Schlagwort: education

  • Nearly 15,000 young people ran their code on the ISS for Astro Pi 2020/21!

    Nearly 15,000 young people ran their code on the ISS for Astro Pi 2020/21!

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Our team here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with ESA Education, is excited to announce the successful deployment of young people’s programs aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the European Astro Pi Challenge 2020/21!

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Across both Astro Pi missions — Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab — 14,993 participants created an amazing 9408 programs, which have now run aboard the ISS’s two special Raspberry Pi computers: the Astro Pis Izzy and Ed. Congratulations to all for their achievements during this challenging year!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSVzOvDiJnM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet congratulates all of this year’s Astro Pi teams

    Mission Zero: Popular as ever

    This year, 14,054 young people from 24 countries successfully took part in Mission Zero: the Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS ran their programs for 30 seconds each.

    In Mission Zero, young people write programs to measure the humidity inside the ISS Columbus module using the Sense HAT add-on of the Astro Pi, and then use the Sense HAT’s LED matrix to display the measurement together with their very own message to the astronauts. This year that included ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who oversaw the deployment of both the Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab programs.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=279y5U9TXgY?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    This year’s Mission Zero programs running aboard the ISS

    To make it easier for young people to participate in Mission Zero while school closures and restrictions on face-to-face meetings were in place to help stop the spread of coronavirus, we updated the Mission Zero rules this year: for the first time, young people could take part by themselves as well as in teams. As we had hoped, this new option proved hugely popular, with 6308 entries coming from individual participants. Despite the challenging circumstances, this year’s number of Mission Zero participants was just 5% lower than last year’s — a sure sign of how much young people love Astro Pi!

    Mission Space Lab: Investigating life in space and on Earth

    In addition to the Mission Zero participants, 232 teams of in total 939 students and young people are currently in their final phase of Astro Pi Mission Space Lab. Over the last month, each team had the program for their scientific experiment run on either Astro Pi Ed or Astro Pi Izzy for three hours each.

    Compilation of photographs of Earth, taken by Astro Pi Izzy aboard the ISS.
    Photographs of Earth, taken by Astro Pi Izzy aboard the ISS

    Teams conducting ‘Life on Earth’ experiments used Astro Pi Izzy’s near-infrared camera to capture images of the planet’s surface. Their experiments include predicting weather patterns by analysing cloud formations, assessing the impact of climate change by investigating reductions in vegetation cover over time using NDVI, and studying variations in the Earth’s magnetic field.

    Teams conducting ‘Life in space’ experiments used Astro Pi Ed’s sensors to investigate life inside the ISS Columbus module. Their experiments include measuring the direction and force of gravity inside the Space Station, analysing the air quality onboard, and calculating the position and direction of the Space Station in orbit.

    All Mission Space Lab teams have now received their data back from the ISS so they can analyse it and summarise their findings in their final scientific reports. To grant teams enough time to complete their reports while social distancing measures may be in place, we have extended the submission deadline to 12 pm (noon) BST on Monday 28 June 2021!

    It’s cosy inside the ISS!

    Despite its relatively large size of 109 metres, the ISS only has enough sleeping pods for seven astronauts. However, sometimes there can be more than seven astronauts onboard: usually when one group prepares to leave as another arrives. Recently, a whole eleven astronauts were aboard the ISS, which meant that they had to get creative about where to settle down for sleep.

    For Ed and Izzy, our Astro Pi computers, a large crowd such as this can cause some complications! For one thing, ‘crew bumping’ is more likely, which is when the USB cable connecting an Astro Pi to power can become accidentally unplugged because an astronaut collides with it in the small space of the Columbus module. And this time, the snug sleeping situation made one of the crew members request permission to cover Astro Pi Ed’s LED display during the ‘night’! Why? The astronaut was ‘bedding down’ directly opposite Ed, and the light from the display was making sleep difficult! That just goes to show that, even in space, it’s really best to avoid bright light if you need a good night’s sleep.

    ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet with the Astro Pi computers onboard the ISS.
    ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet with the Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS

    Who will win Mission Space Lab 2020/21?

    We and our collaborators at ESA Education have appointed a jury of experts to judge all the Mission Space Lab Phase 4 final reports and select the 10 teams with the best reports as the winners of the 2020/21 round of Mission Space Lab. Each of the 10 winning teams will receive a special prize: an invitation to a webinar with an ESA astronaut where they can directly ask them their questions about life in space!

    Congratulations again to all the teams that have taken part in the European Astro Pi Challenge this year. Mission Space Lab teams, we can’t wait to read your reports!

    Website: LINK

  • Physical programming for children with visual disabilities

    Physical programming for children with visual disabilities

    Reading Time: 7 minutes

    When Stack Overflow conducted a survey of 64,000 software engineers, it found that 1% of their respondents were blind — a far higher percentage than among the total population. Yet it is far from easy for young people with visual disabilities to engage in learning programming in school. In this month’s seminar, Dr Cecily Morrison of Microsoft Research Cambridge shared some of her work in this area. Her talk highlighted the difficulties that children learning to program face if they are blind or have low vision, and the affordances of physical programming tools, in particular Code Jumper.

    Cecily Morrison.
    Dr Cecily Morrison

    In her work as a Principal Researcher, Cecily focuses on designing inclusive experiences for people who are blind or have low vision, and she is leading the team that designed Code Jumper (known as Project Torino during its development). She is currently engaged in developing assistive agent technology in Project Tokyo, and she was recently awarded an MBE for her services to inclusive design.

    Block-based programming is inaccessible for children with visual disabilities

    Block-based programming has become the norm for primary school-aged children who are learning to program, and a variety of freely available environments exist, e.g. Scratch and Blockly. These tools have lots of advantages: discoverability of commands; no syntax errors; and live, imaginative visualisations. But how do you use Scratch if you are blind or have low vision and cannot see the screen?

    A girl with her Scratch coding project on a desktop computer.
    Block-based programming environments are commonly used to teach children about programming.

    There are tools that ‘read out’ code in blocks-based environments but — as we experienced in the seminar — their audio output may not readily facilitate understanding. Listening to one line of code at a time can be difficult, for example when trying to understand a loop (let alone a nested loop!). It puts significant demand on listeners’ memory, and children may lack the conceptual cognitive structures to process the audio information. In addition, using screen-based programming environments involves other challenges for blind children: they need to master touch typing, memorise keyboard shortcuts, and understand file systems.

    Project Torino to Code Jumper

    To address these challenges, Cecily’s team at Microsoft Research started to develop a physical programming tool for primary-aged learners, in a project known as Project Torino. The project started in 2015, and the tool was developed iteratively over the next four years. The team’s goal for this research project was always to generate a tool that is useful and available to all young learners who are blind or have low vision. Thus, in 2019 the research and technology was transferred to the American Printing House for the Blind, and the Project Torino tool was renamed Code Jumper.

    A boy creates a computer program using the Torino tool. There are several Torino pods attached to each other and the boy is using his hands to follow the sequence of the program as it runs.
    As learners listen to the physical programming tool’s program output, they can can follow the execution of the program using their hands.

    In the seminar Cecily described the iterative development of the physical programming tool. It consists of a number of physical pods, including a play pod, rest pod, loop pod, and selection pod. The young learner can feel the difference between the pods by touch and link them together in the right sequence to construct a program. They then use a central pod, known as the hub, to play an audio output of the program they have created. Using this tool they can code tunes, songs, and stories using ready-made sound sets or sounds that they record themselves.

    Dials on the pods allow learners to change the parameter values for each program statement, e.g. the number of times to loop. The parameters can also be changed programmatically through the insertion of ‘plugs’ into the dials. For example, a ‘random’ plug can get a random sound to play.

    A use case example is coding the song Row, row, row your boat, which is a common nursery rhyme in the UK and USA. By attaching different pods and using the dials, a learner can use a loop to play “row” three times, and then can add pods for the sounds for “your boat”. Constructing a program like this helps the young programmer learn about sequencing and loops.

    Several threads can be attached to the central hub, as in the image below, so that children can learn to use multi-threaded programming, as they can in block-based programming environments such as Scratch. The seminar recording below includes some examples of Code Jumper in action!

    A diagram of a multi-thread program built with Project Torino, and the equivalent code blocks program.
    Code Jumper supports multi-threaded programming.

    Five design principles

    Cecily described five design principles that her Microsoft Research team used while developing this physical programming tool:

    1. Persistent program behaviour — When you listen to a program one block/line at a time, it’s hard to get a sense of what it does. Therefore, an important requirement in the design process was that the tool should allow the user to experience the program as a whole. With Code Jumper, the young person can use their hands to follow the program as it executes.
    2. Liveness — This refers to the responsiveness of the tool. It was important to have instant feedback when programming: with Code Jumper, as soon as you touch one of the pods, you get a response.
    3. Low floor, high ceiling — This means the tool is accessible to absolute beginners, but it also offers the opportunity to write more complex programs and develop more advanced skills. 
    4. Works across visual abilities — The tool can be used by children with and without vision, and it was designed to be used by learners with multiple disabilities as well as those with low vision. 
    5. Enables progression — The tool can support learners moving from a physical language to a textual language, by enabling them to listen or read their code as they follow its execution.

    The ultimate aim of Code Jumper is to open career opportunities in technology.

    Evaluation of the tool

    As part of Cecily’s research project, her team undertook a nationwide trial to evaluate the effectiveness of Project Torino, with 75 children and 30 teachers. The trial involved a diverse group of students with a wide range of cognitive skills, and the teachers mostly didn’t have much computing experience.

    The team developed a curriculum and sent the teachers full course materials along with Torino kits and laptops. A validated instrument was used to measure engagement and motivation, along with teacher-reported learning outcomes.

    In the findings from the trial, all teachers (100%) said that they would like to continue using Torino. Students were also very engaged by the project. Students’ self-efficacy in coding grew substantially after exposure to Torino, with a change in the median score from 2 to 4 (of 5) and large effect size (r = -0.730).

