Kategorie: Technology

  • Experience CS: A free integrated curriculum for computer science

    Experience CS: A free integrated curriculum for computer science

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Experience CS is a brand-new, free, integrated computer science curriculum for elementary and middle school educators and anyone working with students aged 8 to 14. A key design principle for Experience CS is that any educator can use it. You don’t need a computer science qualification or previous experience in teaching computer science classes to deliver engaging and creative learning experiences for your students. That’s why, as US Executive Director, I’m especially pleased to announce the launch of the first six units in the curriculum today.

    A vibrant yellow background with the text "Introducing Experience CS" centered. Four colorful, abstract shapes resembling coding blocks in purple, yellow, orange, and blue are placed around the text.

    Read on to explore the new learning materials available and how you can start using them in your school.  

    Six integrated computer science units 

    Experience CS enables educators to teach computer science through a curriculum that integrates CS concepts and knowledge into core subjects such as math, science, and social studies. Ashly Tritch, computer science immersion specialist at Olson Middle School in Bloomington, MN, USA, said, “Cross-curricular computer science is important because it shows students how coding and tech skills can be used in other subjects like math, science, or even art. It helps make learning more interesting and helps kids understand how computer science connects to real life. The lessons that the Raspberry Pi Foundation is creating will be super engaging, with fun and creative activities that keep students curious and excited to learn.”

    Six integrated computer science units are available to access, with more on the way. The units have been released in beta, and we would love to hear your feedback as we continue to make updates to the lesson materials. Each of the units includes an overview with a summary of the topics covered and a series of six to eight lessons, including lesson plans, slide decks, student-facing materials, and starter projects within our Code Editor for Education. 

    We have designed the units to be cross-curricular, so students can learn about computer science concepts while deepening their understanding of related subject area content. For example, in “The me project,” grade 4 students (ages 9–10) explore the basics of Scratch, personalise sprites, and develop programs to create an animation that tells a story all about them. The project could be integrated into language arts lessons, enabling young learners to explore visual representation and write their own unique stories. In the “Smart communities” unit, students in grade 6 (ages 11–12) explore ways in which computing and technology can be used to create environments that are responsive to the needs of community members; this could be included within science or technology lessons.

    Three educational unit cards are displayed: "Weather watchers", "The me project" and "Take a tour”.

    Initially, the curriculum and resources have been mapped to national and local standards in the US and Canada, including the K–12 Computer Science Teachers Association Standards for Students, but they are available for teachers and students anywhere in the world to use.

    You can register for a free Raspberry Pi Foundation account to start downloading the learning materials, including lesson plans, slide decks, student activity sheets and assessment criteria. 

    A version of Scratch built especially for schools 

    Experience CS has been built from the ground up to support safe, confident computing lessons in real classrooms. It includes self-directed creative projects using the popular programming language Scratch. We have built a version of Scratch that is especially for schools. That means it doesn’t have the community and sharing features that are central to the full Scratch platform. Instead, everything runs in a closed, classroom-ready environment that supports safeguarding policies and fits with school filtering systems. Simple and intuitive learning management features enable teachers to create accounts, set assignments, and review progress.

    How to get started 

    On the “Getting Started” page, teachers will find everything they need, including helpful videos and tutorials. The next webinar takes place on 16th July, where we will walk you through all six units available at launch and show you how easy it is to get started with the learning materials. Whether you’re a CS teacher, general education teacher, administrator, or someone who works with school-aged young people, this session will give you the practical tools and guidance you need to bring Experience CS to life in your classroom or program.

    Professional development 

    No matter your experience or skill level, the Experience CS content has been designed to be easy to use. However, we also provide professional development (PD) opportunities to help build confidence in teaching computer science. 

    Teachers anywhere in the world can access free online courses offering flexible, self-paced learning to help you confidently teach block-based programming with effective, inclusive computing pedagogy. Our new course will develop your understanding of semantic waves while highlighting research-backed activities and examples directly from Experience CS units. 

