Global pre-recorded event: biodiversity counter code-along

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hello and welcome to our BBC microbic

Global codal my name is Giles and my

name is blaed and we are part of the

Education team here at the microbit

Educational Foundation now does anyone

know the theme of today's Cod along here

are a few

Clues there a butterfly

F uh oh okay that looks like some

flowers well that's definitely a

tree oh my goodness a very large Robin a

very large

bird so well done anyone watching if you

have shouted out the theme is

biodiversity happy International Day for

biological diversity um or International

Day for bio biodiversity as it can be

shortened to the United Nations theme uh

this year is all about building back

biodiversity because we all depend on a

wide variety of plants and animals and

microorganisms to keep us all healthy

and thriving so in today's codal along

you are going to be doing your bit as

well because you are going to be

building back bio biodiversity too by

creating a bi biodiversity counter that

can be used in your school playground or

any other outdoor area you have near

your school and as today is UN day for

biodiversity the plan is to create uh

the project in the make code editor but

then to transfer the code onto the

microbit and use them outside to count

the number of species of animals and

species of plants that you can spot you

don't need a microbit to take part in

this session as we will be making good

use of the simulator on make code

website but if you do have microbits

then make sure you have them out ready

to put the code on at the end of the

session and in today's session we're

going to be coding along together make

sure that you pause the video whenever

you need to and you can replay parts

that you need to hear over again I'm

really excited that we're coding the

biodiversity cter together so students

all over the world can see what their

local biodiversity is like if you have a

school Twitter or X account then make

sure you share how you get on you can

tag us we are at microbit uncore edu

that's microbit uncore edu on Twitter or

X that's a really good idea J it will be

lovely to see how different classes and

schools get on in their environments so

I think we're ready to get started Giles

can you think of anything else we need

to mention before we start coding I

think as we're making a species counter

I think it would be really good just to

make sure that everyone knows exactly

what a species is great call Giles okay

so a species is a set of animals or

plants who have similar characteristics

to each other so they all look similar

to each other and they have similar

characteristics so for

example let's look at these pictures

here so let me just remove this so that

you can see it better there we go so so

um in the in the slide here we've got

lots of different animals but how many

species have we got Giles oh that's a

really interesting question it's quite

tricky actually um I'm going to start

with the ones that all look the same so

I can see some snails there um some in

their shells some out of their shells so

I think the three pictures of snails

that's one

species um I can see Robin again a bird

and I don't see any other birds on there

so I think that's probably another

species um we've got oh two butterflies

so I think two butterflies uh probably

one more species and then I can see a

fly and I can see a worms so I think

have we got five species there blonded

well done yes I think that is spot on

and that means that everyone is very

clear and everyone can be super accurate

when they go out and they start logging

their species later thanks chares so

let's get coding um so the what we're

going to do is we're going to bring you

to the makecode editor

website so um you'll find that you can

see it on the banner now at make code.