    100% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that they would like to use Torino to teach coding in the future. A table shows other results: The mean score for "I think Torino is a good tool for teaching coding for visually impaired children" was 4.9, for "I found some of the computing concepts hard to understand", it was 2.4, for "Teaching with Torino helped me to improve my own computing subject knowledge" it was 4.2 and for "The teacher guide was hard to follow" it was 1.7.
    Cecily presented findings from the Torino trial showing the teachers’ responses to the assessment questionnaire.

    Among the qualitative data the team collected, the teacher-reported outcomes included comments about the young people’s use of programming vocabulary (see our previous seminar on the importance of talk in learning to program), and how they improved their problem solving skills. Some teachers also commented on the fact that the physical computing tool generated an inclusive environment in the classroom, as it allowed sighted and non-sighted children to work together.

    Overall, our seminar audience found this a very interesting and engaging topic and had lots of questions for Cecily in the question-and-answer session. There is obviously much more to do to ensure that computing is accessible to all children, regardless of any disability or impairment. Research projects such as the one Cecily presented generate useful output in terms of tools for use in the classroom or home, and they also challenge us to think about all our learning materials and their accessibility.

    This paper contains more information about the trial. Download Cecily’s annotated slides here, and watch or listen to her presentation:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOHA0uDELno?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Join our next seminar

    Between January and July 2021, we’re partnering with the Royal Academy of Engineering to host speakers from the UK and USA to give a series of research seminars focused on diversity and inclusion. By diversity, we mean any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. This might be, for example, age, gender, socio-economic status, disability, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or sexuality. The aim of inclusion is to embrace all people irrespective of difference.

    In our next research seminar on Tuesday 1 June at 17:00–18:30 BST / 12:00–13:30 EDT / 9:00–10:30 PDT / 18:00–19:30 CEST, we’ll welcome Dr Hayley Leonard and Thom Kunkeler from the Raspberry Pi Foundation team. They will be talking about ‘Why the digital divide does not stop at access: understanding the complex interactions between socioeconomic disadvantage and computing education’.

    To join this free event, click below and sign up with your name and email address:

    We’ll send you the link and instructions. See you there!

    You can now download the first volume of our seminar proceedings, with contributions from our previous guest speakers.

    Website: LINK

  • EDUvision EXTRA: Quetzal-1 strikes back

    EDUvision EXTRA: Quetzal-1 strikes back

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We recently invited José Antonio Bagur to join us on EDUvision, to talk about his work on Quetzal-1; Guatemala’s first satellite. It was a hugely popular show with the Arduino and edutech communities, and we ran out of time before we could ask José all your space-based questions!

    The range of questions you guys had around open-source, custom-built satellites were too good to go unanswered. So we brought him back for an EDUvision EXTRA. Melissa and Roxana teamed up to dig deeper into his amazing project.

    Arduino EDUvision EXTRA about satellites and Quetzal-1

    José Antonio Bagur, and Quetzal-1

    You can check out José’s first interview, which took place during the EDUvision livestream. But to quickly get you up to speed, let’s give José, and his pride and joy Quetzal-1, a quick introduction.

    He’s a mechatronics engineer, university researcher and professor from Guatemala. He’s no stranger to the Arduino community either, as he regularly joins the Arduino team to host the Spanish-language Explore IoT webinars.

    There are no formal aerospace science education programs in Guatemala, so José and his colleagues really had their work cut out designing and building the country’s first satellite! Over 100 people were involved in its development, which, of course, made plenty of use of Arduino.

    In the EDUvision EXTRA video interview below, you can find out all about the incredible work they achieved. He talks about how they managed to get it into space, how it works, and what kind of challenges they faced throughout the project. Feel free to add any other questions you might have in the comments, over on the forum, or on social media.

    Oh, and you’ll also find out where the name Quetzal-1 comes from!

    Enjoy this extra slice of EDUvision goodness, and remember to join us on 20th May, 2021, for the next livestream. If you have a project you’d like to see featured live on EDUvision, let us know all about it. If it’s picked to be showcased, we’ll even send you some free Arduino swag.

    See you then!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqpK-bIbcJ8?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Website: LINK

  • What makes an impact on gender balance in computing education? Answers from experts

    What makes an impact on gender balance in computing education? Answers from experts

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    The latest event in the Raspberry Pi Foundation series of research seminars was our first panel discussion, with formal and non-formal learning opportunities in computing education and their impact on gender balance as its theme.

    The panel was chaired by Dr Yota Dimitriadi, Associate Professor of Computing at the University of Reading, who was joined by four expert speakers: Dr Jill Denner, Senior Research Scientist at ETR; Amali de Alwis MBE, Managing Director at Microsoft Startups and Founder of Code First: Girls; Pete Marshman FCCT, NCCE Computing Hub Leader at Park House School; and Carrie Anne Philbin MBE, Director of Educator Support here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The event opened with lightning talks from all speakers, followed by an interactive question-and-answer section. Our audience learned from a blend of research insights and lived experiences about practical ways to promote gender balance in both formal and non-formal computing education.

    A girl and boy in India learning at a computer

    Broadening the tech sector employee pool and empowering all students to see computing as a life-changing, fulfilling subject remains an enduring issue in many countries around the world. In England, the proportion of girls choosing formal qualifications in computer science is slowly increasing, and a number of initiatives support the uptake of computing as a career for girls and women. Nevertheless, much remains to be done in order to present computing as an appealing option for girls. In this blog post, I present three key themes which were covered during the panel session. You can find the recording of the event at the bottom of the post.

    Theme 1: Putting computing in context

    Students often describe computing as a very abstract, academic subject. Dr Jill Denner shared that research has shown a promising approach to altering this perception: connecting the content of computing lessons to people’s everyday lives. Learners’ need for contextual lessons was reiterated by Pete Marshman. In his teaching, Pete has observed that the very first lesson in Year 7 (11-year-olds) is crucial, because students form opinions about computing immediately. Pete devised a lesson that uses collaborative play and pixel art to introduce steganography, a cybersecurity technique for hiding data in plain sight within an ordinary file or message.

    Description of a computing lesson that uses collaborative play and pixel art to introduce steganography.
    Pete’s very first lesson for 11-year-old students gives them a real-world context for computing

    Computing education research has much more to uncover about how computing can be presented as a relevant subject in formal education. In this vein, Carrie Anne Philbin gave an overview of the Relevance strand of the ground-breaking Gender Balance in Computing research programme (co-led by the Foundation). The programme’s Relevance strand will explore the impact of linking computing to real-world problem-solving, working with Year 8 pupils in more than 180 secondary schools in England.

    Theme 2: Giving everyone a sense of belonging 

    A second theme that emerged during the panel discussion was to who belongs in computing, more specifically which groups self-identify as belonging in computing. Computing suffers from the perception of brilliance bias amongst students: they often feel that they need genius-like abilities in order to succeed with their computing studies, and that such abilities are most commonly exhibited by men. Amali de Alwis turned this concept upside down when she described the “human-centred design” of Code First: Girls courses. Women attending these courses learn from a volunteer with a group of peers and become part of a community where members support each other towards brilliance. Jill echoed this when she spoke about the need to challenge stereotypes, embed diversity in educational materials, and continue to educate teachers to create computing classrooms where girls feel that they belong.

    Four young women of colour code at computers
    You can find out more about embedding diversity in computing lessons from our past research seminar about equity-focused teaching.

    In the Belonging strand of the Gender Balance in Computing programme, the researchers will look closely at the attitudes of both boys and girls towards computing, and Carrie Annie explained that giving learners the chance to talk to female role models from the tech sector may cause a measurable shift in their attitudes to the subject. Pete highlighted practical steps that every school can take by using internal role models drawn from the student body to inspire other pupils and produce influential peer-to-peer interactions. As Jill remarked so succinctly, educators need “to tell all students they belong in computer science”.

    Theme 3: Presenting learners with role models and advocates

    Finally, we heard about the role that adult and course leader expectations play in shaping young people’s attitudes towards computing. Eccles’ expectancy-value theory suggests that when girls and women make choices about a subject (or career), they are influenced by the perceptions that others hold about that subject. If parents, teachers, and course leaders unconsciously discourage girls from considering computing, then girls will take notice of this. However, adults also have opportunities to underline that they see the value of computing, as for example a parent from Pete’s school did by accompanying a school trip to Google’s offices. In non-formal learning spaces, educators can share insights about their own approaches to problem-solving in computing, such as learning from others’ code on GitHub. Amali believes that sharing this type of common workplace practice shows that in the tech sector you are not expected to be able to solve every problem alone, which helps girls and women feel that they can succeed in a computing career.

    Young women in hijab smiles while holding up a laptop displaying code she has written
    For learners it’s very important to have role models, such as the inspiring young programmer Dalia Awad, who was a guest on our Digital Making at Home live stream recently.

    Final takeaways

    The drop-off in female participation in computing between formal education and the workplace has often been presented as a leaky pipeline. This deficit-based model suggests that solutions need to be aimed at fixing the leaks in the pipeline, such as providing interventions at specific stages when girls make decisions about formal qualifications or careers. An alternative viewpoint and important takeaway from the panel was this: as a community of educators and researchers, we need to focus our efforts on identifying the unconscious bias that exists in computing education, so that we can dismantle the barriers that this bias has created and ensure girls have access to equitable computing education at all stages of their learning.

    One male and two female teenagers at a computer

    During the question-and answer-session, Dr Yota Dimitriadi skillfully drew out and linked some key factors to encourage girls and women to flourish in computing. The audience heard about the need for advocates at all levels in schools to support careful and thoughtful timetabling of computing lessons. Questions about overcoming negative learning experiences and succeeding later in life elicited thoughts from the panel about how non-formal learning can break down learners’ preconceived ideas about computing and show that it’s never too late to learn.

    Watch the recording of the event here:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxdEC_R2M2U?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    More research is urgently needed

    A recent report from Engineering UK suggests that one possible impact of the coronavirus pandemic is a widening of the existing gender gap in young people’s engineering or technology career aspirations. That means the need to promote gender-equitable learning spaces in both formal and non-formal computing education is even more pressing now.