    Help shape Experience CS

    Experience CS is supported by Google and builds on the fantastic work they have done to support educators and students through CS First. The team behind Experience CS includes educators with significant experience in teaching CS in elementary and middle school settings, and it is based on extensive classroom testing and research. We will continue to develop and improve the curriculum and resources in response to feedback from teachers and students. If you would like to help shape the future of Experience CS by testing new features and providing valuable feedback to improve the programme, sign up for the mailing list. 

    What next? 

    We can’t wait for you to explore Experience CS. We will continue to release more curriculum units as well as make the materials available in French and Spanish. Get a head start ready for the next school year by registering for a free Raspberry Pi Foundation account, which will allow you immediate access to all the lesson materials, and then create your school account to begin creating classes, add a scratch project to a class, manage student accounts and view student work.

    Website: LINK

  • Why we chose Claude for the Arduino Cloud AI Assistant

    Why we chose Claude for the Arduino Cloud AI Assistant

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    We know that introducing AI into your coding environment comes with questions – about safety, accuracy, privacy, and trust. That’s why we want to be transparent about how we built the recently-announced Arduino AI Assistant in the Cloud IDE, and why we chose to power it with Claude by Anthropic, available via Amazon Web Services (AWS) Bedrock. This feature is not a shortcut. It’s a tool to help you learn faster, test smarter, and stay focused on the creative side of building. Here’s how, and why, we made it.

    Arduino AI Assistant: Your smart coding companion

    Claude was designed from the ground up to be a collaborator – not just a chatbot. It’s one of the top-performing large language models (LLMs) when it comes to writing, explaining, and editing code. It is available through Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service that makes foundation models accessible via API.  We integrated Claude via AWS because it allowed us to easily access a secure and scalable model directly within the infrastructure we already trust and use. 

    We tested multiple models, and Claude stood out for its ability to understand context, generate cleaner code, and explain concepts clearly. It was also a good match for our goals: not just delivering answers, but helping you learn, debug, and iterate.

    Context-aware with less hallucination

    In developing the Arduino Cloud AI Assistant, we’ve implemented Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) – a technique that gives the AI more relevant context before it answers your question. Basically, when you ask the assistant something, we don’t just send your prompt to Claude directly. Instead, we first provide it with hand-picked, structured documentation based on your sketch, board, and use case.

    This means you’re more likely to get reliable, Arduino-specific answers, and less likely to see hallucinated or misleading code. We regularly update these documents based on product releases and user feedback – so the system continues to improve over time.

    Privacy comes first

    We’ve built clear guardrails into the AI Assistant’s behavior – both our own and the ones provided by AWS Bedrock. These include:

    • No personal or identifiable data (like private sketches or account info) is ever shared with the LLM.
    • Every response stays within the Arduino context – the assistant won’t answer or suggest anything unrelated to our platform.
    • Guardrails help prevent suggestions for harmful or inappropriate projects, reinforcing our community guidelines.

    We’ve also taken a minimal-data approach. The assistant only sees what it needs to generate a useful reply – no more, no less.

    Community-led AI Assistant

    This assistant wasn’t designed in a vacuum. Before launch, we worked closely with users through interviews and beta testing to identify the most common questions and pain points. The feedback we received shaped everything from prompt engineering to UI design.

    We’re continuing to build this tool with you. That’s why every answer includes a thumbs up/down feedback option, and why we monitor the results closely.  Some of the most useful improvements – like support for more libraries, better error messages, and undo/redo functionality – came directly from user suggestions.

    Your input helps us tune the assistant – and the documents it draws from – to serve the real needs of real developers.

    Supporting learning, not replacing it

    We’ve heard the concerns about generative AI – from hallucinated code to worries that AI tools could erode developer skills or take over human jobs. We share some of these concerns, and we’ve taken a careful approach. 

    We designed the Arduino AI Assistant to be just that: an assistant, not a replacement. It’s not there to write your entire project. It’s there to help you fix bugs, understand syntax, explore ideas, and stay in flow while you build. For example, you can ask the assistant: “Explain this sketch”, and it will walk you through the code step by step, helping you understand a project written by someone else or clarify syntax you’re unfamiliar with.

