Classroom tool puts power of coding and engineering design into hands of students

Texas Instruments has launched the TI-Innovator Hub with TI LaunchPad Board, a classroom tool that introduces students to coding and engineering design to prepare them for the jobs of the future. Most educators and experts agree coding is a skill so important that every student needs to know the basics to excel in a rapidly changing world. Coding classroom activities enjoy a growing interest in several European countries such as France, UK and the Netherlands, which are working to implement them into their maths and science curriculum. The Hub, a palm-sized box with a built-in microcontroller, plugs into the graphing calculator many secondary school students already own, a TI-84 Plus CET or a TI-Nspire CX and TI-Nspire CX CAS, and allows them to analyze and explain the world around them. It was created using the TI LaunchPad Board, the same technology used by leading engineers around the world to design cutting-edge products from smart watches to 3D printers. For example, students can start by learning to write a program to play a single note, and then put together sounds at different frequencies to play a song. “The TI-Innovator System is a unique resource which taps into students’ natural curiosity to help them learn how to use coding, maths, science, and engineering design principles to analyse and explain the world around them,” said Alexandre Titin-Snaider, director of TI Education Technology for Europe. “Coding has become one of the essential literacies in the 21st century education and there is a growing demand now for teaching students how to code. The TI-Innovator allows students to get hands-on with technology and not even realize they are learning important STEM principles, like coding, that they need to be successful in the classroom today, in college tomorrow and in their careers in the future”. “The TI-Innovator replaces complicated electronic circuit construction with a few lines of simple computer code,” said Ian Galloway, an international education consultant and former physics teacher from the UK. “Students can explore the real world using feedback and control by connecting their graphing calculator to the Innovator and using 10 minutes of code. The power of having control over lights, speakers and motors is both stimulating and motivating and can be accessed by all students using the TI Innovator.”