    Research to provide evidence-informed solutions will be absolutely crucial to shifting the gender balance in computing. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a lead organisation in the Gender Balance in Computing research programme, funded by the Department for Education to identify scalable approaches to improving the gender balance in computing. We are currently recruiting primary and secondary schools in England to take part in trials starting in September 2021 and January 2022. Sign up or find information to share with your networks

    Next up in our free series

    In our next research seminar on Tuesday 1 June at 17:00–18:30 BST / 12:00–13:30 EDT / 9:00–10:30 PDT / 18:00–19:30 CEST, we’ll welcome Dr Hayley Leonard and Thom Kunkeler from the Raspberry Pi Foundation team. They will be talking about ‘Why the digital divide does not stop at access: understanding the complex interactions between socioeconomic disadvantage and computing education’. To join this free event, click below and sign up with your name and email address:

    We’ll send you the link and instructions. See you there!

    You can now download the first volume of our seminar proceedings, with contributions from our previous guest speakers.

    Website: LINK

  • The all-new Hello World podcast for educators interested in computing and digital making

    The all-new Hello World podcast for educators interested in computing and digital making

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    There is growing momentum behind the idea of putting computing, computer science, and digital making at the heart of modern education. At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we want to connect with and support computing educators, both inside and outside of the classroom. Hello World magazine, which we started in 2017, is a platform to help educators all over the world to find inspiration, share experiences, and learn from one another. Hello World is free and has proven to be very popular, with subscribers hailing from 172 countries across the globe!

    Hello World, coming directly to your ears now

    The Hello World community has told us that they’re hungry for more content while they wait for each new magazine issue. So to complement the magazine, we’ve launched a brand-new Hello World podcast to meet this need! That means you can now hear directly from the educators who are writing Hello World articles, dive a little deeper, and have some fun along the way.

    Guests Cat Lamin and Neil Rickus speaking to Hello World podcast hosts Carrie Anne Philbin and James Robinson about well-being and technology

    In season 1 of the Hello World podcast, you will:

    • Explore the importance of creativity and passion in computing with PBS Digital Innovator and CUE Rock Star Amanda Haughs
    • Dive into the role of ethics in computing with Isaac Computer Science content creator Diane Dowling
    • Discover how to look after our well-being while teaching with technology, with practical tips from computing educator Cat Lamin and senior lecturer in computing education at the University of Hertfordshire Neil Rickus
    • Get answers to the question “Are these the droids you’re looking for to teach algorithms?” with computing teacher Huzaifah Zainon and advanced skills computing teacher Nicki Cooper

    Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

    Start listening to our first episodes now, wherever you usually get your podcasts. And make sure to subscribe to never miss an episode!

    Let us know if you have a question or a topic you would like us to explore on the Hello World podcast. You can get even more involved by featuring as a guest on a future episode, sharing your top tips and best teaching practices with computing educators around the world. Get in touch with us at podcast@helloworld.cc with your suggestions! 

    Website: LINK

  • Share your Arduino projects on EDUvision

    Share your Arduino projects on EDUvision

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Arduino TeamMay 6th, 2021

    We’re on the lookout for the most creative and innovative Arduino projects made by you – our EDUvision viewers!

    Each week, we’ll feature the projects we think should be put in the spotlight. If your project is featured, we’ll send you a selection of some super cool Arduino merchandise, such as:

    • Lanyards
    • Water bottles
    • Notebook
    • Hats
    • Beanies
    • Stickers
    • Stationary
    Featured Arduino Projects for EDUvision

    How to share your Arduino project

    All you need to do is shoot a short video (maximum of one minute) of your project, explaining what it’s all about, what it does, and how it works. Because we’re featuring these on the show, and on the Arduino channels, we want you to make your video looks as great as possible.

    Here are some tips:

    • Make sure you shoot in landscape (horizontal)
    • You can send in .mp4 or .mov video files
    • A voice over is effective, to help explain your project
    • Make sure the lighting is good
    • Reduce background noise as much as possible

    Video files can only be submitted if they’re less than 10MB in size. If yours is bigger, you can upload it to a file sharing service like Dropbox, Google Drive or WeTransfer and put the link into your application form instead. Even then, please keep them to one minute.

    You’ll also need a project name and a short written description. Submissions to EDUvision’s featured Arduino projects are open until 24th June, 2021.

    The necessary bit: First we need you to read and accept these terms and conditions.

    If you’re under 18, you’ll also need to provide permission from a parent or guardian to share your Arduino projects. You can take care of that in the application form.

    Finally, you’ll need to be a registered Arduino user to be able to send your project in. It’s totally free to sign up if you aren’t already, and comes with lots of great benefits including being able to participate in the forum and get Arduino news as it happens.

    Make sure you join us each week on the EDUvision livestream to see which projects have been featured!

    We can’t wait to see what you’ve been building!

    Website: LINK

  • Now free! Get the Arduino Create app for Chrome classrooms

    Now free! Get the Arduino Create app for Chrome classrooms

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Arduino TeamMay 2nd, 2021

    In the latest Arduino Education update, we’ve made the Arduino Create app free for Chrome. From today, as many educators, students, and parents around the world as possible can now access the Arduino Create Agent.

    Arduino Chrome app is now free

    What is Arduino Create (soon to become Arduino Cloud)?

    Arduino Create is an online platform that lets students write code, access tutorials, configure boards, and share projects. 

    Designed to provide users with a continuous workflow, Arduino Create connects the dots from inspiration to creation. This means students can manage every aspect of their projects right from a single dashboard.

    Get the app for Chrome and Chromebooks

    The app lets you use the Arduino Create on Chromebooks. You can then code online and save your sketches in the Cloud. Then you can upload them to any Arduino board connected to your computer, and do it all without having to install anything locally.

    Developed with the classroom in mind, the Arduino Create app runs on Chrome OS. It enables you to teach and play with Arduino electronics and programming in a shared environment. Because it’s a Cloud-based environment, you can also be sure it’s always up-to-date. All the contributed libraries are automatically included, and any new Arduino boards are supported out-of-the-box.

    Arduino’s CEO, Fabio Violante, says, “The aim of Arduino Education is to put technology into the hands of every student around the world. Making Arduino Create free, and therefore more accessible, is a step towards doing this. We’re proud to provide open-source software, and want to inspire students and educators in STEAM learning.”

    Download the Arduino Create app here, and join us on the forums to tell us about your experiences.

    Website: LINK

  • Our new SIGCSE Special Project on culturally relevant resources for computing

    Our new SIGCSE Special Project on culturally relevant resources for computing

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Over the last 20 years, researchers and educators have increasingly aimed to develop computing curricula that are culturally responsive and relevant. Designing equitable and authentic learning experiences in computing requires conscious effort to take into account the characteristics of learners and their social environments, in order to address topics that are relevant to a diverse range of students. We previously discussed this topic in a research seminar where the invited speakers shared their work on equity-focused teaching of computer science in relation to race and ethnicity.

    Educator and student focussed on a computing task
    Designing equitable and authentic learning experiences in computing requires conscious effort.

    Culturally relevant teaching in the classroom demonstrates a teacher’s deliberate and explicit acknowledgment that they value all students and expect all students will excel. Much of the research on this topic stems from the USA. In the UK, it may be that a lack of cultural responsiveness in the computing curriculum is contributing to the underrepresentation of students from some ethnic backgrounds in formal computing qualifications [1] by negatively affecting the way these young people engage with and learn the subject.

    Guidelines for creating culturally relevant learning resources for computing

    Addressing this issue of underrepresentation is important to us, so we’re making it part of our work on diversity and inclusion in computing education. That’s why we’re delighted to have received an ACM SIGCSE Special Project Award for a project called ‘Developing criteria for K-12 learning resources in computer science that challenge stereotypes and promote diversity’. Our overarching aim for this project, as with all our work at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is to broaden participation in computing and address the needs of diverse learners. Through this project, we will support computing educators in understanding culturally responsive pedagogy and how to apply it to their own practice. To this end, we’ve set up a working group that will use research into culturally responsive pedagogy to develop a set of guidelines for creating culturally relevant learning resources for computing. Our primary audience for these guidelines are teachers in the UK, but we are confident the project’s results will have value and application all over the world.

    There is increasing awareness across all education, and in computing education in particular, that culturally responsive approaches to curriculum and teaching fosters relevancy, interest, and engagement for student learners. This exciting effort brings together computing classroom teachers and education researchers to identify approaches and resources that England’s educators can leverage to enact culturally responsive approaches to teaching computing.

    Joanna Goode, Sommerville Knight Professor at the University of Oregon, member of our Special Project working group

    What do we mean by culturally relevant resources?

    A learning resource obviously has learning objectives, but it is also always set in a particular context, which may or may not be relevant to young people. It may contain images, video, and other media assets in addition to text. Presenting computing stereotypes, for example in the media assets and language used, or situating resources in an unfamiliar context can cause learners to feel that they do not belong in the subject or that it is not relevant to them and their life. On the other hand, providing resources that allow learners to relate what they are learning to issues or tasks that are personally meaningful to them and/or their culture or community can be empowering and engaging for them. For example, a common scenario used to introduce basic algorithm design to young people is making a cup of tea, but tea preparation and drinking may be culturally specific, and even if tea is drunk in a young person’s home, tea preparation may not be an activity they engage in.

    A matcha tea preparation
    Preparing a cup of tea — a scenario often used for introducing learners to algorithm design — can be culturally specific: compare matcha and builder’s tea.

    Ensuring that a more diverse group of young people feel like they belong in computing

    The expected long-term outcome of this project is to remove significant obstacles to young people’s participation in computing by ensuring that a more diverse group of young people feel represented and like they belong in the subject. The working group we have established consists of seven practising computing teachers from a diverse range of UK schools and a panel of four experts and academics (Lynda Chinaka, Mike Deutsch, Joanna Goode, and Yota Dimitriadi) working with young people and their teachers in the UK, USA, and Canada.

    A teacher aids children in the classroom
    We will support computing educators in understanding culturally responsive pedagogy and how to apply it to their own practice.

    Yota Dimitriadi, Associate Professor at the University of Reading and a member of the expert panel, says: “I am delighted to participate in this project that enables conversations and positive action around inclusive and intersectional computing practices. It is more important than ever to enhance a global perspective in our curriculum planning and further our understanding of culturally responsive pedagogies; such an approach can empower all our students and support their skills and understanding of the integral role that computing can play in promoting social justice.”