    We’ve added lightweight signals – like “experimental” tags and a friendly reminder not to blindly trust code to encourage self-learning.

    Have you tried the Arduino Cloud AI Assistant yet?

    The Arduino Cloud AI Assistant is available to everyone – even on the free plan.
    You can try it today with up to 30 free interactions per month, right inside the Cloud Editor.

    If you need more, our Maker and School plans include 1,500 monthly interactions, and Team or Enterprise plans unlock unlimited usage.

    Get started now at cloud.arduino.cc/features and let the assistant help you code smarter, debug faster, and stay in flow.

    The post Why we chose Claude for the Arduino Cloud AI Assistant appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Build the Ultimate Media Centre in Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

    Build the Ultimate Media Centre in Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Take control of your home video, television and music, with a media centre build based on Raspberry Pi. Your film collection deserves the best!

    Trees are brilliant! They capture carbon, they keep urban streets cool, their roots slow down erosion, they provide habitat for millions of other life forms, and loads more. Meet the intelligent garden system that’s using Raspberry Pi and AI to monitor the health of trees, bees and other garden visitors.

    Take a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, a couple of H-bridges, motors and a servo, and you too can build a remote-controlled car. Many have done it, but to our knowledge only Eugene Tkachenko has 3D printed everything else, from the wheels to the chassis through to the mechanical parts such as the drive train and gears. It’s a beautiful bit of work.

    If you like to take your music out and about, and you yearn for the days when we used to respect proper album artwork, you’ll like the PiPod, a mobile MP3 player that adorns the wearer’s upper limb like a viking arm ring. A viking arm ring that uses a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a 4-inch screen to let those around you know that you’re listening to David Bowie.

    Fancy a go at stop-motion animation? How about time-lapse photography? Or building a photo booth, or a nature cam, or even getting into face recognition using AI? You can do all this, and more, with Raspberry Pi and one of its range of camera modules. Rob Zwetsloot has been snapping away.

    And that’s not all: we’ve hacked a toy robot arm to obey Micropython on a Raspberry Pi Pico, built a Raspberry Pi Pico drum machine, and blended the ancient art of origami with the much more recent innovation of an RGB LED, and loads more besides. Find out for yourself in the latest issue of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, on sale now!

  • This 1D camera captures 2D images of things it can’t see

    This 1D camera captures 2D images of things it can’t see

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Yes, the title of this article sounds pretty crazy. But not only is it entirely possible through the lens of physics, but it is also practical to achieve in the real world using affordable parts. Jon Bumstead pulled it off with an Arduino, a photoresistor, and an inexpensive portable projector.

    Today’s digital camera sensors are the result of a fairly linear progression from a camera obscura up through film cameras. The light from the scene enters through a lens that focuses all of that light on the 2D plane at the same time. The digital “sensor” is actually a whole grid of tiny sensors that each measure the light they receive. The camera records those values and reconstructing them gives you a digital image.

    Bumstead’s “camera” works differently and only records a single point of light at a time. The entire camera is actually just an Arduino Mega 2560 (an UNO also works) with a photoresistor. The photoresistor provides a single analog light measurement and the Arduino reads that measurement, assigns a digital value, and passes the data to a PC.

    Here’s the cool part: by only illuminating one point of the scene at a time, the camera can record each “pixel” in sequence. Those pixel values can then be reconstructed into an image. In this case, Bumstead used a portable video projector to provide the illumination. It scans the illumination point across the scene as the Arduino collects data from the photoresistor.

    Bumstead also experimented with more complex techniques that rely on projected patterns and a lot of very fancy math to achieve similar results.

    Finally, Bumstead showed that this also works when the photoresistor doesn’t have line-of-sight to the scene. In that demonstration, light from the scene bounces off a piece of paper, kind of like a mirror. The photodetector only sees the reflected light. But that doesn’t matter — remember, the photodetector is only seeing a single point of light anyway. Whether that light came directly from the surface of objects in the scene or bounced off paper first, the result is the same (just with a bit less quality, because the paper isn’t a perfect reflector).

