Calliope mini
The Calliope mini is a single-board computer that was developed for educational purposes and is used in German primary schools . The aim is to give students from the third grade a playful introduction to programming and algorithmic thinking. In addition to pupils, teachers and the education system should also be reached so that more digital content can be conveyed in schools in the long term. The programming of the microcontroller is about different web-based development environments possible.
background
The Calliope mini was developed in 2015 in parallel and on the basis of the BBC micro: bit and expanded with the help of teachers. Compared to the BBC micro: bit, the Calliope mini has additional components such as a loudspeaker, microphone and RGB light-emitting diode, two Grove connectors, extended input and output options and a star shape that prevents short circuits for children. The microcontroller has been available for purchase since summer 2017.
The Calliope non-profit company is behind the further development . Partners are the professors Gesche Joost and Franka Futterlieb, the psychologist Stephan Noller , the designer Jørn Alraun, the IT consultant Maxim Loick and the economist Klaus Jürgen Buß.
The name "Calliope mini" refers to the Greek muse Calliope , a daughter of Zeus and patron goddess of science, philosophy and epic poetry. It is known among computer scientists as the “tablet muse”, as it used to be often represented with a blackboard. Computer scientists describe them as an early harbinger of digital educational ideals.
Dissemination and funding
A number of sponsors were won for initial funding, including the Young Digital Economy Advisory Board in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy . In autumn 2016 the Calliope mini was presented to the federal government at the IT summit. A crowdfunding campaign took place at Startnext at the turn of the year 2016/2017 . A total of € 108,607 was raised by 1,902 supporters.
The Calliope mini has been available from Cornelsen Verlag and various mail order companies such as Conrad Electronics SE and Amazon since August 2017 . The unit price is around € 35. Class sets are available on the website at a reduced price for educational institutions. The microcontroller is already used in over 2,000 schools. In 13 out of 16 federal states there were national introductory projects with mostly free training courses for teachers.
Calliope gGmbH is an Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative. This means that the Calliope mini circuit diagrams and software are freely available as open hardware or open source . Countless manuals, project ideas and - a specialty of the German textbook system - teaching materials from Cornelsen Verlag are also freely available .
Awards
The Calliope mini was awarded the Wolfgang Heilmann Prize for the humane use of information technology in 2016. The educational project also received the “The Innovation in Politics Awards 2017” and the “Innovation Prize for Digital Education delina 2018” in the “Early Childhood Education and School” category.
hardware
- Nordic nRF51822 Multi-protocol Bluetooth ® 4.0 low energy / 2.4GHz RF SoC
- 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 processor (16MHz)
- 32kB RAM
- 256kB Flash
- Bluetooth low energy
- 5x5 LED matrix screen
- Accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer (Bosch BMX055)
- MEMS microphone
- DC motor driver (TI DRV8837)
- Piezo speakers
- Programmable RGB-LED (WS2812b)
- 2 programmable buttons
- Serial interface (USB + configurable connections)
- PWM output
- 4 banana / alligator clip connections
- 4 analog inputs
- 8-11 input / output connections (depending on software configuration)
- SPI + I2C
- USB Micro-B connector (programming and power supply)
- JST battery connector (3.3V)
- Banana / crocodile clip connection for 3.3V (output)
- 2 Grove connectors (I2C + serial / analog)
- NXP KL26z (USB and power supply)
- Flash program memory (optional)
programming
The Calliope mini can be programmed via the PC and wirelessly via Android and iOS. After connecting via USB interface or via Bluetooth, the Calliope mini is managed as a USB data carrier to which the programs are transferred. These start immediately after switching on or restarting the system.
There are several editors as development environments that run as web applications in the web browser or as downloadable computer programs : the simple Calliope mini editor, the Scratch- based Microsoft MakeCode , the Open Roberta Lab (NEPO) and the Calliope mini Swift Playground. In addition to visual software development , the programming languages JavaScript, C ++ and MicroPython are supported. Since the Calliope mini is largely compatible with the BBC micro: bit, its development tools can also be used.
criticism
The introduction of the Calliope mini has been criticized because of the fear that companies like Google will exert influence on school education. In the federal state of Saxony there were initially concerns about the use of the computer in the classroom under competition law, but in the meantime the ministry of education there has successfully carried out the pilot project “Calliope at Saxon schools”.
See also
literature
- Coding with the Calliope mini - programming in primary school. Teaching material for use from grade 3 . Cornelsen Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-06-600012-2 .
- Coding with the Calliope mini - programming in primary school. Student material from grade 3 . Cornelsen Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-06-600011-5 .
- Philip Kiefer: Calliope mini - code, tinker, discover . Rheinwerk Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3-8421-0493-8 .
- Christian Immler : The Little Hacker - Learning to program with the Calliope mini , Franzis Verlag 2017, ISBN 978-3-645-60559-5 .
- Nadine Bergner, Patrick Franken, Julia Kleeberger, Thiemo Leonhardt, Mario Lukas, Mario Pesch, Natalia Prost, Jan Thar, Lina Wassong: The Calliope Book: Exciting craft projects with the Calliope Mini Board . dpunkt Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-86490-468-4 .
