Caesar Cypher Wheels and Edison Robots - a day of encryption and coding for Year 5

On Wednesday, fourteen of our Year 5 girls participated in a 'British Science Week Technology Showcase Visit' hosted by the BT Schools Engagement Team at their headquarters in Martlesham Heath, Suffolk. The day consisted of a carousel of activities introducing the girls to various aspects of physical computing and associated technologies, as well as an opportunity to visit the 'BT Future Technologies Showcases', which are not open to the public.

The girls learnt how to code Edison Robots to accomplish a variety of complex movement and detection tasks, and coded Micro:Bits to generate random numbers, measure temperature, send and receive messages via Bluetooth and play music!  They also learnt about encryption techniques using Caesar Cypher Wheels and about different types of satellites, their orbits and uses. During the Showcase Tour they visited a home and a shop of the future; met Baxter the industrial robot; explored a fully immersive and interactive learning space; learnt about fibre-optic technology; met Harriet, a holographic shop assistant, and explored the possible future uses of 3D printing, smart monitoring systems and drones.

The girls were complemented by the staff and volunteers manning the various activities for their coding skills, intelligent questions and the high levels of interest and enthusiasm that they displayed throughout the visit.  

One of the BT volunteers was even heard to say to her colleague: 

"These girls are better at robot coding than I am!"

A gallery of photographs from the day is available here.