    Such an approach can empower all our students and support their skills and understanding of the integral role that computing can play in promoting social justice.

    Yota Dimitriadi, Associate Professor at the University of Reading, member of our Special Project working group

    The group has started to meet and discuss the guidelines, and we aim to share early findings and outputs in the summer months. We’re very excited about this project, and we think it is an important starting point for other work. We look forward to updating you in the summer!


    [1] Students of Black, non-Chinese Asian, and Mixed ethnicities; Kemp, P.E.J., Berry, M.G., & Wong, B. (2018). The Roehampton Annual Computing Education Report: Data from 2017. University of Roehampton, London.

    Website: LINK

  • Expanding our free Isaac Computer Science platform with new GCSE content

    Expanding our free Isaac Computer Science platform with new GCSE content

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    We are delighted to announce that we’re expanding our free Isaac Computer Science online learning platform in response to overwhelming demand from teachers and students for us to cover GCSE content.

    Woman teacher and female students at a computer

    Thanks to our contract with England’s Department for Education which is funding our work as part of the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) consortium, we’ve been able to collaborate with the University of Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology to build the Isaac Computer Science platform, and to create an events programme, for A level students and teachers. Now we will use this existing funding to also provide content and events for learning and teaching GCSE computer science.

    Building on our success

    With content designed by our expert team of computer science teachers and researchers, the Isaac Computer Science platform is already being used by 2000 teachers and 18,000 students at A level. The platform houses a rich set of interactive study materials and reflective questions, providing full coverage of exam specifications. 

    Within the Teach Computing Curriculum we built as part of our NCCE work, we’ve already created free classroom resources to support teachers with the delivery of GCSE computer science (as well as the rest of the English computing curriculum from Key Stages 1 to 4). Expanding the Isaac Computer Science platform to offer interactive learning content to GCSE students, and running events specifically for GCSE students, will perfectly complement the Teach Computing Curriculum and support learners to continue their computing education beyond GCSE.

    One male and two female teenagers at a computer

    We’ll use our tried and tested process of content design, implementation of student and teacher feedback, and continual improvements based on evidence from platform usage data, to produce an educational offering for GCSE computer science that is of the highest quality.

    What will Isaac Computer Science GCSE cover?

    Isaac Computer Science GCSE will support students and teachers of GCSE computer science across the OCR, AQA, Eduqas and WJEC exam bodies, covering the whole of the national curriculum. The content will be aimed at ages 14 to 16, and it will be suitable for students of all experience levels and backgrounds — from those who have studied little computer science at Key Stage 3 and are simply interested, to those who are already set to pursue a career related to computer science.

    Benefits for students and teachers

    Students will be able to:

    • Use the platform for structured, self-paced study and progress tracking
    • Prepare for their GCSE examinations according to their exam body
    • Get instant feedback from the interactive questions to guide further study
    • Explore areas of interest more deeply

    Teachers will be able to:

    • Use the content and examples on the platform as the basis for classroom work
    • Direct their students to topics to read as homework
    • Set self-marking questions as homework or in the classroom as formative assessment to identify areas where additional support is required and track students’ progress

    Free events for learning, training, and inspiration

    As part of Isaac Computer Science GCSE, we’ll also organise an events programme for GCSE students to get support with specific topics, as well as inspiration about opportunities to continue their computer science education beyond GCSE into A level and higher education or employment.

    Male teacher and male students at a computer

    For teachers, we’ll continue to provide a wide spectrum of free CPD training events and courses through the National Centre for Computing Education.

    Accessible all over the world

    As is the case for the Isaac Computer Science A level content, we’ll create content for this project to suit the English national curriculum and exam bodies. However, anyone anywhere in the world will be able to access and use the platform for free. The content will be published under an Open Government License v3.0.

    When does Isaac Computer Science GCSE launch, and can I get involved now?

    Our launch will be in January of 2022, with the full suite of content available by September of 2022.

    We’ll be putting out calls to the teaching community in England, asking for your help to guide the design and quality assurance of the Isaac Computer Science GCSE materials.

    Follow Isaac Computer Science on social media and sign up on the Isaac Computer Science platform to be the first to hear news!

    Website: LINK

  • Celebrate Pi Day with us

    Celebrate Pi Day with us

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Since launching our first-ever Pi Day fundraising campaign, we’ve been absolutely amazed by the generous support so many of you have shown for the young learners and creators in our community. Together, our Pi Day donors have stepped up to make an impact on over 20,000 learners (and counting!) who rely on the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s free digital making projects and online learning resources.

    A young person using Raspberry Pi hardware and learning resources to do digital making

    We need your help to keep the momentum going until 14 March, so that as many young people as possible gain the opportunity to develop new skills and get creative with computing. If you are able to contribute, there’s still time for you to join in with a gift of £3.14, £31.42, or perhaps even more.

    We can’t thank you enough for your support, and as a way to show our gratitude, we offer you the option to see your name listed as a Pi Day donor in an upcoming issue of The MagPi magazine!

    Join our live online Pi Day celebration

    We’d also like to invite you to our virtual Pi Day celebration! This Sunday at 7pm GMT, we’ll host a special episode of Digital Making at Home, our weekly live stream for families and young digital makers. Eben will be on to share the story of Raspberry Pi, and of course we’ll be making something cool with Raspberry Pi and celebrating with all of you. Subscribe to the Foundation’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to get a reminder about when we go live. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3oqJDmXj4g?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    A little help from our friends

    Last but not least, we’d like to extend a big thank you to OKdo. They’re celebrating Pi Day with special deals throughout the weekend, and a generous 50% of those proceeds will be donated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

    “We’re delighted to be supporting Raspberry Pi’s first ever Pi Day Campaign. Events like this are vital to aid our mutual mission to make technology accessible to young people all over the world. At OKdo we exist to spark a love of computing for children and help them to develop new skills so that they have every possible chance to fulfil their potential.”

    Richard Curtin, OKdo’s SVP

    We’re grateful to OKdo for championing our Pi Day campaign along with our friends at EPAM Systems and CanaKit

    Happy Pi Day, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you this weekend!

    Website: LINK

  • Engaging Black girls in STEM learning through game design

    Engaging Black girls in STEM learning through game design

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Today is International Women’s Day, giving us the perfect opportunity to highlight a research project focusing on Black girls learning computing.

    Two black girls sitting against an outside wall while working on a laptop

    Between January and July 2021, we’re partnering with the Royal Academy of Engineering to host speakers from the UK and USA to give a series of research seminars focused on diversity and inclusion. By diversity, we mean any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. This might be, for example, age, gender, socio-economic status, disability, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or sexuality. The aim of inclusion is to embrace all people irrespective of difference. In this blog post, I discuss the third research seminar in this series.

    Dr Jakita O. Thomas
    Dr Jakita O. Thomas

    This month we were delighted to hear from Dr Jakita O. Thomas from Auburn University and BlackComputHer, who talked to us about a seven-year qualitative study she conducted with a group of Black girls learning game design. Jakita is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Auburn University in Alabama, and Director of the CUlturally and SOcially Relevant (CURSOR) Computing Lab.

    The SCAT programme

    The Supporting Computational Algorithmic Thinking (SCAT) programme started in 2013 and was originally funded for three years. It was a free enrichment programme exploring how Black middle-school girls develop computational algorithmic thinking skills over time in the context of game design. After three years the funding was extended, giving Jakita and her colleagues the opportunity to continue the intervention with the same group of girls from middle school through to high school graduation (7 years in total). 23 students were recruited onto the programme and retention was extremely high.

    Dr Jakita Thomas presents a slide: "Problem context: Black women and girls are rarely construed as producers of computer science knowledge in US schools and society. Design, learning, identity and teaching are inextricably linked and should come together and promoto robust experiences for participation in a global world. Black girls in STEM+C environments are rarely served in such ways. Some scholars suggest that STEM is simply a neoliberal project. When we put that view in conversation with Black girls in and informal learning environment design to promote Black female excellence, a more nuanced and complex perspective emerges."
    Click to enlarge

    The SCAT programme ran throughout each academic year and also involved a summer camp element. The programme included three types of activities: the two-week summer camp, twelve monthly workshops, and field trips, all focused on game design. The instructors on the programme were all Black women, either with or working towards doctorates in computer science, serving as role models to the girls.

    The theoretical basis of the programme drew on a combination of:

    • Cognitive apprenticeship, i.e. learning from others with expertise in a particular field
    • Black Feminist Thought (based on the work of Patricia Hill Collins) as a foundation for valuing Black girls’ knowledge and lived experience as expertise they bring to their learning environment
    • Intersectionality, i.e. considering the intersection of multiple characteristics, e.g. race and gender

    This context highlights that interventions to increase diversity in STEM or computing tend to support mainly white girls or Black and other ethnic minority boys, marginalising Black girls.

    Why game design?

    Game design was selected as a topic because it is popular with all young people as consumers. According to research Jakita drew on, over 94% of girls in the US aged 12 to 17 play video games, with little differences relating to race or socioeconomic status. However, game design is an industry in which African American women are under-represented. Women represent only 10 to 12% of the game design workforce, and less than 5% of the workforce are African American or Latino people of any gender. Therefore Jakita and her colleagues saw it as an ideal domain to work in with the girls.

    Dr Jakita Thomas presents a slide: Game design cycle: brainstorming, storyboarding, physical prototyping, design document, software prototyping, implementation, quality assurance / maintenance"
    Click to enlarge

    Another reason for selecting game design as a topic was that it gave the students (the programme calls them scholars) the opportunity to design and create their own artefacts. This allowed the participants to select topics for games that really mattered to them, which Jakita suggested might be related to their own identity, and issues of equity and social justice. This aligns completely with the thoughts expressed by the speakers at our February seminar.

    What was learned through SCAT?

