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Under the policy of “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation”, the development of maker education is currently booming in China. Since its development relies on the support of open-source hardware, it is essential to have hardware for practical maker exercises and presentations to cultivate students’ innovation and hands-on abilities; thus, open-source hardware is gradually entering the classrooms of primary and secondary school students. However, some teachers and students, due to their initial exposure to hardware, may find it challenging to choose from the many control boards available on the market when engaging in maker practices. Today, we will compare the three major control boards currently popular on the market: micro:bit, Arduino, and Smart Control Board, to see the differences between them and their basic onboard functions.
micro:bit
micro:bit is a microcontroller designed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to promote programming education for young people worldwide, developed in collaboration with partners such as Microsoft, Samsung, ARM, and Lancaster University in the UK.
Recommended Audience:
Primary and Junior High School
Processor:
ARM Cortex-M0
Size:
43*52mm
Memory Capacity:
RAM: 16 KB
Flash: 256 KB
Supported Languages:
Scratch 3.0 (Graphical Programming)
Mind+ (Graphical Programming)
microPython
JavaScript
I/O Ports:
Digital I/O Pins: 19
Analog Input Pins: 6
Communication Features:
Low Energy Bluetooth 4.1
2.4GHz Wireless Communication Broadcast
Onboard Features:
2 Buttons, 3 Touch Inputs
Accelerometer, Magnetometer,
Light Sensor, 5*5 LED Matrix, Temperature Sensor
Beginner Level:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Practicality:⭐⭐
Expandability:⭐⭐
Community Ecosystem:⭐⭐⭐
Features
① The compact design of micro:bit is loved by children, and its unique wireless broadcasting feature facilitates team game design in classrooms.
② Due to software limitations, the Bluetooth function of micro:bit occupies a large amount of memory, making project expansion extremely limited.
③ The community ecosystem for micro:bit is gradually being established both domestically and internationally.
Smart Control Board
The Smart Control Board is a microcontroller designed by the Domestic Maker Education Expert Committee to meet the needs of programming education and artificial intelligence education for primary and secondary students. Its performance advantages can broaden the user base and establish a teaching connection from primary school to high school.
Recommended Audience:
Primary, Junior High, and High School
Processor:
ESP32 (Tensilica LX6)
Size:
52*48mm
Memory Capacity:
SRAM: 520KB
Flash: 8MB
Supported Languages:
Mind+ (Graphical Programming)
microPython
I/O Ports:
Digital I/O Pins: 20
Analog Input Pins: 5
PWM Pins: 12
Communication Features:
Low Energy Bluetooth 4.2
Supports Wireless WiFi
Onboard Features:
2 Buttons, 6 Touch Inputs,
3-axis Accelerometer
Light Sensor,3 RGB LEDs
1.3-inch OLED Display
Passive Buzzer, Microphone
Beginner Level:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Practicality:⭐⭐⭐
Expandability:⭐⭐⭐
Community Ecosystem:⭐⭐
Features
① Compared to micro:bit, the Smart Control Board has greatly improved performance and can use Bluetooth and WiFi features to meet the teaching needs of high school students.
② Due to the limitations of the board’s form factor, it is not easy to use for project creation.
The ecosystem for the Smart Control Board has not yet been fully established, and the available hardware and community content for expansion are still limited.
Arduino UNO
Arduino is a globally renowned open-source hardware brand that has sparked a wave of open-source hardware and maker culture worldwide. Arduino has dozens of control boards to meet various creative needs in different scenarios. Arduino UNO is the “classic model” of the Arduino series.
Recommended Audience:
Junior High and High School
Processor:
ATmega328P
Size:
53*69mm
Memory Capacity:
SRAM: 2KB
Flash: 32 KB
Supported Languages:
Scratch 3.0 (Graphical Programming)
Mind+ (Graphical Programming)
C/C++ Language
I/O Ports:
Digital I/O Pins: 14
Analog Input Pins: 6
PWM Pins: 6
Communication Features:
No onboard features
(requires external expansion boards)
Onboard Features:
LED Lights
Beginner Level:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Practicality:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Expandability:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Community Ecosystem:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features
① The global Arduino open-source community is already very rich and has accumulated a large number of peripheral content and hardware ecosystems suitable for various project development and production.
② Arduino has no onboard sensors, making it unsuitable for large class teaching for younger age groups.
Arduino has hundreds of expansion boards and sensor peripherals that are often used in practical applications in the industry.
Learn more related knowledge!
DF Maker Community
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The purpose of education is to cultivate students’ collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity skills, with creativity being the core. As one of the few one-stop maker education service providers in China, Mushroom Cloud Maker Education aims to cultivate children’s creativity.
To better connect the knowledge students learn in class with the real world, Mushroom Cloud will guide schools in planning, establishing, and operating their maker spaces, and will differentiate design and layout based on students’ age groups.
Primary Maker Spaces focus on fun,
emphasizing interactive scenarios;
Junior High Maker Spaces focus on practicality,
emphasizing learning scenarios;
High School Maker Spaces focus on technology,
emphasizing application scenarios;
In terms of content, Mushroom Cloud collaborates with leading maker teachers in China to compile a series of textbooks suitable for domestic maker education. It also has a complete maker education curriculum system, including course content and teaching aids, course training, and technical Q&A. Similarly, there will be differences in course classification and design based on students’ age groups.
Primary education is conducted through gamification and experiential learning, focusing on “learning through play”.
Junior High guides students to engage in inquiry-based learning through hands-on practice, promoting “learning through doing”.
High School focuses on problem and design-based learning, requiring teachers to create relevant real-life scenarios for students to learn through “thinking”.
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