.
One possible extension could be to ask pupils to highlight the exact claim that needs checking and then show which source they used to verify it. That would give you a really clear piece of evidence of their learning.
A really thoughtful way to connect History, digital literacy and responsible AI use.
Hey Sinead,
This is a really strong and very practical AI literacy activity for 4th Class. I particularly like that the pupils are not simply being told that AI can make mistakes, they actually have to compare an AI-generated text with a trusted source, spot differences and decide what they would believe. That makes the idea of accuracy and misinformation much more concrete.
Your question, “Does it sound right, even if it’s wrong?” is a great one. It gets to the heart of why we need to pause, question and check AI outputs rather than accepting something because it sounds confident.
The paired discussion and editing element is a lovely addition too, as it gives pupils a chance to explain their reasoning and show how they reached a judgement.
One possible extension could be to ask pupils to highlight the exact claim that needs checking and then show which source they used to verify it. That would give you a really clear piece of evidence of their learning.
A really thoughtful way to connect History, digital literacy and responsible AI use.
Hey Danielle,
This is a lovely example of taking a very simple MakeCode tutorial and turning it into something much richer for 1st Class. I really like the way you have connected the countdown on the micro:bit to practical classroom activities rather than treating the coding as a standalone task.
The Science example works particularly well. Having pupils predict what the micro:bit will do, test it and then make changes gives them a very natural introduction to sequencing, testing and debugging. Pairing that with counting backwards in Maths and giving instructions in English also makes the learning feel nicely connected.
I also really like your idea of pupils working in pairs. For younger children, talking through what they think will happen before running the code could make their thinking much more visible and give you great opportunities to listen for their understanding.
A really strong, realistic way to introduce coding with a younger class.