    Jakita explained that her findings suggest that the ways in which the SCAT programme was intentionally designed to offer Black girls opportunities to radically shape their identities as producers, innovators and disruptors of deficit perspectives. Deficit perspectives are ones that include implicit assumptions that privilege the values, beliefs, and practices of one group over another. Deficit thinking was a theme in our February seminar with Prof Tia Madkins, Dr Nicol R Howard, and Shomari Jones, and it was interesting to hear more about this. 

    Data sources of the project included analysis of online journal data and end of season questionnaires across the first three years of SCAT, which provided insights into the participants’ perceptions and feelings about their SCAT experience, their understanding of computational algorithmic thinking, their perceptions of themselves as game designers, and the application of concepts learned within SCAT to other areas of their lives outside of SCAT.

    In the first three years of the programme, the number of participants who saw game design as a viable hobby went from 0% to 23% to 45%. Other analysis Jakita and her colleagues performed was qualitative and identified as one theme that the participants wanted to ‘find meaning and relevance in altruism’. The researchers found that the participants started to reflect on their own narrative and identity through the programme. One girl on the programme said:

    “At the beginning of SCAT, I didn’t understand why I was there. Then I thought about what I was doing. I was an African American girl learning how to properly learn game design. As I grew over the years in game designing, I gained a strong liking. The SCAT program has gifted me with a new hobby that most women don’t have, and for that I am grateful.”

    – SCAT scholar (participant)

    Jakita explained that the girls on the programme had formed a sisterhood, in that they came to know each other well and formed a strong and supportive community. In addition, what I found remarkable was the long-term impact of this programme: 22 out of the 23 young women that took part in the programme are now enrolled on STEM degree courses.

    Dr Jakita Thomas presents a slide: "Conclusions and points of discussion: STEM learning for whom and to what ends is a complex narrative when centering Black girls because of the intersectional politics of their histories and STEM education opportunities. SCAT serves as a counter-space for STEM learning. Black girls should be positioned as producers of knowledge in STEM. Black girls need to have not only opportunities to acquire and develop STEM skills, capabilities and practices, but they also need time to reflect on those opportunities and experiences and assess whether and how STEM connects to their own interests, goals and aspirations (at least 12 months). It is imperative that learning scientists think from an intersectional perspective when considering how to design STEM learning environments for Black girls."
    Jakita’s final slide, stimulating a great Q&A session (click to enlarge)

    What next?

    Read the paper on which Jakita’s seminar was based, download the presentation slides, and watch the video recording:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvjeDB5mAvo?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    This research intervention obviously represents a very small sample, as is often the case with rich, qualitative studies, but there is much we can learn from it, and still much more to be done. In the UK, we do not have any ongoing or previously published research studies that look at intersectionality and computing education, and conducting similar research would be valuable. Jakita and her colleagues worked in the non-formal space, providing opportunities outside the formal curriculum, but throughout the academic year. We need to understand better the affordances of non-formal and formal learning for supporting engagement of learners from underrepresented groups in computing, perhaps particularly in England, where a mandatory computing curriculum from age 5 has been in place since 2014.

    Next up in our free series

    This was our 14th research seminar! You can find all the related blog posts on this page.

    Next we’ve got three online events coming up in quick succession! In our seminar on Tuesday 20 April at 17:00–18:30 BST / 12:00–13:30 EDT / 9:00–10:30 PDT / 18:00–19:30 CEST, we’ll welcome Maya Israel from the University of Florida, who will be talking about Universal Design for Learning and computing. On Monday 26 April, we will be hosting a panel discussion on gender balance in computing. And at the seminar on Tuesday 2 May, we will be hearing from Dr Cecily Morrison (Microsoft Research) about computing and learners with visual disabilities.

    To join any of these free events, click below and sign up with your name and email address:

    We’ll send you the link and instructions. See you there!

    Website: LINK

  • Pi Day at the Raspberry Pi Foundation

    Pi Day at the Raspberry Pi Foundation

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Pi Day is a special occasion for people all around the world (your preferred date format notwithstanding), and I love seeing all the ways that makers, students, and educators celebrate. This year at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we’re embracing Pi Day as a time to support young learners and creators in our community. Today, we launch our first Pi Day fundraising campaign. From now until 14 March, I’d like to ask for your help to empower young people worldwide to learn computing and become confident, creative digital makers and engineers.

    A boy using a Raspberry Pi desktop computer to code

    Millions of learners use the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s online coding projects to develop new skills and get creative with technology. Your donation to the Pi Day campaign will support young people to access these high-quality online resources, which they need more urgently than ever amidst disruptions to schools and coding clubs. Did I mention that our online projects are offered completely free and in dozens of languages? That’s possible thanks to Raspberry Pi customers and donors who power our educational mission.

    It’s not only young people who rely on the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s free online coding projects, but also teachers, educators, and volunteers in coding clubs:

    “The project resources for Python and Scratch make it really easy for the children to learn programming and create projects successfully, even if they have limited prior experience — they are excellent.”

    — Code Club educator in the UK

    “The best thing […] is the accessibility to a variety of projects and ease of use for a variety of ages and needs. I love checking the site for what I may have missed and the next project my students can do!”

    — Code Club educator in the USA

    Two girls doing physical computing with Raspberry Pi

    Your Pi Day gift will make double the impact thanks to our partner EPAM, who is generously matching all donations up to a total of $5000. As a special thanks to each of you who contributes, you’ll have the option to see your name listed in an upcoming issue of The MagPi magazine!

    All young people deserve the opportunity to thrive in today’s technology-driven world. As a donor to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, you can make this a reality. Any amount you are able to give to our Pi Day campaign — whether it’s $3.14, $31.42, or even more — makes a difference. You also have the option to sign up as a monthly donor.

    Let’s come together to give young people the tools they need to make things, solve problems, and shape their future using technology. Thank you.

    A banner with the words "Be a Pi Day donor today"

    PS Thanks again to EPAM for partnering with us to match your gifts up to $5000 until 14 March, and to CanaKit for their generous Pi Day contribution of $3141!

    Website: LINK

  • Closing the digital divide with Raspberry Pi computers

    Closing the digital divide with Raspberry Pi computers

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    One of the harsh lessons we learned last year was that far too many young people still don’t have a computer for learning at home. There has always been a digital divide; the pandemic has just put it centre-stage. The good news is that the cost of solving this problem is now trivial compared to the cost of allowing it to persist.

    A young person receives a Raspberry Pi kit to learn at home

    Removing price as a barrier to anyone owning a computer was part of the founding mission of Raspberry Pi, which is why we so work hard to make sure that Raspberry Pi computers are as low-cost as possible for everyone, all of the time. We saw an incredible rise in the numbers of people — particularly young people — using Raspberry Pi computers as their main desktop PC during the lockdown, helped by the timely arrival of the fabulous Raspberry Pi 400.

    Supporting the most vulnerable young people

    As part of our response to the pandemic, the Raspberry Pi Foundation teamed up with UK Youth and a network of grassroots youth and community organisations to get Raspberry Pi desktop kits (with monitors, webcams, and headphones) into the hands of disadvantaged young people across the UK. These were young people who didn’t qualify for the government laptop scheme and who otherwise didn’t have a computer to learn at home.

    A young person receives a Raspberry Pi kit to learn at home

    This wasn’t just about shipping hardware (that’s the easy bit). We trained youth workers and teachers, and we worked closely with families to make sure that they could set up and use the computers. We did a huge amount of work to make sure that the educational platforms and apps they needed worked out of the box, and we provided a customised operating system image with free educational resources and enhanced parental controls.

    A screenshot of a video call gallery with 23 participants
    One of our training calls for the adults who will be supporting young people and families to use the Raspberry Pi kits

    The impact has been immediate: young people engaging with learning; parents who reported positive changes in their children’s attitude and behaviour; youth and social workers who have deepened their relationship with families, enabling them to provide better support.

    You can read more about the impact we’re having in the evaluation report for the first phases of the programme, which we published last week.

    Thank you to our supporters

    After a successful pilot programme generously funded by the Bloomfield Trust, we launched the Learn at Home fundraising campaign in December, inviting businesses and individuals to donate money to enable us to expand the programme. I am absolutely thrilled that more than 70 organisations and individuals have so far donated an incredible £900,000 and we are on track to deliver our 5000th Raspberry Pi kit in March.

    Two young girls unpack a computer display
    Thanks to Gillas Lane Primary Academy for collecting some wonderful photos and quotes illustrating the impact our computers are having!

    While the pandemic shone a bright spotlight onto the digital divide, this isn’t just a problem while we are in lockdown. We’ve known for a long time that having a computer to learn at home can be transformational for any young person.

    If you would like to get involved in helping us make sure that every young person has access to a computer to learn at home, we’d love to hear from you. Find out more details on our website, or email us at partners@raspberrypi.org.

    Website: LINK

  • Going hands-on with STEM during the pandemic

    Going hands-on with STEM during the pandemic

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    This article was written by Valentina Chinnici, Arduino Education Product Manager.

    The last year has clearly been challenging for educators around the world due to the pandemic. Yet despite these difficult times, educators and students haven’t stopped getting hands-on and experimenting with STEM.

    But how is it possible to create a systematic environment for student ideas through scientific observation when the science lab is no longer accessible?

    It’s down to creativity and innovation, which haven’t been put on hold even during a pandemic. Teachers have had to adapt quickly to this fast-changing environment, and technologies like Arduino have supported this adaptation, providing educators with flexible tools to keep experimenting from home. 

    Arduino is committed to making STEM accessible for all students, with free tools and resources like the Arduino Science Journal app to collect data, leveraging either your mobile device or external sensors connected to Arduino, or a portable science lab for your remote needs (now on sale).

    Teachers can also take advantage of different boards to experiment with science, which is what UK-based physics teacher, Alan Bates, did. Bates created an experiment to demonstrate the phenomenon known as the conservation of momentum, published in the February edition of The Physics Teacher.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aafZBfh8D8?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Bates combined an Arduino Uno Rev3 and a PASCO Smart Cart to create a movable rubber band launcher to investigate the conservation of momentum, and the energy transferred by the system as the potential energy of the rubber band is released. The Arduino board was used instead to activate the motion releasing the rubber band, and consequently, the cart.

