The ultimate guide to the BBC Gladiators micro:bit challenge

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Classrooms, ready! micro:bits, ready!

The Gladiators micro:bit competition asked 7 – 11 year olds to invent a gadget to help the Gladiators be their best. The competition closed on the 6th December 2024 and we had some wonderful designs from all around the UK.

Want to get involved? Even though the competition is closed and no longer accepting entries, you can still have fun in the classroom with The Gladiators micro:bit challenge.

The challenge invites 7-to-11-year olds to flex their design & technology muscles with the help of the BBC micro:bit. Teachers can access our lesson plans and resources to bring Gladiators fun to the classroom.

Read on to see the designs from the winning school and runner-ups, and download the free Inventor Workshop resources.

Competition winners

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An illustration of a three part gadget a HIT station, looks like a box with a red button saying HIT, a Grip station that looks like two prongs you can squeeze together and a smart watch — Image caption,
Illustration by an artist of the Pugil Puncher winning entry

Grand Prize Winners, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary

Designed by members of the school coding club, The Pugil Puncher is three micro:bit gadgets in one - testing a Gladiator's pugil-stick swinging power and grip strength, with an evaluation of their training sent to a micro:bit smartwatch.

Design drawn by primary school children showing their gadget which has a micro:bit on a wrist strap, a person holding a pugil stick and a side view of a hit station — Image caption,
Pugel Puncher: Winning entry submitted by pupils from Lady of Lourdes Primary

Notes from the designers

"Our gadget works in two ways; There is one microbit in the watch which measures the impact and speed of a punch and displays the information, this tells the wearer the areas they need to train in order to improve their technique. A second microbit measures the strength of the hit/squeeze using load cells and sends the information back to the watch."

"Someone would put on our microbit watch and punch a marked area on a pad, the microbit would report back how hard you punched on a scale of 1-5000. The wearer would then squeeze the small load cell which would tell them how hard they have gripped."

Runner-up designs

Image of drawn hand wearing fingerless red and yellow glove with micro:bit in the centre and writing to the right of the page. — Image caption,
Explosive Glove: Runners up entry submitted by pupils from Lime Walk Primary School

Explosive Glove from Lime Walk Primary

"It is a bright red and gold glove that fits on Dynamite’s hand or wrist, it can be made of soft foam with a tough plastic top for durability, making it look like a superhero’s glove. The red and gold colours make it feel magical, like Dynamite is building her ultimate power with every punch!"

"It has specific features, like Super Punch Mode and Power Up Timer. When Dynamite punches, the glove senses movement using the micro:bit's accelerometer. The LEDs light up brighter and brighter with each strong punch, like a “power bar” filling up. Like an optional feature, we can add a speaker and if the punch is strong enough, all LEDs flash, and it makes a "BAM!" sound! For the second feature, the Power Up Timer, every time Dynamite puts on the glove, a timer starts. She must punch as fast and hard as possible for 10 seconds and the LED grid shows her score at the end."

“It’s not just training; it’s like having a superpower!”

Master Belt from Bolshaw Primary

"We have designed the Master Belt for those with hearing difficulties or who are deaf. We designed the gadget for Fury. It uses vibrations that tell you when you are on track and to motivate you to get on track (to be faster). You select the activity you are doing from a drop down menu and set a target of how many you want to reach. This could be squats, punches, dodges, burpees etc. Once your target is reached a victory vibration is felt."

"As well as target number you can add a target time. Similar to a beep / bleep / multistage fitness test it vibrates to keep you on track for a target time too. The microbit would be programmed to divide the target number by the target time to work out how many need to be completed."

The Box Beeper from Swanbourne C of E School

"The micro-bit design helps Dynamite with her reaction time. There are 3 individual boxes (which would be 20cm by 20cm) with a micro-bit on each one that Dynamite will have to press when it beeps and flashes green. She will have 5 seconds to press the box which is lit up, which then resets the time for another box to beep and light up. After 10 successful micro-bit taps in a row, it will go onto Level 2 which gives Dynamite only 4 seconds and after another 10 taps in a row it will go down to 3 seconds and so on. There are five levels in total."

"On top of the middle box would be another micro-bit that would measure how many she taps she has managed to do in a row. It will also time how long it takes for her to complete each level as well as how long it takes for her to complete the whole thing (all five levels), so she has a target to beat for next time."

Gladiators Inventor Workshop

Technology is used in many ways to improve fitness and wellbeing - if you could design a machine or gadget to improve a Gladiator's performance, what would it look like? What would it do?

Find below our printable lesson plans to help guide a class through the research, technical drawing and iteration stages of design.