microbit

you can get started with right away

without needing any logins or passwords

and so on so there is a sign-in button

on the top right so schools with

Microsoft or Google logins can use that

but we don't need to we can jump

straight in um now I've got some

projects showing here because I've used

it before if it's your first time you

might not have that but you will have

new project the new project button and

that's what we're going to jump straight

into also in the settings on make code

in the top right there's a little Cog

here next to the sign-in button that's

where you'll find different languages if

you want to change the language to to

your local language so click on new

project and the first thing it does is

asks me to give it a name so if you're

doing the same project as the CL it's a

really good idea to make sure that your

name or your student name is is is

included in the project name and today

we're making a biodiversity counter so

I'm going to name my project blana

biodiversity counter and click on

create okay so this has opened up the

make code editor so we can see that

there's some blocks of code already in

the workspace here on the right now I'm

going to make that a little bit bigger

by using this plus sign in the bottom

right hand side going to zoom in on my

blocks of code a little bit do you think

that's large enough Giles I think so I

can see that really clearly thank you

blet okay brilliant so um this is the

workspace this is where you can draw

drag blocks of codee around and you drag

them in from the toolbox over here and

you build your code in this space now we

won't need the forever block for our

project today so I'm actually going to

show you how to delete the blocks as

well by dragging them onto the uh the

the menu here or the toolbox and then

just letting go and it will delete a

block um when you have a look inside

this menu you can see that there's lots

of pre-prepared blocks of code ready to

go you don't need to have to know what

to type like you would in a text based

um editor you can just take the blocks

and you can drag and drop them onto the

workspace as you need

them um on the left hand side here we've

also got the simulator so we'll be using

this today to check that everything is

working before we put our code on our

microbit and take them outside to do our

biodiversity logging um we'll also be

using the download button we just take

off the banner for a second perfect

thank you Giles so the download button

here bottom left that will be used at

the end of the session so that we uh can

put our code onto our microbit so we

will if I just show you on my screen let

me get a view of me on the screen

second so on the microbit here we will

use the USB lead we will plug that into

our computer and we'll plug the other

end into our microbit and we will press

download and we will put the code on the

microbit and then attach the battery

pack so that we can bring it outside

into the environment and uh code and use

the code we have created that way okay

so coming back to our project that we're

going to create today um I'm going to

stop here and have a little think about

what my program is going to do I want to

use my microbit in the playground ler to

count two different things the number of

animal species and the number of plant

species species I want the microbit to

count for me and remember how many of

these species I spotted because there's

absolutely no way I'm going to keep all

that information in my head so I want

the microbit to remember the information

or the data so that means I need to

create two different variables so in the

toolbox here we've got variables as a

red menu section of the menu so if I

click on variables you'll see it gives

me one option right now and that is to

make a variable able so variables are

like containers they will hold different

pieces of information and they will keep

updating as we use the microbit and add

more

information so the two uh variables I

want to create today are I click on make

a variable and then I name them so I'm

going to call my first one animal

species and click okay and then I'm

going to oh you see straight away some

Co some blocks of code have appeared

because I've created this variable so

we've got some other blocks of code here

we can use later and then I click on

make a variable again and I'm going to

call this plant

species and click on okay so now I've

got options to use these blocks of code

to change it from animal to plant when I

need it and I've made my two variables

if I go back into variables here I can

see them sitting here animal species and

plant

species okay so let me just delete that

properly there we go

so everyone approaches coding a little

bit differently and sometimes there are

different ways to achieve the same

things so Giles what would you do next

now that we've created the variables

well I was just thinking about that when

I turn on my mic a bit and the program

starts I won't have counted any Vari I

won't have counted any animal species or

plant species yet so I'm thinking

whether it's a good idea to set both

variables to zero so what I might do is

I might go into the variables

menu and take set plant species to zero

and drag that into the on block anything

you put in the onstart block will um the

microbit will carry out that instruction

when the program starts running so it's

going to set the zero uh set the plant

species to zero at the start of the

program then I drag the same block again

so I go back into variables and drag out

set plant species to zero again but I'm

going to change maybe plant species to

animal

species so we have plant species and

animal species both set to zero at the

start of the program do you think that's

a good idea blet yes definitely I would

I would have done the same thing at this

point for sure to make sure that the