    The post This 1D camera captures 2D images of things it can’t see appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Win! One of five Sense HAT V2 bundles

    Win! One of five Sense HAT V2 bundles

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Sony Watchman cyberdeck

    From 1982 to 2000 Sony also made a line of pocket TVs, which didn’t catch on as much in the UK (who wants to walk around glued to a tiny portable screen, eh?). These devices, collectively called the Sony Watchman, came in many, many variants as screen technology evolved over 18 years of production. What’s […]

  • Arduino Cloud Café: Teach real coding concepts with Arduino AI Assistant

    Arduino Cloud Café: Teach real coding concepts with Arduino AI Assistant

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Are you an educator looking to make coding easier and faster to teach? 

    Join Andrea Richetta, Principal Product Evangelist at Arduino, and Roxana Escobedo, EDU Product Marketing Specialist, for a special Arduino Cloud Café live webinar on July 7th at 5PM CET.

    You will discover how the new AI Assistant in Arduino Cloud can help you save valuable time in the classroom. We’ll also show you how the AI Assistant can generate, explain, and fix code, giving both you and your students the support you need to focus on creativity and learning.

    What to expect

    • Watch live demos with the UNO R4 WiFi and Plug and Make Kit
    • Learn how to generate sketches, fix errors, and understand your code better
    • Get Andrea Richetta’s top 5 expert tips to work smarter with AI
    • Ask your questions live during our open Q&A

    Whether you’re teaching STEM in a classroom or mentoring young developers, this session will help you engage with smarter, faster, AI-powered teaching.

    Register now

    Don’t miss your chance to see the AI Assistant in action and find out how AI is shaping the future of Arduino development.

    Register now

    The post Arduino Cloud Café: Teach real coding concepts with Arduino AI Assistant appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Adapting our computing curriculum resources for Kenya — the journey so far

    Adapting our computing curriculum resources for Kenya — the journey so far

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Young people everywhere deserve a high-quality computing education. But what a high-quality computing education looks like differs depending on a learner’s culture, context, and the existing provision in the country they live in. Therefore, adapting our educational resources for a range of contexts is a key part of our work at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, for example when we collaborate with partners to localise our Computing Curriculum resources.

    Two young people using a computer.

    In this blog post, we share our experiences of adapting curriculum resources with our partners in Kenya, and the impact of this work. This is the first post in a mini-series of three — look out for the upcoming ones about our partnerships in the Indian states of Odisha and Telangana.

    Our computing curriculum partnerships in Kenya

    Last year, we embarked on partnerships in two areas of Kenya and aimed to roll out computing curriculum resources to students in grades 4 to 9 in Kenyan schools:

    During the 2024 academic year, we trained 39 local community trainers, who subsequently trained 453 teachers. We also adapted The Computing Curriculum materials to develop resources — lesson plans, presentation slides, and supporting activities — that are relevant and engaging in the schools our partners work with.

    Educators participate in a teacher training in Kenya.

    Impact in 2024

    We estimate that around 55,000 students were reached by our Kenya computing curriculum resources in 2024. Most teachers who had used our resources felt the lessons had improved their students’ knowledge and skills. Of those who responded to our follow-up survey:

    • 94% agreed that their students had improved their knowledge of computing concepts
    • 92% agreed that their students have developed their computing skills
    • 90% agreed that their students better understand how to use technology safely.
    Young people using tablets in a classroom.

    This was supported by conversations with teachers and students. In student focus groups, students were able to list topics they had learned about and skills they had developed.