    The launcher was made with a wooden stick, a nail, and the rubber band, placed on a low-friction track, and mounted on top of a PASCO smart cart base. Masses are added to the cart every three measurements of recoil velocity. 

    Thanks to this scientific investigation, Bates was able to demonstrate and verify that, “elastic potential energy is not only transferred into kinetic energy, but also into other types of energy that include thermal and sound energy.”

    For more information on the findings and analysis of the Conservation of Momentum with Dual Technologies, get your copy of the February edition of The Physics Teacher.

    Website: LINK

  • What does equity-focused teaching mean in computer science education?

    What does equity-focused teaching mean in computer science education?

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Today, I discuss the second research seminar in our series of six free online research seminars focused on diversity and inclusion in computing education, where we host researchers from the UK and USA together with the Royal Academy of Engineering. By diversity, we mean any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. This might be, for example, age, gender, socio-economic status, disability, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or sexuality. The aim of inclusion is to embrace all people irrespective of difference. 

    In this seminar, we were delighted to hear from Prof Tia Madkins (University of Texas at Austin), Dr Nicol R. Howard (University of Redlands), and Shomari Jones (Bellevue School District) (find their bios here), who talked to us about culturally responsive pedagogy and equity-focused teaching in K-12 Computer Science.

    Equity-focused computer science teaching

    Tia began the seminar with an audience-engaging task: she asked all participants to share their own definition of equity in the seminar chat. Amongst their many suggestions were “giving everybody the same opportunity”, “equal opportunity to access high-quality education”, and “everyone has access to the same resources”. I found Shomari’s own definition of equity very powerful: 

    “Equity is the fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement of all people, while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups. Improving equity involves increasing justice and fairness within the procedures and processes of institutions or systems, as well as the distribution of resources. Tackling equity requires an understanding of the root cause of outcome disparity within our society.”

    Shomari Jones

    This definition is drawn directly from the young people Shomari works with, and it goes beyond access and opportunity to the notion of increasing justice and fairness and addressing the causes of outcome disparity. Justice was a theme throughout the seminar, with all speakers referring to the way that their work looks at equity in computer science education through a justice-oriented lens.

    Removing deficit thinking

    Using a justice-oriented approach means that learners should be encouraged to use their computer science knowledge to make a difference in areas that are important to them. It means that just having access to a computer science education is not sufficient for equity.

    Tia Madkins presents a slide: "A justice-oriented approach to computer science teaching empowers students to use CS knowledge for transformation, moves beyond access and achievement frames, and is an asset- or strengths-based approach centering students and families"

    Tia spoke about the need to reject “deficit thinking” (i.e. focusing on what learners lack) and instead focus on learners’ strengths or assets and how they bring these to the school classroom. For researchers and teachers to do this, we need to be aware of our own mindset and perspective, to think about what we value about ethnic and racial identities, and to be willing to reflect and take feedback.

    Activities to support computer science teaching

    Nicol talked about some of the ways of designing computing lessons to be equity-focused. She highlighted the benefits of pair programming and other peer pedagogies, where students teach and learn from each other through feedback and sharing ideas/completed work. She suggested using a variety of different programs and environments, to ensure a range of different pathways to understanding. Teachers and schools can aim to base teaching around tools that are open and accessible and, where possible, available in many languages. If the software environment and tasks are accessible, they open the doors of opportunity to enable students to move on to more advanced materials. To demonstrate to learners that computer science is applicable across domains, the topic can also be introduced in the context of mathematics and other subjects.

    Nicol Howard presents a slide: "Considerations for equity-focused computer science teaching include your beliefs (and your students' beliefs) and how they impact CS classrooms; tiered activities and pair programming; self-expressions versus CS preparation; equity-focused lens"

    Learners can benefit from learning computer science regardless of whether they want to become a computer scientist. Computing offers them skills that they can use for self-expression or to be creative in other areas of their life. They can use their knowledge for a specific purpose and to become more autonomous, particularly if their teacher does not have any deficit thinking. In addition, culturally relevant teaching in the classroom demonstrates a teacher’s deliberate and explicit acknowledgment that they value all students in their classroom and expect students to excel.

    Engaging family and community

    Shomari talked about the importance of working with parents and families of ethnically diverse students in order to hear their voices and learn from their experiences.

    Shomari Jones presents a slide: “Parents without backgrounds and insights into the changing landscape of technology struggle to negotiate what roles they can play, such as how to work together in computing activities or how to find learning opportunities for their children.”

    He described how the absence of a background in technology of parents and carers can drastically impact the experiences of young people.

    “Parents without backgrounds and insights into the changing landscape of technology struggle to negotiate what roles they can play, such as how to work together in computing activities or how to find learning opportunities for their children.”

    Betsy DiSalvo, Cecili Reid, and Parisa Khanipour Roshan. 2014

    Shomari drew on an example from the Pacific Northwest in the US, a region with many successful technology companies. In this location, young people from wealthy white and Asian communities can engage fully in informal learning of computer science and can have aspirations to enter technology-related fields, whereas amongst the Black and Latino communities, there are significant barriers to any form of engagement with technology. This already existent inequity has been enhanced by the coronavirus pandemic: once so much of education moved online, it became widely apparent that many families had never owned, or even used, a computer. Shomari highlighted the importance of working with pre-service teachers to support them in understanding the necessity of family and community engagement.

    Building classroom communities

    Building a classroom community starts by fostering and maintaining relationships with students, families, and their communities. Our speakers emphasised how important it is to understand the lives of learners and their situations. Through this understanding, learning experiences can be designed that connect with the learners’ lived experiences and cultural practices. In addition, by tapping into what matters most to learners, teachers can inspire them to be change agents in their communities. Tia gave the example of learning to code or learning to build an app, which provides learners with practical tools they can use for projects they care about, and with skills to create artefacts that challenge and document injustices they see happening in their communities.

    Find out more

    If you want to learn more about this topic, a great place to start is the recent paper Tia and Nicol have co-authored that lays out more detail on the work described in the seminar: Engaging Equity Pedagogies in Computer Science Learning Environments, by Tia C. Madkins, Nicol R. Howard and Natalie Freed, 2020.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h63HgcgWsyo?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    You can access the presentation slides via our seminars page.

    Join our next free seminar

    In our next seminar on Tuesday 2 March at 17:00–18:30 BST / 12:00–13:30 EDT / 9:00–10:30 PDT / 18:00–19:30 CEST, we’ll welcome Jakita O. Thomas (Auburn University), who is going to talk to us about Designing STEM Learning Environments to Support Computational Algorithmic Thinking and Black Girls: A Possibility Model for Changing Hegemonic Narratives and Disrupting STEM Neoliberal Projects. To join this free online seminar, simply sign up by following the link at the button.

    Once you’ve signed up, we’ll email you the seminar meeting link and instructions for joining. If you attended Peter’s and Billy’s seminar, the link remains the same.

    Website: LINK

  • Creative projects for young digital makers

    Creative projects for young digital makers

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    With so many people all over the world still living in various levels of lockdown, we’ve been working hard to provide free, creative project resources for you to keep young digital makers occupied, learning, and most importantly having fun.

    Two siblings sit on a sofa looking at a laptop

    As a dad of two, I know how useful it is to have resources and project ideas for things that we can do together, or that the kids can crack on with independently. As we head into the weekend, I thought I’d share a few ideas for where to get started. 

    Coding and digital making projects

    We offer hundreds of self-guided projects for learning to create with code using tools like Scratch, Python, and more. The projects can be completed online on any computer, they are tailored for different levels of experience, and they include step-by-step guidance that quickly leads to confident, independent young digital makers.

    animation of butterflies fluttering around a forest clearing
    You can code a butterfly garden with one of our ‘Look after yourself’ projects!

    We recently launched a new set of beginner Scratch projects on the theme of ‘Look after yourself’, which include activities designed to help young people take care of their own wellbeing while getting creative with code. They are brilliant.

    “I am so excited by the [‘Look after yourself’] projects on offer. It couldn’t be more perfect for everything we are navigating right now.”

    – teacher in Scotland

    We offer lots of project ideas for the more advanced learners too, including a new set of Python machine learning projects.

    With spring in the air here in Cambridge, UK, my kids and I are planning on building a new Raspberry Pi–powered nature camera this weekend. What will you make? 

    Send a message to astronauts in space

    If Earth is getting you down, then how about creating code that will be sent to the International Space Station?

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ykbAJeGPMM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    This is where your kids’ code could run aboard the ISS!

    As part of Astro Pi Mission Zero, young people up to age 14 can write a Python program to send their own personal message to the astronauts aboard the ISS. Mission Zero takes about an hour to complete online following a step-by-step guide. It’s a fantastic activity for anyone looking to write Python code for the first time!

    Make a cool project 

    We know that motivation matters. Young digital makers often need a goal to work towards, and that’s where Coolest Projects comes in. It’s the world-leading technology showcase where young digital makers show the world what they’ve created and inspire each other.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNIG-QCFHHc?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Coolest Projects is open to young people up to the age of 18, all over the world, with any level of experience or skills. Young people can register their project ideas now and then create their project so that they can share it with the world on our online gallery. 

    It’s a brilliant way to motivate your young digital makers to come up with an idea and make it real. If you’re looking for inspiration, then check out the brilliant projects from last year.

    Happy digital making!

    I hope that these resources and project ideas inspire you and your kids to get creative with technology, whether you’re in lockdown or not. Stay safe and be kind to yourself and each other. We’ll get through this.

    Website: LINK

  • Computing education and underrepresentation: the data from England

    Computing education and underrepresentation: the data from England

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    In this blog post, I’ll discuss the first research seminar in our six-part series about diversity and inclusion. Let’s start by defining our terms. Diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. This might be, for example, age, gender, socio-economic status, disability, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or sexuality. The aim of inclusion is to embrace all people irrespective of difference.

    It’s vital that we are inclusive in computing education, because we need to ensure that everyone can access and learn the empowering and enabling technical skills they need to support all aspects of their lives.

    One male and two female teenagers at a computer

    Between January and June of this year, we’re partnering with the Royal Academy of Engineering to host speakers from the UK and USA for a series of six research seminars focused on diversity and inclusion in computing education.