microbit knows to start counting from

zero for each of those variables there's

one other thing I do as well um there's

nothing on the screen of the microbit

when you turn on at the moment and I

think it would be useful to also show a

zero on the screen so I'm going to add

in that instruction I'm going to go into

the basic menu so the menus are all

colorcoded and blue blocks are from the

basic menu I'm going to take the first

one here show number and I'm going to

drag that in to the onart block here

it's already got the number zero in it

and now you can see the simulator has

updated and when my mic bit starts it

will show a zero on the screen as well

okay so let's have a quick recap to to

make sure that everyone is keeping up

when they're coding along in their

classrooms so have you made your

variables remember we went into

variables we clicked make a variable and

we made two one called animal species

and one called plant species okay have

you set your variables to zero we took

out this one set plant species to zero

and we used it

twice but we changed it using the drop

down menu from plant species to animal

species and we popped that into the

onstart block and then we added a zero

through using the show Number Block here

in the basic menu as well okay

so that

means we have got started but there's

two very important things that we need

to do next and they're both to do with

using the buttons on the microbit

because we're going to be using both

button a and button B uh that are on the

front of the microbit so we're going to

use one button to log data about animal

species and we're going to use another

button to log the data about plant

species so let's start with button a

here are a few

clues for what we're going to

use button a for any

ideas well um let me see we had uh a

butterfly we've had uh a bird and a

snail so I think a is going to be for

Animals correct yes A is for Animals is

animals that's easy to remember yes so

all the pictures are animals so button a

is going to lck the animal species so to

make something happen on the micob bit

when we press button a we will need the

on button a press block so you'll find

this in a new menu the the purple

purpley pink menu here called

if I go into that menu the very first

block is on button a press so let's pull

that out and put that into the

workspace okay so we want the animal

species uh variable to update by one

each time we press button a so that

means I need to go back into my

variables menu in here and I I'm looking

at the second block here I want to

change something by one when I press

button a now when I pull this out just

pop it there for a moment it it goes

this strange color because it's not

inside uh a working block at the moment

but I can still manipulate it here I can

still change it to what I want so I

actually want to change the animal

species on but a so I'm going to switch

that to animal species and I pop it

inside the on button a pressed block so

that means that the microbit will update

the total number of animal

species each time we press button a uh

on the micro bit

itself okay Planet I I got a question

here I I've been following along I've

got the same blocks as you but when I

press button a I just get zero on the

screen even though I keep pressing

button a have I done something wrong not

at all Giles um

I I have the same thing happening on my

mic bit on here so I might be pressing

on my simulator I might press butt a a

couple of times but my screen has not

changed so you have not done anything

wrong you just have not given the

microbit the instructions to do that

part yet okay the micr will only do what

you ask it to do if we want to see the

total on the LED display then we need to

put those instructions in and ask the

microbit to show it to us so let's add a

few more blocks to make that

happen so if we go into to um what are

we going to go we're going to go into

into basic first of all and we're going

to scroll down to the show icon block

okay so this will help us know that when

it shows us data on the LED display it's

talking about animal species data so I'm

going to pop that in here and I'm going

to change the icon from a heart to

something that resembles an animal

species so let's have a look got lots of

pre-prepared icons here right I'm going

to choose the duck so we've got a little

duck icon to to stand for our animal

species right um the next thing I'm

going to do is I'm going to go back into

basic and I'm going to take the show

number block again and I'm going to pop

it in below now this time I don't want

to the show Number Block to show us zero

I want it to show the total number of

animal species on the LED display so

I've got to go back into variables and

find my animal species block the small

one here so I take this out and you can

see how it can slot in over the zero and

replace it so we do that and then our

code will

update okay so now if we test if it's

working on the simulator it should work

this time but actually I've got an idea

to test that Giles so do you remember

this this slide that we looked at

earlier oh yeah was it again how many

times I press a if these were the

animals I'd seen outside oh gosh right

I'm trying to remember again we had

snails and uh that was one species and

then we had two butterflies but that's

only one more species because they're

both both the same species so that's one

more uh we had a bird and we've got a

fly and I've got a worm so I think it

was five different animal species that

we have there correct well done J yes so

on my simulator now I am going to press

a five times and let's see if we can see

something happening and

see yes there we go one two 3

4 five so we've now given the correct

instructions yeah so we can see now that

when we log one it will give us some

feedback on the LED display to know that

it's happened um so if everyone has got

