SparkFun Stories of Success
Transforming Learning For Future Readiness
Beaverton School District, OR
In 2014, Beaverton School District, the third largest school district in Oregon, received funding via a technology bond to create Future Ready classrooms. The goal of this project was to update classroom technology in order to bring innovation to the district’s 53 schools and more than 40,000 students.
Finding the Right Option
From there, the district created a team of Innovation Strategists to research the best tools and help teachers learn how to use them. This team held weekly workshops for teachers to try out different products in order to find the best fit for their district. When micro:bit was released to the US, the Innovation Strategists immediately realized it was the solution they had been looking for, due to its compatibility with Chromebooks and ability to easily be rolled out on a large scale.
Beaverton School District Innovation Specialist Katie White said, “This was the perfect tool to be able to reach every learner and give multiple opportunities for students to try things – not just something robotic, but something artsy and creative.”
Once the decision had been made to introduce micro:bit at the fourth and seventh grade levels, the team needed a way to differentiate the micro:bit instruction between the two grade levels.
Working with SparkFun, they chose the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit for micro:bit for seventh grade. For fourth grade, the district wanted to offer students the chance to explore more than just what was available on the micro:bit board itself, so SparkFun worked with them to create a set of three expansion boards – the gator:control, gator:starter and gator:color – to make it easy to use alligator clips to explore buttons, switches, light and temperature sensors, and additional LEDs with the micro:bit.
“If you really want the science aspect, then the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit [for micro:bit] is perfect because you have the breadboarding and you’re doing all the circuitry,” said Innovation Strategist Dawn Guilder. “If you want to start integrating it more in other classes and throughout the curriculum into the other classes, I would recommend going with the gator:boards with alligator clips, because it just makes it so much more accessible to teachers and students.”
“Working with SparkFun has been very easy,” White said. “Because SparkFun has been willing to work with us so closely, it’s really helped us to develop this faster than we would have with another vendor.”
“What I’ve seen with the micro:bit’s, in particular, is that students will get frustrated and then they’ll keep going to make it work like other people’s are working. I see more students persisting in getting the micro:bits to work than I do in a lot of academics, like when they’re writing a paper or filling out something. It’s neat to see them use that persistence and then that transfers over to other things.”
District-Wide Rollout
Once it was time to roll out the micro:bits to the classroom and train the teachers how to use them, district employees realized just how easy the whole process was.
“When I walk into the classrooms with this equipment for the first time, teachers, without exception, have realized, ‘This is something I can do tomorrow,” said Innovation Strategist Eric LeMoine.
“This was the perfect tool to be able to reach every learner and give multiple opportunities for students to try things. Not just something robotic but something artsy and creative.”
Katie WhiteInnovation Strategist
Courtney Hauser, a 4th grade teacher at West Tualatin View Elementary School in Beaverton School District, said, “I knew as soon as we had an opportunity to play with it, our students were going to love it.”
It’s not just the educators who are enjoying the micro:bits.
Max, a seventh-grade student, said, “The micro:bit was really fun because I got to put together whatever I wanted and then I just had to put the coding in for the right thing...it makes me think that I can do whatever I want, I just have to learn how to do it first.”
Collin, a fourth-grade student, said, “I like how it’s not just all digital, so you can actually push buttons and work with it. It’s a physical thing that actually has lights on it.”
"When I walk into the classrooms with this equipment for the first time, teachers, without exception, have realized, “This is something I can do tomorrow."
Immediate Results
“Because SparkFun has been willing to work with us so closely, it’s really helped us to develop this faster than we would have with another vendor.”
Katie WhiteInnovation Strategist
Teachers are seeing real results after integrating the micro:bits into their classrooms.
“What I’ve seen with the micro:bits, in particular, is that students will get frustrated and then they’ll keep going to make it work like other people’s are working,” said Megan Poole, a 7th grade science teacher at Meadow Park Middle School in Beaverton School District. “I see more students persisting in getting the micro:bits to work than I do in a lot of academics, like when they’re writing a paper or filling out something. It’s neat to see them use that persistence and then that transfers over to other things.”
“There’s a lot of really great instant gratification from it. They use the coding, then they see it in action. And that entices them to push themselves further in their exploring and how they can use it,” Hauser said. “I think it helps students become proficient in the use of a vast variety of different technologies and it entices them to think, ‘If I’m really successful at this now, this could be a part of my future.’ They’re definitely more passionate about it because of that.”