Book Review: Crumble Creations by Phil Bagge

I had the pleasure of receiving Phil Bagge’s new book: Crumble Creations this week and it is goooooood!

Having recently purchased Redfern Electronic’s Crumble micro controllers for my current school and introduced physical computing, I can totally recommend this book as the perfect starting place. It’s packed with detailed explanation and introduction to the crumble and its many components (old and new editions), plus a wealth of photocopiable lesson plans, worksheets, templates as well as photographs and wiring diagrams.

Phil captures pupils’ imagination through the book’s projects by invoking exploration and investigation; giving just enough away to scaffold their learning, whilst challenging pupils to find creative ways to problem solve. Examples of code (including the notorious servo block issues!) are included for teachers. He does not provide code for children to simply copy, but instead reveals on challenge cards/ worksheets parts of code for pupils to complete, building on their existing coding knowledge.

One of Phil’s strengths is his pseudo code ideas; encouraging learning through role play to consolidate further the importance of computational thinking. There are some great photocopiable pages of pseudo code ideas; one of the many resources in this book that teachers can literally pick up and run with straight away.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any primary teacher, even if you don’t yet have the equipment in school yet!