this part coded then that means we are

halfway there

yay

fantastic fantastic so we're halfway

there um and we've told the microb bit

what to do when we press button a when

we're counting animal species but we

haven't yet told it what to do when we

press button B now I wonder if anyone

can remember what are we going to count

when we press but button B can anyone

remember that

I ah right so we've got uh some flowers

we've got a

tree um oh and some more plants oh is it

plant species

Jiles might be plant species that we're

getting when we press button

D so what we want to do is we want to

use button B to to log plant species so

what we can do now is we can dup at or

copy the blocks that we have for button

a I wonder bled could you show us how to

do

that what do you can you just tell us

what you're doing there to get that that

menu to pop up yeah so I've put my

cursor over the entire block on button a

pressed and then I've right clicked and

then I get the menu at duplicate at the

top so you can duplicate that's one way

of doing it or you can just fetch the

blocks again uh from the toolbox in the

middle but just because it's quicker and

easier we're going to show you uh how to

duplicate so if you click on that and

duplicate the block you'll see again

like a bit like it did before the blocks

have gone a funny color uh and that's

because we've got two on button a press

blocks and we can only have one uh set

of instructions for what to do when you

press button a otherwise the microbit

will get really confused so first thing

we need to do is to change button a to

button B okay and then because we're not

counting animal species anymore we need

to change animal species to plant

species and I think it would be a good

idea to show a different picture at this

point not a duck so we'll pick something

else so if you click on that have a look

and pick something there is I think

there's a fork icon that looks a little

bit like a tree that's it that one we

can pick that you can also draw your own

plant icon as well if you like you can

use the show LEDs Block in the basic

category and you can draw your own

picture of an animal or a plant but

we're just going to pick the the fork

icon because it looks a bit like a tree

uh and then I think there's one more

thing we need to change yeah well

spotted bled because at the moment the

code is going to show the animal species

number when we press button B and that

would be wrong so we need to click on

the little arrow on that and change that

to plant

species

perfect thank you Giles I think that's

looking like it should work really well

and we should be able to test out button

B on the simulator now as well um so if

I was outside and these were all the

plants I saw while I was in my

playground how many plant species would

I log how many times do I press button B

oh that's a good question because I can

see lots of flowers there so I might

want to keep clicking uh and click lots

of flowers but I need to think I need to

be really careful about this I think

there are only two species here because

I've got flowers like daisies they look

the same so although there's lots of FL

flowers there that's only one species

that I've spotted and then there's some

Ivy some leaves growing in the middle so

I think here if I saw that when I went

outside I would log two plant species I

would press button B twice fantastic

that is very accurate and correct so I'm

going to do button B twice now on my

simulator and there we go we can see the

plant icon came up and the number came

up each time as well which is exactly

what we've asked it to do using the code

so that's that's fantastic Planet that's

really good but the number just flashes

up what if I can't remember the number

of animal species and plant species is

there a way we can get to see the the

sort of running total without having to

add a new one each time yeah that's a

really good point because I can't

remember now even how many animal

species we'd already logged a few

minutes ago so we definitely need to to

to add that in because we don't want to

get our numbers muddled up so um let's

use the icons again to make it clear

which total is coming up on the LED

display but let's also um use a new

input so we've used button a and we've

used button B to do our actual logging

but now let's use the touch logo on the

front of the microbit as the input to

show us our totals so you'll find that

in the inputs menu and if you scroll

right down past where it says microbit

V2 right down here we get the on Logo

pressed block so if I pull that out now

I'm going to use this as my input now I

said we wanted to use the icons again so

that's the next time we're going next

thing we're going to do we're going to

go to basic we're going to drag out our

show icon pop it in here and I'm going

to change this one to the animal icon

we' selected

earlier and then I want to show my total

to Al number of animal species counted

so if I go back into basic take show

number pop it in and then I find my

variable my animal species variable in

the variables menu pull that out and

that goes on top so that means when you

press the logo the duck icon will will

come up and then the total number of

animal species now I also want to to see

the plant species but I don't want it

all to happen too quickly it needs to be

clear when we read it off the screen and

then when there's numbers that are

two-digit or even three-digit numbers

they will scroll so we need a little bit

of time for the microbit to do its thing

so we're going to leave a small pause so

if I go back into basic and scroll down

find the pause block I'm going to pop

that in and let's pause for two

seconds that shows up as 2,000

milliseconds on the Block and then I'm

going to go back into basic and another

time and I'm going to get the clear

screen block here so that clean the

screen goes completely clear before it