    We kicked off the series with a seminar from Dr Peter Kemp and Dr Billy Wong focused on computing education in England’s schools post-14. Peter is a Lecturer in Computing Education at King’s College London, where he leads on initial teacher education in computing. His research areas are digital creativity and digital equity. Billy is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Education, University of Reading. His areas of research are educational identities and inequalities, especially in the context of higher education and STEM education.

    Computing in England’s schools

    Peter began the seminar with a comprehensive look at the history of curriculum change in Computing in England. This was very useful given our very international audience for these seminars, and I will summarise it below. (If you’d like more detail, you can look over the slides from the seminar. Note that these changes refer to England only, as education in the UK is devolved, and England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales each has a different education system.)

    In 2014, England switched from mandatory ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to mandatory Computing (encompassing information technology, computer science, and digital literacy). This shift was complemented by a change in the qualifications for students aged 14–16 and 16–18, where the primary qualifications are GCSEs and A levels respectively:

    • At GCSE, there has been a transition from GCSE ICT to GCSE Computer Science over the last five years, with GCSE ICT being discontinued in 2017
    • At A level before 2014, ICT and Computing were on offer as two separate A levels; now there is only one, A level Computer Science

    One of the issues is that in the English education system, there is a narrowing of the curriculum at age 14: students have to choose between Computer Science and other subjects such as Geography, History, Religious Studies, Drama, Music, etc. This means that those students that choose not to take a GCSE Computer Science (CS) may find that their digital education is thereby curtailed from then onwards. Peter’s and Billy’s view is that having a more specialist subject offer for age 14+ (Computer Science as opposed to ICT) means that fewer students take it, and they showed evidence of this from qualifications data. The number of students taking CS at GCSE has risen considerably since its introduction, but it’s not yet at the level of GCSE ICT uptake.

    GCSE computer science and equity

    Only 64% of schools in England offer GCSE Computer Science, meaning that just 81% of students have the opportunity to take the subject (some schools also add selection criteria). A higher percentage (90%) of selective grammar schools offer GCSE CS than do comprehensive schools (80%) or independent schools (39%). Peter suggested that this was making Computer Science a “little more elitist” as a subject.

    Peter analysed data from England’s National Pupil Database (NPD) to thoroughly investigate the uptake of Computer Science post-14 with respect to the diversity of entrants.

    He found that the gender gap for GCSE CS uptake is greater than it was for GCSE ICT. Now girls make up 22% of the cohort for GCSE CS (2020 data), whereas for the ICT qualification (2017 data), 43% of students were female.

    Peter’s analysis showed that there is also a lower representation of black students and of students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds in the cohort for GCSE CS. In contrast, students with Chinese ancestry are proportionally more highly represented in the cohort. 

    Another part of Peter’s analysis related gender data to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI), which is used as an indicator of the level of poverty in England’s local authority districts. In the graphs below, a higher IDACI decile means more deprivation in an area. Relating gender data of GCSE CS uptake against the IDACI shows that:

    • Girls from more deprived areas are more likely to take up GCSE CS than girls from less deprived areas are
    • The opposite is true for boys
    Two bar charts relating gender data of GCSE uptake against the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index. The graph plotting GCSE ICT data shows that students from areas with higher deprivation are slightly more likely to choose the GCSE, irrespective of gender. The graph plotting GCSE Computer Science data shows that girls from more deprived areas are more likely to take up GCSE CS than girls from less deprived areas, and the opposite is true for boys.

    Peter covered much more data in the seminar, so do watch the video recording (below) if you want to learn more.

    Peter’s analysis shows a lack of equity (i.e. equality of outcome in the form of proportional representation) in uptake of GCSE CS after age 14. It is also important to recognise, however, that England does mandate — not simply provide or offer — Computing for all pupils at both primary and secondary levels; making a subject mandatory is the only way to ensure that we do give access to all pupils.

    What can we do about the lack of equity?

    Billy presented some of the potential reasons for why some groups of young people are not fully represented in GCSE Computer Science:

    • There are many stereotypes surrounding the image of ‘the computer scientist’, and young people may not be able to identify with the perception they hold of ‘the computer scientist’
    • There is inequality in access to resources, as indicated by the research on science and STEM capital being carried out within the ASPIRES project

    More research is needed to understand the subject choices young people make and their reasons for choosing as they do.

    We also need to look at how the way we teach Computing to students aged 11 to 14 (and younger) affects whether they choose CS as a post-14 subject. Our next seminar revolves around equity-focused teaching practices, such as culturally relevant pedagogy or culturally responsive teaching, and how educators can use them in their CS learning environments. 

    Meanwhile, our own research project at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Gender Balance in Computing, investigates particular approaches in school and non-formal learning and how they can impact on gender balance in Computer Science. For an overview of recent research around barriers to gender balance in school computing, look back on the research seminar by Katharine Childs from our team.

    Peter and Billy themselves have recently been successful in obtaining funding for a research project to explore female computing performance and subject choice in English schools, a project they will be starting soon!

    If you missed the seminar, watch recording here. You can also find Peter and Billy’s presentation slides on our seminars page.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S5Ak_W0znc?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Next up in our seminar series

    In our next research seminar on Tuesday 2 February at 17:00–18:30 BST / 12:00–13:30 EDT / 9:00–10:30 PDT / 18:00–19:30 CEST, we’ll welcome Prof Tia Madkins (University of Texas at Austin), Dr Nicol R. Howard (University of Redlands), and Shomari Jones (Bellevue School District), who are going to talk to us about culturally responsive pedagogy and equity-focused teaching in K-12 Computer Science. To join this free online seminar, simply sign up with your name and email address.

    Once you’ve signed up, we’ll email you the seminar meeting link and instructions for joining. If you attended Peter’s and Billy’s seminar, the link remains the same.

    Website: LINK

  • Supporting teachers and students with remote learning through free video lessons

    Supporting teachers and students with remote learning through free video lessons

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Working with Oak National Academy, we’ve turned the materials from our Teach Computing Curriculum into more than 300 free, curriculum-mapped video lessons for remote learning.

    A girl in a hijab learning at home at a laptop

    A comprehensive set of free classroom materials

    One of our biggest projects for teachers that we’ve worked on over the past two years is the Teach Computing Curriculum: a comprehensive set of free computing classroom materials for key stages 1 to 4 (learners aged 5 to 16). The materials comprise lesson plans, homework, progression mapping, and assessment materials. We’ve created these as part of the National Centre for Computing Education, but they are freely available for educators all over the world to download and use.

    More than 300 free, curriculum-mapped video lessons

    In the second half of 2020, in response to school closures, our team of experienced teachers produced over 100 hours of video to transform Teach Computing Curriculum materials into video lessons for learning at home. They are freely available for parents, educators, and learners to continue learning computing at home, wherever you are in the world.

    Here’s the start of lesson 2 in the Year 8 ‘Computer systems’ unit

    You’ll find our videos for more than 300 hour-long lessons on the Oak National Academy website. The progression of the lessons is mapped out clearly, and the videos cover England’s computing national curriculum. There are video lessons for:

    • Years 5 and 6 at key stage 2 (ages 7 to 11)
    • Years 7, 8, and 9 at key stage 3 (ages 11 to 14)
    • Examined (GCSE) as well as non-examined (Digital Literacy) at key stage 4 (ages 14 to 16)

    To access the full set of classroom materials for teaching, visit the National Centre for Computing Education website.

    Website: LINK

  • Raspberry Pi 400 for working and learning at home

    Raspberry Pi 400 for working and learning at home

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Did you get Raspberry Pi 400 as a home learning or working device? We hope you’ve been getting on well with our affordable all-in-one computing solution.

    If you’re a new user, here are some tips for you to get the most out of your brand-new Raspberry Pi 400.

    Does *anyone’s* home office desk look this tidy?..

    First things first!

    Make sure your Raspberry Pi runs the newest version of the Raspberry Pi OS. Here is how (and here is a video preview of what the process looks like):

    Screen grab of raspberry pi os being installed inline code

    Open a terminal window by clicking on the Terminal icon in the top menu bar. Then type this command in the terminal window:

    sudo apt update

    Press Enter on the keyboard. Once the update is downloaded, type into the window:

    sudo apt full-upgrade

    Press Enter again. It is safe to just accept the default answer to any questions you are asked during the procedure by typing y and pressing Enter.

    Now reboot your Raspberry Pi.

    Videoconferencing, collaboration, files

    ‘Every Zoom Meeting’ by Second City via YouTube

    With the newest version of Raspberry Pi OS installed, you can use the following applications in the Chromium browser:

    Just log in with your username and password and start working or learning!

    Raspberry Pi OS also has LibreOffice installed for working with text files, spreadsheets, and the like.

    Printing on your Raspberry Pi

    Go into the Preferences section in the main menu, and open Print Settings. This shows the system-config-printer dialog window, where you can do the usual things you’re familiar with from other operating systems: add new printers, remove old ones, set a printer as the default, and access the print queue for each printer.

    Like most things in Linux-based operating systems such as Raspberry Pi OS, whether you can make your printer model work depends on user contributions; not every printer is supported yet. We’ve found that most networked printers work fine, while USB printers are a bit hit-and-miss. The best thing to do is to try it and see, and ask for help on our forums if your particular printer doesn’t seem to work.

    More tips for using Raspberry Pi as a home computer

    Our very own Alasdair Allen wrote a comprehensive guide that covers more topics of setting up a Raspberry Pi for home working, from getting your audio and video ready to setting up a Citrix workspace. Thanks Alasdair!

    Free resources for learning at home

    A girl and mother doing a homeschooling lesson at a laptop

    We’ve got a host of completely free resources for young people, parents, and teachers to continue computing school lessons at home and learn about digital making. Discover them all here!

    What do you need?

    Let us know in the comments if there are any niggles you’re experiencing, or if you have a top tip to help others who are just getting to grips with using Raspberry Pi as a home learning or working device.

