• What is it used for? Can it be used for other things in a classroom setting?

Servos are small motors; they can rotate 180 degrees either via controls or automatically. At the base level, the Servo can be used to show angles, direction, or point to something. When used as a tool, the Servo can be used to learn about angles and bearings, or to create a ‘meter’ robot that could measure voltage, moisture, or any other meter constructed from the other Microbit tools.

With more time, I would experiment with combining these tools and making a functioning ‘meter’. This could measure temperature, volume, or any other variable.  For practice, I learned to control the Servo with the A and B buttons, ensuring the angle variable doesn’t increase past the point that the Servo can turn. In other words, if the Servo motor hit its angle limit and I wanted to turn it back the other way, it had to turn immediately. After some trial and error, I found an operation using a while loop to make this possible. My background knowledge in programming helped me construct the logical sequence required for my idea,

• Can you think of any other meaningful ways micro:bits can be used in previous and/or current classes you have taken?

While the Servo only has 180 degrees of motion, it would have been an interesting tool to use in Math 10 when we learned about degrees and bearings a couple of months ago. While it would be some extra work to get the Servo to function, as a demonstration tool, the Servo could turn on commands, and if all the calculations were correct, it would point to the direction of the answer. This could be an excellent way to show a student’s learning and ability to calculate bearings.

In my opinion, the Servo motor could be used to its full potential when combined on a motherboard with other Microbit tools. It can be used to visualize the data collected from them. Instead of just using the LED’s to write out numbers, which could take long to display, the Servo could be used to point to a value on a scale. Some radio communication would have to be used between two Servos, but this definitely isn’t an infeasible task.