Learn with US Year 8 Taster Day. Monday 20th January 2014.
Today I was lucky enough to take part in a Learn with US workshop. These sessions are organised by the Universities central outreach department. Three different schools come in for an hours session. Each school rotates and does different activities. Today I met year 8 students from three schools:
- Bitterne Park School
- Toynbee School
- St Georges School
It was a great session with fabulous pupils. The aim of the session was on ‘Wearable Technology’. We looked at how school uniforms could be transformed with technology, how wearable technology could be used in health and sustainability with the environment. In particular, the types of technology we discussed were temperature sensors and light sensors.
Here are some great ideas by the schools I saw today. I think they are very creative and the pupils who came along are a credit to their schools.
- Bitterne Park School
Bitterne Park came up with an amazing set of ideas to extend the functionality of school uniforms using technology. There were great ideas such as a Beanie hat, which acts as a massager with acts automatically when stressed, but also stores relevant information from lessons to help with revision. This is the ultimate study tool as it helps with information but also helps welfare by keeping stress levels down. The figure below is a diagram of what the group did.
Another idea which was very original was Auto shoes which was made by recycled bottles and bags. The aim of the shoe is to change depending on the situation. For example, in P.E. the shoe will change into a gym shoe and then change into a school shoe when P.E. is over. This is two of MANY fabulous ideas from Bitterne Park School.
- Toynbee School
Toynbee School had a different challenge. They had to picks some real life problems and had to use wearable technology to enhance life. We had great suggestions. The featured project is a simple t-shirt or jumper with the ability to put on any picture or design onto their t-shirt by taking a photo on their phone and then a picture could be put on it using blue-tooth. The design was called ‘where what you see’. Below is the poster:
Other ideas included a ‘heletopter’ that let out an airbag if someone was going to fall over. Or an attachment to glasses where by it could sense illnesses and tell you to rest accordingly.
- St Georges
St Georges was the final school of the day and came up with some wonderful ideas. A great idea from St Georges was a camera on the back to record and alert if anything gets stolen from rucksacks. They felt that this was something they thought was very useful. One group designed an away of gadgets for school uniforms such as a temperature controlled jumper and/or a self writing pad.
Conclusions
I would just like to say thank you so much to all the schools and the outreach department at the University. Really enjoyed the day and I hope the schools did to. So if any schools like the idea of this then please get in touch!