    Website: LINK

  • Learning at home with the Raspberry Pi Foundation

    Learning at home with the Raspberry Pi Foundation

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    As the UK — like many countries around the world — kicks off the new year with another national lockdown, meaning that millions of young people are unable to attend school, I want to share an update on how the Raspberry Pi Foundation is helping young people to learn at home.

    Please help us spread the word to teachers, school leaders, governors, parents, and carers. Everything we are offering here is 100% free and the more people know about it, the more young people will benefit.

    A girl and mother doing a homeschooling lesson at a laptop

    Supporting teachers and pupils 

    Schools and teachers all over the world have been doing a heroic job over the past ten months, managing the transition to emergency remote teaching during the first round of lockdowns, supporting the most vulnerable pupils, dealing with uncertainty, changing the way that schools worked to welcome pupils back safely, helping pupils catch up with lost learning, and much, much more.

    Both in my role as Chief Executive of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and as chair of governors at a state school here in Cambridge, I’ve seen first-hand the immense pressure that schools and teachers are under. I’ve also seen them display the most amazing resilience, commitment, and innovation. I want to say a huge thank you to all teachers and school staff for everything you’ve done and continue to do to help young people through this crisis. 

    Here’s some of the resources and tools that we’ve created to help you continue to deliver a world-class computing education: 

    • The Teach Computing Curriculum is a comprehensive set of lesson plans for KS1–4 (learners aged 5–16) as well as homework, progression mapping, and assessment materials.
    • Working with the fabulous Oak National Academy, we’ve produced 100 hours of video for 300 video lessons based on the Teach Computing Curriculum.
    • Isaac Computer Science is our online learning platform for advanced computer science (A level, learners aged 16–18) and includes comprehensive, interactive materials and videos. It also allows you to set your learners self-marking questions. 

    All of these resources are mapped to the English computing curriculum and produced as part of the National Centre for Computing Education. They are available for everyone, anywhere in the world, for free. 

    Making something fun with code

    Parents and carers are the other heroes of remote learning during lockdown. I know from personal experience that juggling work and supporting home learning can be really tough, and we’re all trying to find meaningful, fun alternatives to letting our kids binge YouTube or Netflix (other video platforms and streaming services are available).

    That’s why we’ve been working really hard to provide parents and carers with easy, accessible ways for you to help your young digital makers to get creative with technology:

    A Coolest Projects participant

    Getting computers into the hands of young people who need them 

    One of the harsh lessons we learned last year was that far too many young people don’t have a computer for learning at home. There has always been a digital divide; the pandemic has just put it centre-stage. The good news is that the cost of solving this problem is now trivial compared to the cost of allowing it to persist.

    That’s why the Raspberry Pi Foundation has teamed up with UK Youth and a network of grassroots youth and community organisations to get computers into the hands of disadvantaged young people across the UK.

    A young person receives a Raspberry Pi kit to learn at home

    For under £200 we can provide a vulnerable child with everything they need to learn at home, including a Raspberry Pi desktop computer, a monitor, a webcam, free educational software, and ongoing support from a local youth worker and the Foundation team. So far, we have managed to get 2000 Raspberry Pi computers into the hands of the most vulnerable young people in the UK. A drop in the ocean compared to the size of the problem, but a huge impact for every single young person and family.

    This has only been possible thanks to the generous support of individuals, foundations, and businesses that have donated to support our work. If you’d like to get involved too, you can find out more here.

    Website: LINK

  • Raspberry Pi and Google Code Next bring computer science to 1000 Chicago students

    Raspberry Pi and Google Code Next bring computer science to 1000 Chicago students

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    To round off Computer Science Education Week 2020, the Google Code Next team, working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation and some incredible volunteers in the Chicago area, helped over 400 Black and Latinx high school students get coding using Raspberry Pi 400. Here’s Omnia Saed with more.

    In partnership with Google Code Next, the Raspberry Pi Foundation curated a computer science activity for over 400 Chicago Public Schools students. Over 1000 kits with the newly released Raspberry Pi 400 were sent to six public schools to mark the end of Computer Science Education Week (7-14 December).

    Google Code Next

    Google Code Next is a free computer science education program for Black and Latinx high school students. Between 2011 and 2018, Black and Hispanic college students each only made up 3 percent of computer science graduates; Code Next works to change that. The program provides students with the skills and inspiration needed for long and rewarding careers in computer science.

    “We aim to provide Black and Latinx students with skills and technical social capital — that web of relationships you can tap into,” said Google Diversity STEM Strategist Shameeka Emanuel.

    The main event

    The virtual event brought over 80 Google volunteers, students and teachers together to create their very own “Raspimon”—a virtual monster powered by Raspberry Pi. For many students, it was their first time coding.

    Matt Richardson, Executive Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation North America, opened the event by telling students to share their work with family and friends.

    “I hope you find new ways to solve problems or express yourselves creatively. More importantly, be sure to share what you create with someone you know – you might just spark curiosity in someone else,” he said.

    In an interview with the Chicago Sun Times, Troy Williams, Chicago Public Schools interim director of computer science, explains, “Our students being able to have access to these Raspberry Pis and other resources supplements the learning they’re doing in the classrooms, and brings another level of engagement where they can create on their own. It really helps toward closing the digital divide and the learning gap as well.”

    Want to join in with the fun? You’ll find a copy of the activity and curriculum on the Code Next website.

    Top view of a woman's hands using the Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard and official Raspberry Pi mouse

    And if you’re looking to introduce someone to coding over the holidays, there’s still time to order a Raspberry Pi 400 computer kit from our network of Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers.

    Website: LINK

  • Block-based programming: does it help students learn?

    Block-based programming: does it help students learn?

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we are continually inspired by young learners in our community: they embrace digital making and computing to build creative projects, supported by our resources, clubs, and volunteers. While creating their projects, they are learning the core programming skills that underlie digital making.

    Over the years, many tools and environments have been developed to make programming more accessible to young people. Scratch is one example of a block-based programming environment for young learners, and it’s been shown to make programming more accessible to them; on our projects site we offer many step-by-step Scratch project resources.

    But does block-based programming actually help learning? Does it increase motivation and support students? Where is the hard evidence? In our latest research seminar, we were delighted to hear from Dr David Weintrop, an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland who has done research in this area for several years and published widely on the differences between block-based and text-based programming environments.

    David Weintrop

    A variety of block-based programming environments

    The first useful insight David shared was that we should avoid thinking about block-based programming as synonymous with the well-known Scratch environment. There are several other environments, with different affordances, that David referred to in his talk, such as Snap, Pencil Code, Blockly, and more.

    Logos of block-based programming environments

    Some of these, for example Pencil Code, offer a dual-modality (or hybrid) environment, where learners can write the same program in a text-based and a block-based programming environment side by side. Dual-modality environments provide this side-by-side approach based on the assumption that being able to match a text-based program to its block-based equivalent supports the development of understanding of program syntax in a text-based language.

    Screenshot of the Pencil Code dual-modality programming environment

    As a tool for transitioning to text-based programming

    Another aspect of the research around block-based programming focuses on its usefulness as a transition to a text-based language. David described a 15-week study he conducted in high schools in the USA to investigate differences in student learning caused by use of block-based, text-based, and hybrid (a mixture of both using a dual-modality platform) programming tools.

    Details of the study design: classroom-based, 3 conditions, 2 phases, quasi-experimental mixed method study

    The 90 students in the study (14 to 16 years old) were divided into three groups, each with a different intervention but taught by the same teacher. In the first phase of the study (5 weeks), the groups were set the same tasks with the same learning objectives, but they used either block-based programming, text-based programming, or the hybrid environment.

    After 5 weeks, students were given a test to assess learning outcomes, and they were asked questions about their attitudes to programming (specifically their perception of computing and their confidence). In the second phase (10 weeks), all the students were taught Java (a common language taught in the USA for end-of-school assessment), and then the test and attitudinal questions were repeated.

    The results showed that at the 5-week point, the students who had used block-based programming scored higher in their learning outcome assessment, but at the final assessment after 15 weeks, all groups’ scores were roughly equivalent.  

    A graph of assessment scores of the three groups in the study. The final scores are not significantly different.

    In terms of students’ perception of computing and confidence, the responses of the Blocks group were very positive at the 5-week point, while at the 15-week point, the responses were less positive. The responses from the Text group showed a gradual increase in positivity between the 5- and 15-week points. The Hybrid group’s responses weren’t as negative as those of the Text group at the 5-week point, and their positivity didn’t decrease like the Blocks group’s did.

    Taking both methods of assessment into account, the Hybrid group showed the best results in the study. The gains associated with the block-based introduction to programming did not translate to those students being further ahead when learning Java, but starting with block-based programming also did not hamper students’ transition to text-based programming.

    David completed his talk by recommending dual-modality environments (such as Pencil Code) for teaching programming, as used by the Hybrid group in his study. 

    More research is needed

    The seminar audience raised many questions about David’s study, for example whether the actual teaching (pedagogy) may have differed for the three groups, and whether the results are not just due to the specific tools or environments that were used. This is definitely an area for further research. 

    It seems that students may benefit from different tools at different times, which is why a dual-modality environment can be very useful. Of course, competence in programming takes a long time to develop, so there is room on the research agenda for longitudinal studies that monitor students’ progress over many months and even years. Such studies could take into account both the teaching approach and the programming environment in order to determine what factors impact a deep understanding of programming concepts, and students’ desire to carry on with their programming journey. 

    Next up in our series

    If you missed the seminar, you can find David’s presentation slides and a recording of his talk on our seminars page.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M7Vvf7ZrbU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Our next free online seminar takes place on Tuesday 5 January at 17:00–18:00 BST / 12:00–13:00 EDT / 9:00–10:00 PDT / 18:00–19:00 CEST. We’ll welcome Peter Kemp and Billy Wong, who are going to share insights from their research on computing education for underrepresented groups. To join this free online seminar, simply sign up with your name and email address.

    Once you’ve signed up, we’ll email you the seminar meeting link and instructions for joining. If you attended David’s seminar, the link remains the same.

    The January seminar will be the first one in our series focusing on diversity and inclusion in computing education, which we’re co-hosting with the Royal Academy for Engineering. We hope to see you there!

    Website: LINK