Raspberry Pi in Education

Latest news from the Raspberry Pi Foundation Education Team

This month, we are very excited to announce two new out-of-this-world coding competitions as part of British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake's Principia mission. We have tips on how to inspire the next generation by running a Code Club in your part of the world, and the education team's newest member, Oliver Quinlan, reports on meeting educators and more at the Bett Show.

Send your computer code into space with astronaut Tim Peake

Mission Update

Last year, leading UK space organisations joined forces with British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake and the Raspberry Pi Foundation to offer students a chance to code their own computer science experiments to be run in space. Two augmented Raspberry Pi computers, called Astro Pis, have been flown to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Tim's mission. They are each equipped with different cameras and a range of sensors that the students can use in a wide variety of experiments. Because the Astro Pi hardware is available to students, they have a unique opportunity to work with the same equipment that Tim Peake is using on the ISS.

Picture of Astro Pi 'Ed' taken by British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake
on board the International Space Station

Seven winning programs, now part of the Astro Pi payload, blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on December 6th last year. The students' projects are incredibly creative, ranging from fun reaction-time games to real science experiments, such as looking at radiation in space. Find out about the winners and their experiments here. Tim Peake deployed the first Astro Pi in the ISS Columbus laboratory on the 2nd of February and it's been running student code for about two weeks. The second Astro Pi was deployed on February 16th in the Harmony Node 2 module and is running Earth observation experiments, looking through the nadir hatch window.

New competitions

After the success of the first competition, Tim is now looking for more students to write code for him to run in space. The Astro Pi Coding Challenges, launched on February 3rd, pose a specific problem to the students and ask them to solve it with code. This approach differs from the 2015 competition, where students were given an open-ended brief to come up with their own ideas for experiments: this time, Tim has a particular task in mind for them. The winners will have their code uploaded to the ISS and used by Tim on the Astro Pi computers (on a best-effort basis subject to operational constraints).

There are currently two challenges on offer, both music-based. The first asks students to write Python code to turn the Astro Pi into an MP3 music player, something it was never designed for. The students will need to program the buttons, joystick and LED display to provide a media player interface, so that Tim can plug in headphones and listen to music. The second challenge requires students to compose their own music using a tool called Sonic Pi. This allows music to be created using lines of code, and is a really fun and engaging way to learn to program. Tim will then use the MP3 player code from the first challenge to listen to the music from the second challenge on board the ISS.

The competition is open to all primary and secondary school-age students who are resident in the United Kingdom, and it's supported by a comprehensive range of teaching resources, which are available for free on the Astro Pi website. The deadline for submissions is March 31st.

The competition is being run across four age categories: 11 years and under, 11 to 14 years, 14 to 16 years and 16 to 18 years, with a winner selected from each category for each of the two challenges. In total, four MP3 players and a minimum of four songs will be uploaded and played by Tim in space – the most exclusive concert venue imaginable.

Tim Peake said:

"This competition offers a unique chance for young people to learn core computing skills that will be extremely useful in their future. It’s going to be a lot of fun!"

Libby Jackson from UK Space Agency said:

"We are excited that the Astro Pi project is being extended to allow more students the opportunity to see their code in space. There were some fantastic ideas in the first competition and I am sure that the new challenges will see more interesting ideas be submitted."

David Honess from Raspberry Pi said:

"Tim told us that the software for updating his MP3 player is not approved for the ISS laptops, so he’s potentially facing another four months without any new music. So there's a practical, utilitarian purpose for having the students code this MP3 player for him. It’ll solve a real problem on the space station."

The judging will be conducted by a panel of experts selected from industry partners that have been involved in the Astro Pi project from the start. These are UK Space Trade Association, UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, Surrey Satellite Technology, Airbus Defence and Space, CGI, QinetiQ, ESERO UK, National STEM Centre, and Space KTN.

Start a Code Club in your part of the world

Code Club is on a mission to create a club in every community in the world! Would you like to join our global movement and get kids coding in your local area?

You can get involved in three different ways:

• Start a Code Club: Help us inspire the next generation by running a Code Club. Get in touch with your local school to volunteer for an hour each week.
• Translate our projects: Translate the Code Club projects into your native language and help us reach more children in your local community.
• Start a local Code Club Community: Establish a community in your country and take charge of growing Code Club activities in your region.

Code Club is a worldwide network of volunteer-led extracurricular coding clubs for children aged 9-11. You can find out more by visiting Code Club World's website and following @CodeClubWorld on Twitter!