“Systems and Control in Schools” was the focus of a constructive sharing session that took place on 6th January at Engineering UK, London. During the session, which was organised by Andy Mitchell, Assistant Chief Executive of the Design and Technology Association (D&T Association) and External Examiner in T&D for both St Mary's and Stranmillis University Colleges, colleagues from Northern Ireland and England discussed the challenges of teaching “systems and control” in schools and agreed to work together in developing and trialling new resources for teachers.

Kieran McGeown, Course Team Leader for Technology and Design at St Mary's University College Belfast, was interested in determining how the resources might be used effectively within STEM education in Northern Ireland. Dr Michael Ievers from Stranmillis University College Belfast highlighted the need for projects to encourage the development of entrepreneurial skills.

It is envisaged that McGeown and Ievers will work closely on the Northern Ireland pilot for the “Crumble” project (see below).

Mitchell described changes to the national curriculum in England, which will come into effect this September and will require 7-11 year olds to “apply their understanding of computing to program, monitor and control their products”; 11-14 year olds will be expected “to apply computing and use electronics to embed intelligence in products that respond to inputs (for example, sensors), and control outputs (for example, actuators), using programmable components (for example, microcontrollers)”.

While it is likely that some schools in England will struggle to meet the requirements of the new curriculum, resources are available that will provide a good starting point for both experienced and new teachers. Peter Stensel, design manager at Mindsets Ltd, (a subsidiary company of Middlesex University), highlighted the IQ controller, an affordable, sequential control board originally developed by the Technology Enhancement Programme (TEP). The board, now in its fourth iteration, will control two outputs (with reversing capability) and will accommodate an analogue input. According to Paul Boyd, Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at Nottingham Trent University, one reason for the popularity of the IQ controller is the ability to program the board without needing a computer.

A new product, designed to sit alongside the IQ controller and offer progression for more advanced projects, is currently being developed by Joseph Birks of Redfern Electronics. Named “Crumble”, this new inexpensive controller will be easy to program using a graphical interface inspired by Scratch Software and will be capable of handling some advanced control tasks. The first batch of Crumbles will be ready by the end of March and will be trialled by students in both Northern Ireland and England later this year.