The Kookaberry is brought to you by the AustSTEM Foundation
Making STEM easy to teach and learn.
What is the Kookaberry?
The Kookaberry is a digital educational tool, designed and made in Australia, that can be used across all subjects in every Australian classroom. It sits between the Raspberry Pi and micro:bit in both functionality and price.
It is simple to use, requires no coding experience, Internet or WiFi, and engages both students and educators directly with STEM subjects.
It brings the Internet of Things and real-world data into project-based learning throughout the curriculum.
It makes data accessible......
Use across the curriculum
Current technology education tools are difficult to use outside of the technology classroom or maker spaces due to the time to set up; complicated connections; and the need to code them to achieve their intended purpose.
The Kookaberry overcomes these issues. and demonstrates how easy it is to understand the underlying technology and coding involved.
Current lesson plans and apps have been gathered into Tutorials relevant to a given subject. The first such Tutorial is for Music
It's all about data
The Kookaberry can measure, display, and store continuously changing real world data both inside and outside the classroom.
Instant data that will make Science, Mathematics and many other subjects exciting and relevant to the real world
Data can be transmitted from multiple Kookaberries using different sensors to a teacher's Kookaberry over their packet radios for analysis and display as a single Excel file.
Living in the digital world
The Kookaberry is a digital system like the digital systems that send a signal to the driver if their car is too close to the car in front; or a burglar alarm.....
When used in combination with its lesson plans, apps, peripherals, and projects, the Kookaberry brings the Internet of Things and real world of data alive in the classroom.
ACARA Technologies Curriculum
Supporting the curriculum
The Kookaberry supports teachers in delivering national and state science and technologies education outcomes.
NSW Science & Technology Syllabus
Integrated learning
Digital systems are now a part of everyday life, and every subject that is taught can benefit from using at least some of the technology that we take for granted outside of the classroom.
The Kookaberry' ability to quickly turn itself into many different tools makes it easy to use in subjects across the curriculum.
STEM progression and mentoring
The Kookaberry learning platform can be seen as a bridge seamlessly connecting primary and secondary STEM teaching and learning.
Students in Stage 5 (years 9 and 10), can give purpose to their practical technology studies by designing Kookaberry apps and projects for students in Stages 2 and 3 (years 3 to 6) and then mentoring them in their use.
Made in Australia to support the Australian Curriculum
The Kookaberry has been designed, developed, and is being made in Australia
How to obtain a Kookaberry
A very limited supply of Kookaberries will be made available at a price to cover our costs for classroom trials in Term 3, 2020.
If you wish your school to be an early adopter of this exciting new Australian educational tool, click on the button below to book your place in the order book.
Learning plans
Learning plans include everything that can contribute to the use of a Kookaberry for teaching and learning. Contributions by users will be both welcome and helpful to others.
They can be lesson plans; units of work; tutorials; experiments; workshops; projects or anything else considered useful by a contributor.
They will be mapped to curriculum outcomes and can be searched by Type, Learning Area and Year.
Apps
Pre-programmed applications (apps) ensure that relevant data, measurements, or specific activities such as servo or pump controls, are available as soon as an app is selected; peripherals are connected; and the app is run.
They are mapped to both Learning Plans and Peripherals, and can be searched by Category (Energy; Motion; Fun/Games; etc).
Contributions by users will be both welcome and helpful to others.
Peripherals
Plug-and-play peripherals include input devices such as sensors, keyboards, push buttons, potentiometers, and switches; and output devices such as loudspeakers, buzzers, servos, pumps, heaters, and relays.
They are mapped against Apps and can be searched by Output Type (analogue or digital); Type (Climate; Motion; Temperature; etc); Voltage; and Brand.
Software
The software needed to run the apps can be downloaded directly from the specific app pages, or from the Software Downloads page which also contains the latest App and File register and instructions for downloading the KookaIDE.
A Blockly graphical editing interface is coming soon.
Read the article featured in the Warren Centre's magazine, The Prototype:
Kookaberry: Shaping the Future of STEM
Professional learning
The Kookaberry is an educational tool intended to shape the culture surrounding the implementation and use of technology across the curriculum.
Professional learning will be provided prior to Kookaberries being used in a classroom.
Learn more about professional learning with the Kookaberry →
Technology equity
The Kookaberry is inexpensive and independent of WiFi and the internet
Classrooms in very remote, remote, and outer regional Australia will have access to the same technology and support that inner regional and major cities currently enjoy.
The AustSTEM Foundation
The AustSTEM Foundation is a not-for-profit charity whose long term aim is to increase the number of students electing to study higher level STEM subjects from Year 9 onwards.
AustSTEM is funding the development of the Kookaberry digital learning platform.
