Raspberry Pi in Education

Latest news from the Raspberry Pi Foundation Education Team

The summer holidays are on their way here in the UK, which means that the team is out and about making the most of the time to help run and support workshops for children and teachers. The Sonic Pi competition winner workshops led by Sam Aaron and artists Juneau Projects are touring the nine winning schools across the UK, and they're proving to be a big hit. The Astro Pi competition phase 1 winners have also been receiving their school workshops with our very own Dave Honess. We've also been running back-to-back Picademy teacher training events in York, Exeter and Leeds. If you want to take part in any of our programs, don't worry; there is still time. We have lots of announcements for ways in which you can take part in training courses or workshops, so keep reading!

Garden Robot Workshop for Teachers

Our creative producer Rachel Rayns and our Education Developer Advocate Ben Nuttall have been working on a gardening robot project kit that can be used with a Raspberry Pi. We are making 100 kits available to members of the public. You can get your hands on one by joining the Raspberry Pi Foundation Team at FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in Liverpool for a spot of robot gardening!

As part of the workshop, you will be introduced to Liverpool-based bio-scientists and grow-your-own enthusiasts Farm Urban, who will talk about the importance of growing plants in the city. They’ll start right away by helping you to plant your seedling! In the second part of the session, you will build your Plant Pot Robot and set up your Raspberry Pi with Rachel, followed by a Python programming workshop with Ben Nuttall. Teachers will also have Clive Beale to advise on how you could use the robot in the classroom.

On top of all this, we’ll also help you set up the Raspberry Pi Camera Module to take time-lapse photos of your plant growing!

Once you’ve taken your robot home and let the plant grow for a while, we invite everyone back on 22 August 2015 to find out how to use the data to produce creative graphs and charts at our Data Visualisation workshop led by Ben.

Teacher Workshops

24th & 25th (evenings) June 2015 – teacher’s workshop at FACT Liverpool
Suitable for Primary and Secondary. Please contact louise.latter@fact.co.uk to take part.

Public Workshops

The public workshops are open to adult/child partners: you must have someone over 18 years old and someone under 18 years old in your partnership.

28 June 2015 – Public workshop – FACT, Liverpool UK
11 July 2015 – Public workshop – FACT, Liverpool UK
22 August 2015 – Everyone is invited back for a Data Visualisation workshop with the data they’ve collected.

Picademy USA

This month, our US Product Evangelist, Matt Richardson, and Kate McGregor from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View California, were at the White House for a very special announcement. In response to President Obama’s call to action to create a Nation of Makers, we are excited to announce that we are taking our professional development training course for educators to the USA next year! Since a major focus of this call to action is in the realm of STEM education, it was a natural fit for Picademy to be our commitment to supporting efforts to use computers in the classroom for tinkering, coding, and project-based learning.

We're piloting Picademy USA with four sessions starting in early 2016. Our goal is to give 100 US-based educators free, hands-on experience with Raspberry Pi and induct them into a growing group of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators worldwide. The first Picademy in the US will take place at the Computer History Museum. Exact dates and locations for the workshops are being confirmed.

To express interest in an upcoming Picademy, please complete this form. It will help us get a sense of where in the US there’s demand for professional development and you’ll be signed up to receive updates when venues and dates are confirmed.

Picademy Bytes

Picademy courses typically last two days, and are packed full of ways in which Raspberry Pi can be used in the classroom. At the end of day two we give certificates to every teacher who attends after they plan, create and share their Pi project idea with the rest of the group. Our network of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators can be found supporting and championing Raspberry Jam events or coding evenings in their own regions, as well as authoring free teaching resources.

We understand that not every teacher can make it to a two-day Picademy, and the thought of becoming a Certified Educator might be a little daunting. So thanks to the support of Google.org, we have created Picademy Bytes: two-hour twilight workshops for educators. The workshops will start at Google's Digital Garage in Leeds, UK. Our highly renowned community members and educators will lead one-off workshops of getting started with Raspberry Pi in the classroom, and physical computing. You do not need to apply for a place on Picademy Bytes; you can claim your free ticket below:

Future dates will be added, so keep checking the Picademy@Google page on our website.

Pi in Philadelphia

Members of the Raspberry Pi Education Team will be visiting and speaking in Philadelphia, USA later this month. James Robinson and I will be attending the ISTE Conference from 28th June - 1st July and speaking at Tomorrow's Classrooms Today Conference on 26th June. We will be easy to identify by our Raspberry Pi t-shirts and lab coats, so do come and start a conversation with us.

Keep on computing!

Carrie Anne
Education Pioneer
Raspberry Pi Foundation
@MissPhilbin

Free computing training
in Leeds thanks to a
little help from our friends at Google.org
You can sign up
for Picademy@Google
events and Picademy Bytes twilight sessions today.

This year’s EuroPython
conference takes place in July in Bilbao, Spain. Join the Raspberry Pi Foundation, who will be running an Education Summit, in partnership with the EuroPython Society.

Looking to learn more about Pi and share your experiences? Check out the growing Raspberry Jam events in your area and JamPacked days taking place across the UK.