    “….The lessons have had a significant positive impact on the students. They now demonstrate greater confidence in using technology, particularly with tasks involving programming in Scratch. This has improved their problem-solving skills and made them more engaged in learning.” – Teacher, Mombasa

    “In my computing lessons, I’ve learned how to use a computer safely and properly. I learned how to type, use the mouse, and open programs. We also learned about coding, which is really fun because we can make things happen on the screen by giving the computer instructions. I’ve also learned how to create a simple document using software like Excel sheets. I really enjoy using the computer to solve problems and make things work.” – Learner, Arid and Semi Arid Lands

    Implementation: Challenges, solutions, and building on progress

    While teachers tended to agree that students’ skills and knowledge had increased, fewer felt that most students had achieved the specific learning objectives identified in the resources. This was often due to the content being only partially delivered, for example, due to limited availability of computing equipment in schools. However, many students lacked prior experience with the topics covered in the lessons, suggesting a large improvement in their skills compared to a low baseline.

    Young people learning about computing in a classroom.

    Similarly, some training sessions were affected by challenges with the equipment, infrastructure, and learning environment available. Teachers were appreciative of the training and many have begun to deliver the computing lessons, but often lacked prior experience with computing and hence requested additional support.

    In response to feedback from partners and teachers, we made some updates to our Computing Curriculum and training resources in preparation for the 2025 academic year. For example, we increased the alignment to Kenya’s national curriculum, prepared a more comprehensive teacher guide, and incorporated time for teachers to discuss solutions to common delivery challenges during training.

    Educators participate in a teacher training in Kenya.

    In 2025, we are working with partners to upskill even more teachers and broaden the reach of our computing lessons to a further four counties. Our partners have now begun upskilling both new and existing teachers on the updated resources, and we will continue to work with them to monitor and evaluate their programme’s success in the coming months.

    Want to learn more about our curriculum resources?

    You can access our free Computing Curriculum resources on our website — we are currently working to make the materials for Kenya, and for India, downloadable there.

    Look out for the next blog in this mini-series in July!

    Website: LINK

  • Young creators on the move at Coolest Projects Belgium 2025

    Young creators on the move at Coolest Projects Belgium 2025

    Reading Time: 3 minutes
    Children celebrating the 10th anniversary of Coolest Projects Belgium.

    This year marked the 10th anniversary of Coolest Projects Belgium. The meticulously organised event was held in April by our partner CoderDojo Belgium, at Technopolis in Mechelen. Themed ‘On the move’, the event invited young creators to interpret movement however they liked – which they did in an impressive number of ways, creating projects ranging from mobile robots and Scratch animations to AI tools, health tech devices, and a musical drink maker.

    With 52 inspiring creations showcased by 71 young people, there were too many awesome projects to list individually in this blog post. Here are just a few of our highlights from a day filled with big ideas and brilliant builds.

    Photo of a Raspberry Pi Pico W.

    Rune | IINTS (Insulin Is Not the Solution)

    Rune, who has type 1 diabetes, built his own open-source insulin pump powered by Raspberry Pi Pico W and featuring a custom motor-controlled delivery system designed in Autodesk Fusion. Rune’s pump calculates insulin doses based on carbohydrate amounts entered – all with the goal of empowering people, raising awareness, and making medical technology more accessible.

    Rune enjoying themselves during the event.

    Amir | AmirAI 

    Amir might only be 10, but he is already experimenting with chatbots and AI in creative and playful ways. His self-coded AI assistant could respond live to visitors’ prompts, producing jokes and answers to questions. Amir’s project was a great demonstration of how accessible complex technologies can be when you give young people space to explore them.

    A project created by Jules named Operatie Mocktail.

    Jules | Operatie Mocktail

    This Arduino-powered machine blends mocktails based on your music choices. Pick a song, and the machine mixes a custom drink to match the song’s mood. It is a joyful combination of engineering, flavour science, and artistic flair. Jules described it best: “I want to create a unique drinking experience that connects taste and music in a surprising way.” We think it’s just right!

    Mona after attending Coolest Projects.

    Mona | On the Move

    Mona’s project is a reimagination of Michael Rosen’s poem On the Move created in Scratch, featuring animation, sound, and voice-over. It is a wonderful example of how digital storytelling can give new life to spoken word, and how creative coding platforms like Scratch provide space for emotion and expression.

