Statistics Help Us to Find Out Our Needs

Applying the skills developed in the classroom in a close environment is one of the most important things carrying out a project with our students. Using the microcontroller micro:bit, our work focuses on improving the bike lane next to our school according to the results of a statistical analysis carried out with the educational community on the use and needs of the bicycle lane.

Supplies

To develop this activity you will need to work the main concepts about statistics and the necessary document to collect the results obtained with a survey.

To make the proposed model you will need:

Several micro:bit.
Traffic light
Colored cardboard
Glue
Lego blocks (optional)
Any other decorative material

Step 1: Organizing the Work

The methodology used in this project is an inquiry-based learning level II, a structured inquiry: the teacher provides the initial question and an outline of the procedure. Students are to formulate explanations of their findings through evaluating and analyzing the data that they collect and they have to create a model to expose the solution. In order to develop the class sessions, the students will use a worksheet collections to complete all the tasks in which the project is divided.

The students have been working in groups of 4 or 5 people and they have had different professional profiles in order to distribute the work effectively: data analyst, programmer, engineer, project leader and press officer. Each of these profiles has a special skill to perform the different tasks included in the project.

It is also important to highlight that the project is included in a Citizen Science methodological approach. This is due to the fact that they have been able to develop an educational experience in the STEAM field to give solutions to a need of society. They are the precursors of a necessary change and those who have designed a possible solution, improving their city, their quality of life and giving a solution to the needs of their local environment.

Following, several tasks and steps are described to organize the development of the project.

Step 2: Distribution of Roles and Explanation of the Project

This task serves to introduce the topic and to give the students the possibility to plan a possible improvement of the bike lane based on the problematic situation. This task is also designed for the working group to distribute the different professional profiles within their team.

To control the job carried out, they must make a written description of the main objective of the project and the way they are going to develop it.

Step 3: Survey Design and Model Design

This task is planned so that each component of the group works in the best possible way: some components are dedicated to the design of the survey and others to the design of the model.

When the groups have thought of possible questions to ask in the surveys, all groups are brought

together to create a unique questionnaire to carry out the surveys. Thus, all the data can be analysed as a whole and not independently for each group. The aim of this approach is to make them see the importance of collaboration in order to obtain good results.

On the other hand, each group made a proposal for their model specifying the material needed. Afterwards, they shared their proposals with each other in order to amend possible failures or implement any needed improvements.

Step 4: Coding Micro:bit

To learn how to program micro:bit, students work on several activities designed to learn the necessary

components to complete the signaling of the bike lane: led panel, radio communication and use of pins.

The activities proposed are designed to complete the sensor and the connection between two micro:bit in the classroom to display the light signal.

microbit-Task.hex
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Step 5: Analyzing the Data

To address the statistical work, this task is designed to write as a percentage the results obtained for each of the survey questions. With these results, they make a graphical representation using pie charts and bar graphs.

Finally, using information about the use of the bicycle in our city, they carry out a series of activities to tackle other statistical calculations such as the mode or the average.