me any of the

plant species data so now I want to show

the plant species data actually I'll

just do one more pause before that so

I'm going to duplicate that block be

doubly sure that the screen clears and

has time to clear now back into basic

take your show icon change that to our

tree like icon here go back into basic

take another show number and this time

in the variables menu I choose plant

species and put it in there so hopefully

that will have given the microbit the

instructions needed for us to see the

totals on the screen when we want to to

recap how many we've counted of each so

shall we try out on the simulator now

Giles I think that sounds like a really

good idea right I'm going to put you to

the test I'm going to show you some

pictures and see if you can count along

and correctly count the species I'm

going to reset my microb bit first just

clear any of the data we've done so far

so you would do that on the real

microbit with the reset button on the

back but I've just pressed this uh

symbol here on the simulator okay test

me fantastic are you ready yes okay here

we go that's a tree so that's a plant

species so that's one plant species so

far oh that's another tree so hang on I

need to have pressed B once but not

again because they're the same species

well done okay let's try one more right

that's a different plant species so I'm

going to press B again that's the second

plant species I've

seen there's our lovely Robin that's a

animal species a bird

okay and I'll give you one more okay

fantastic that's

another animal species so let's see if I

go to my touch logo and I click this now

let's see what

happens animals

to should clear the screen there a

little pause there two fantastic

fantastic well done woohoo so that's it

if you have got this far with us you

have now coded your biodiversity code

along uh biodiversity counter I should

say that you can use outside in your

[Applause]

playground two lots of Applause and

cheering that's marvelous so once you

know the number of the current number of

animal and plant species you could

monitor whether this changes over time

because you could count them again in

the future um you might want to try some

things in your local environment to

improve biodiversity and see if you get

better better numbers next time if you

get a more diverse environment with

different more different kinds of

plants and there's lots of other things

you can do with that data that you go

outside and collect you could present it

in bar charts or other kinds of graphs

tally charts you could share your

findings with other classes in your

school or you could compare your

playground to other outdoor environments

such as Parks or maybe even another

school fabulous so thank you for those

ideas Giles they're really useful we we

have finished coding but there is one

more really important thing to do you

need to transfer the code to your real

life microbit so you can use it to count

biodiversity in your playground outside

or another outside area so what we're

going to do is we're going to um use the

USB cable to plug our mic bits into the

computer or laptop that you've been

using now if you've been using tablets

then obviously there's a different way

to transfer the code um I won't demo

that today but the link that is now

showing on screen will give you all the

different options for how to get code

onto your microbit tablets included so

you can have a look at that instead but

I'll just do a very quick demo of how to

get it on if you're using a laptop or a

tablet or a um sorry a desktop computer

so the small part of the USB cable goes

into the top of the microbit so you can

see there and then I'm going to plug

this

into my um my laptop that I'm using so

I'm plugging it in here the USB end of

it goes in okay now I'm just going to

share my screen before I

plug the rest of it in so one second

stop there I'm going to go

to

this okay now if I do this this way and

I get up my

downloads you will see something appear

in this menu on the left when I plug in

my

microbit so I've plugged it

in keep an eye here Tada the microbit

drive has appeared there because my mic

bit has been plugged in so I know that

it's connected and so now that I've

plugged it in on my make code editor I

need to click on the download button and

follow the instructions on screen

so I click that now download and it's

downloading to my micro bit now if it's

the first time you've downloaded it may

ask you to pair it first but you simply

follow the instructions on screen and it

will then give you the option to

download it if that doesn't work for any

reason there's also a drag and drop

method where if you download the hex

file using the three dots next to the

download button you can click on

download as

file okay that has now gone to my

downloads you can see it here there's

our project that we just made and I can

now drag and drop that on top of my

microbit drive and my microbit will

start flashing on the back so I know

that that's working as well so that's

another way to get it on okay so once

you've got it on there of course the

next thing to do is to plug your battery

pack in unplug it from your uh computer

and then you can take it outside and get

going with love the diversity all around

you in your

environment that's absolutely fantastic

so huge thanks to all of you for joining

our codal along today remember do get in

touch with us by tagging us you can do

that on Twitter or X using microbit edu

be great if you could show how you got

on making your biodiversity counter

today and how you use

them yes thank you to everyone who's

joined in we hope you've had fun coding

your biodiversity counter and uh good

luck investigating biodiversity in your

local

environment bye bye for now

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n

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