Skip to main content

Bamzooki - Creators Not Consumers

I spent some time over the weekend playing around with one of my favourite pieces of software - Bamzooki. Originally created for the CBBC TV programme of the same name, the Bamzooki software allows a user to create 'Zooks'. These are digital 3D creatures that are built using a variety of blocks which can be modelled to your specification and then tested for speed, strength and agile in a variety of simulations. In my opinion an excellent tool for supporting the area of the ICT curriculum focussed on modelling and simulation. So many opportunities for a teacher to ask the "What if...?" questions, changing of variables in the model, and challenging pupils to solve problems. For instance, several years ago when I ran the "Bamzooki Challenge" across the local authority, the challenge for the pupils involved was to create a 'Zook' with certain constraints  - mustn't be heavier than this, have more parts than this, etc. The pupils then created their model which was then placed in a 'battle' against another to see which one was the best. A sort of virtual 'Robot Wars'.




I've started looking at Bamzooki again as I'm interested in seeing how primary schools could be addressing the area of modelling and simulation in the classroom. We know from Estyn (school inspectorate), that many primary schools are not covering the area of 'Finding and Analysing' adequately, with teachers having difficulty in confidently teaching data bases, data handling, and modelling and simulation. With the current focus in Wales on what it means for a pupils to be "digitally competent" or "digitally literate", it is important that the weakness in these area is addressed. Exciting, engaging and challenging tools such as Bamzooki could be one way to help to address this.

In about 2011 I stopped doing much with it as the software didn't seem to work on the version of the Windows operating system that the majority of our schools were using. Over the weekend however I downloaded the software and have successfully installed it on Windows 7. I've even tried it out on Windows 8 and it seems to be working without a problem. Interestingly the software has seemed to have had an update to its interface since the last time I've used too.



Bamzooki very much fits into the current drive for pupils to be creators, not consumers. The user has to design, build and test their 'Zook', which is challenging, but very engaging. As I said in a previous post, I class this product as "struggleware", nothing is really given on a plate to the user. They have to work out what they should do and solve the problems and challenges that may arise. Bamzooki is not all shiny and glossy; it does not work on your iPad. Yes it's been around for nearly ten years, but if you really want to challenge your pupils, get them thinking and problem solving in a 3D modelling environment, in my opinion you still can't go far wrong with trying this out with your pupils.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Defining Digital Competence

In a couple of previous posts I looked at what was meant by the term digital literacy and what this could mean in the Welsh education context. These were written in response to a recommendation from the ICT Steering Group report , proposing a new statutory Digital Literacy Framework for schools. I attempted to define what digital literacy meant using definitions from groups such as The Royal Society, Becta, Futurelab , Jisc and Common Sense Media. It was very difficult to pin down exactly what it meant but there were certainly commonalities between all of them. This week however, Prof. Graham Donaldson published his report on the curriculum and assessment in Wales, "Successful Futures" , and in it referred not to digital literacy , but to digital competence (which is a term I'm far happier using).  I therefore feel it's important for me to try in this post to understand what is meant by this term, look at some definitions and find out if there are any differences ...
2 comments
Read more

Digital Literacy: The Context for Wales & Definitions

At a time when England have introduced digital literacy elements to their new Computing PoS, and with the recommendations from the ICT Steering Group report for a digital literacy framework alongside the new subject of Computing, I’ve been attempting to look closely into what exactly is meant by the term ‘digital literacy’, and ultimately what this could mean for primary and secondary schools in Wales. I intend to put together a series of blogs on the topic, mainly as a way to help me with my understanding around some of the current thinking in this field, but hopefully it will still be of interest to teachers and others. I'd welcome any of your thoughts or comments on this topic. The Context In June 2012, Leighton Andrews, the then Minister for Education and Skills, announced “an additional £3m of funding over the next three years to support a range of measures to improve computer science, digital literacy and ICT in schools and colleges across Wales.” This announcement came ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Digital Learning Den

Gareth Morgan Consultancy has now been going for nearly 7 years, providing advice, support and training to primary schools across Wales. Where did that time go? Throughout those years, I've always had an ICT skills ladder that I've offered to schools. It's been updated continually throughout those years with quite a change in focus when the Digital Competence Framework (DCF) was introduced and with the ubiquitous use of Hwb and its related cloud based applications and digital resources. Initially this skills ladder was paper based and at one stage I had four versions of it as the example activities were focused around specific applications e.g., Google for Education / Purple Mash or Microsoft 365 / Just2easy. The problem I found was keeping these documents up to date. Applications would change or I would have new ideas or web-links would die or change.  So a couple years ago I moved everything online and created The Digital Den. Schools could buy into the platform for a ye...
Post a Comment
Read more