Computer Science as a subject in mainstream UK secondary education is in a pretty sorry state [1,2,3] but it’s not all doom and gloom. While many long suffering school children are being force-fed a nauseating diet of Excel, PowerPoint and Access others are enjoying a nutritious platter of Raspberry Pi, Hack to the Future and Animated fun.
Here’s a brief report on one of these tasty appetisers: Animation 2012, a UK schools animation competition now in its fifth year.
The day kicked off with prizes being awarded for the animation competition. To get a flavour of the creativity and skill involved, you can see winning examples online.
Following the prize giving there was a carousel of activities which included:
- Jon Howard from the BBC provided a tour of game design, development and production using games such as Tree Fu Tom, Barkmania, Dick and Dom Let Rip and Tracy Beaker Party from CBBC and CBeebies.
- Lee Stott guided users through the creation of a digital camera using Microsoft.NET Gadgeteer an open-source toolkit for building small electronic devices using the .NET Micro Framework.
- Paolo Masci and Sinan Halilbeyoglu demonstrated some of the latest computing research using CS4FN magic and illusions
- Peter Sutton and Lloyd Henning showed how Artificially Intelligent computers can learn to do seemingly complex tasks with hands-on musical demonstrations.
- Samantha Bail demonstrated augmented reality, combining computer-generated imagery (CGI) and video in real-time to make the world around us appear to include strange objects
- John Pinkney and Colin Talbot provided a glimpse of the future with Lego Mindstorms and NAO social humanoid robots from Aldebaran Robotics
- Xin Bao demonstrated 3D computer graphics.
- Tom MacPherson-Pope and Tom Preston showed what is possible with the new Raspberry Pi, a computer that only costs about £20. They demonstrated Pi-Face an extension developed by Andrew Robinson which allows customisation of the basic Rapsberry Pi.
- Arturs Bekasovs demonstrated how to create fractal shapes, a fascinating class of geometrical shapes which are extremely easy to describe and yet can be incredibly complicated.
- Jonathan Heathcote demonstrated 3D printing with his own creation for making remarkable shapes out of plastic, many of which come from the thingiverse: digital designs for physical objects
- John Latham demonstrated The Baby, one of the first computers ever made.
- Steve Pettifer closed the proceedings with a talk looking behind the scenes of some the technology, psychology and magic of modern games.
Animation 2012 was great fun for all involved, congratulations to all this years winners, hope to see you again next year. There were 526 Schools involved from across the UK, with 914 entries. 58 students were involved in the 35 winning entries from 31 different schools. Thanks to Toby Howard, all the organisers, supporters (Google, Electronic Arts and NESTA) and associates (Computing at School, CS4FN and BAFTA young game designers) for putting on an impressive show.
References
- Steve Furber et al (2012). Computing in Schools: Shut down or restart? Royal Society Report
- James Robinson (2011). Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, condemns British education system: criticising division between science and arts, The Guardian
- Keith Stuart (2011). Michael Gove admits schools should teach computer science: education secretary recognises the failings of ICT courses, The Guardian
O'Really? 