Resources

The last part of our physical design challenge was to design a flag for a capture the flag style game. As with most of the design challenges that this project presented, we had some ideas and discarded the difficult and impractical until we were left with a simple but effective solution.

We looked at a few different ways of achieving our Robot Wars inspired buggy but quickly settled on keeping the buggy completely intact and cutting a top plate from a perspex sheet. We wanted it to be functional, aesthetically pleasing and also easy to produce. We had six buggies to design and build and only a few days to get them done.

The line following buggy for the BBC micro:bit is a great kit for students to build as it combines several elements of design and technology; electronics, mechanical assembly and coding and it is this buggy that the Robot Buggies are built upon. The kit has relatively few parts and is simple to build, making it a suitable option as a classroom activity.

Whilst many of our customers enjoy a well earned holiday during August, we're busy putting the final touches to some exciting new kits, and bringing you a couple of additions to our materials section.

Geoff Hampson, one of our company directors, was charged with designing and building something iconic from the epic '80s. There are many things that spring to mind when you think about the '80s but if you were at school during this period, as I was, then you undoubtedly have a lot of memories of the Rubix cube craze. Challenge accepted!

MP Michelle Donelan has secured the support of almost 90 MP's for a proposed change to EBacc that would allow schools to class design and technology as a science and offer it as a choice to students.

Robox Update Automaker To V2.01.02 . As CEL Robox have moved deeper into dual material printing, recent updates to their Automaker software have been geared towards facilitating this. There have been a number of multi-material related new features and a few days ago they updated Automaker to V2.01.02. This added another new feature for removing the gap between the support material and your part, when using a dual material head.

I never expected to be thinking about work last weekend when I was at the East Midlands Flower Show, but when I saw the fantastic creations of Burned by Design and went over to have a closer look. It turned out that the owner, Alex, is a Design and Technology teacher.

The summer holidays are almost upon us and D&T Department stocks may be beginning to dwindle, so why not replenish D&T stocks before the summer to ensure the new school year gets off to a flying start.

This week and next, armed with BBC micro:bits and accessories, Kitronik are breaking free from the office and attending fun education based events that are aimed at showing young people and educators that there is a world of opportunity out there for people with the right skills.

On Wednesday the 8th of June our very own Tim Goodman went to Nottingham Trent University with a small group of Design and Technology Teachers for a day designed to help them drive ideas forward. The course was hosted by Nottingham Trent University's Kerry Truman and began with a briefing on all the different opportunities there at NTU for such learning.

Our veneered MDF sheets have been very popular, but we've been asked many times to sell veneer on it's own. We're happy to introduce two new flexible wood veneers, and we got Kevin to tell us about the in this video.

We've sold 0.8mm Polypropylene Sheets for some time now, and have often been asked about thinner sizes. We've now introduced a range which is just 0.5mm thick.

This Pedestrian Crossing project was submitted to us by Thomas Stratford. Thomas started this project to try out the pre-written code that came with the IET Pedestrian Crossing resource. The aim is to use the BBC micro:bit to develop a prototype for a pedestrian crossing for a local secondary school.

Our good friend Andy Thompson recently got in touch to tell us about a Key Stage 2 D&T training day that he is running on July 8th at Highgate School in London. This ‘hands-on’ event is specifically designed to help Primary School colleagues with limited resources and/or training opportunities to build confidence in the use of tools, equipment and materials.

We were excited once again to be at the Life Science Centre in Newcastle all weekend for the UK Maker Faire 2016. The UK Maker Faire is the UK's biggest collection of hackers, crafters, coders, DIYers and garden shed inventors and offers a great way to spend an enjoyable day out with the family whilst offering endless learning opportunities via fun activities.

If you've ever done any projects involving Perspex, no matter how careful you've been to maximise your usage, you'll always have at least some scrap Perspex left over. Harry Gowlett, a second year Secondary Design and Technology Education student at Nottingham Trent University, shares some excellent tips on how you might recycle your Perspex offcuts into useful items.

Our Inventor's Kit for the BBC micro:bit contains over 50+ parts and allows you to make 10 experiments that are included in detail using the provided Tutorial Book.

After many months of hard work by all of the BBC micro:bit partners, today it was finally time to launch the device and what better venue to do this at, than the London stock exchange.