.NET Gadgeteer at Birmingham TechFest 2012

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Birmingham Techfest took place on Saturday 16th of June 2012. The event have over 1800 registered visitors.

“Youngsters love gadgets. So wouldn’t it be great if they could build their own, and at school? This is exactly what more than 166 students, ages 7 to 24, did  using .NET Gadgeteer. at TechFest,

The .NET Gadgeteer pilot project aligns with the UK’s commitment to prioritize computer science education in schools, as spelled out by the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, in his speech at the BETT Show (see School ICT to be replaced by computer science programme) and will be a key part in the AQA GCSE Computer Science course starting in Sept 2012.

We look forward to more schools, colleges, and universities utilizing .NET Gadgeteer to unleash their students’ creativity and enthusiasm in technology in the UK, and beyond. Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche, Program Manager, Microsoft Research Connections EMEA, and Steve Hodges, Principal Hardware Engineer, Microsoft Research Cambridge

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We had over 166 students attend the Gadgeteer workshop sessions which took place throughout the day in all we ran 6 x 40 min sessions demonstrating hands on how to Build a Digital Camera with .NET Gadgeteer.

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We had some excellent feedback from attendees including the Executive Dean of Birmingham City University Professor Melvyn Lees who attend one of the sessions ‘In the School of Computing, Telecommunications at BCU, we are proud of our longstanding partnerships with companies such as Microsoft who provide valuable up to date resources that equip of students with the knowledge and skills providing better employment prospects upon graduation’.

Resources

Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is an open-source toolkit for building small electronic devices using the .NET Micro Framework and Visual Studio/Visual C# Express.
Build all manner of electronic gadgets quickly and easily with .NET Gadgeteer! LEARN HOW TO GET STARTED

Curricula Resources

Teaching Material for .NET Gadgeteer in School
.NET Gadgeteer can be used in schools to help students make gadgets and learn C# programming along the way. These lesson plans give teachers all the material needed to run 8 1-hour sessions using .NET Gadgeteer, including session plans, student handouts and PowerPoint presentations.