    Digital making: more than just a skill

    Beyond these projects, the showcase included creations such as autonomous robots, arcade games, imaginative interface devices, and even a computer-controlled magic wand factory made of Lego bricks. Whether it was a creator’s very first Scratch project or a hand-built automaton, the range of work on display showed that coding and digital making are not just skills – they’re tools for self-expression, exploration, and change.

    We would like to say a massive thank you to CoderDojo Belgium for hosting such an incredible event, and to the young creators, families, volunteers, and judges who made it such a success.

    We are already looking forward to seeing what participants will create next!

    Website: LINK

  • From player to maker: Learn to code by creating your own game

    From player to maker: Learn to code by creating your own game

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    At Code Club, we believe learning to code should be as fun as it is empowering — what better way to start than making your own game?

    A mentor and a young tech creator at a computer at a Code Club session.

    Whether it’s about pixelated pirates, racing robots, or a time-travelling llama, creating a game is one of the most exciting ways to explore coding. We’ve seen young people go from “I like Minecraft” to “I’ve built a space adventure with hedgehogs” in no time at all.

    Why games?

    Games are more than just fun. They’re also a brilliant gateway into problem solving, creativity, and computational thinking. When you create your own game, you learn how to:

    • Use logic and sequences to control what happens
    • Trigger events and interactions through code
    • Build characters, stories, and rules — and see them come to life

    And perhaps most importantly, you get instant feedback. If your code doesn’t quite work, you’ll know right away, and you’ll have the chance to fix it, test it, and improve it.

    Three fun game projects to try today

    We’ve created a free library of step-by-step game projects that work in a browser, that require no previous experience, and that let imagination lead the way.

    Here are three brilliant beginner-friendly projects to try at Code Club or at home:

    Catch the dots

    • Learn: Basic events and movement in Scratch
    • Make: A quick-fire reaction game where you catch a moving dot
    • Try: Changing the sprites or making the dot move faster over time

    Target practice

    • Learn: Broadcasting, scorekeeping, and setting difficulty
    • Make: A game that tests your speed and accuracy
    • Try: Adding levels, custom backgrounds, or sound effects

    Don’t collide!

    • Learn: Cloning, timers, and collision detection
    • Make: A fast-paced game where the player must dodge incoming objects
    • Try: Changing the game to set it in space, underwater, or inside a volcano

    What does the community think?

    Games are a great starting point because they’re naturally motivating: young people see what they’ve made work, and that’s incredibly empowering.

    “I started with ‘Catch the dot’. I changed the sprite to a spaceship and then added power-ups and space cats. Now I’m making my own levels!”
    – Lila, 11, Creator

    “When my son made his first Scratch game, it was the first time he explained what a loop was to me. Games build confidence.”
    – Laura, parent and Code Club Mentor

    Build, remix, and level up

    Once you’ve finished a project, the real fun begins. With just a few changes, creators can build their own levels or make the game more challenging, design custom characters and backdrops, or invent brand new rules and mechanics.

    And if they want to share ideas and collaborate with others, joining a Code Club is the perfect next step.

    Three young tech creators at laptops at a Code Club session.

    Ready to get started?

    You can find all the projects mentioned here — and many more — on the Code Club projects site. They’re free to use and designed to help creators grow in confidence as they learn to code.

    All our projects focused on game creation can be found here.

    Every coding journey begins with a single click. Let’s press start!

    Website: LINK

  • How to give your students structure as they learn programming skills

    How to give your students structure as they learn programming skills

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Creating a computer program involves many different skills — knowing how to code is just one part. When we teach programming to young people, we want to guide them to learn these skills in a structured way. The ‘levels of abstraction’ framework is a great tool for doing that. This blog describes how using the framework will benefit you and your learners in the computing classroom.

    Two learners at a laptop in a computing classroom.

    We’re also excited to share our new Pedagogy Quick Read, which you can download for free to:

    • Find practical tips for using the ‘levels of abstraction’ framework with your learners
    • Read a summary of the research behind the framework

    Learning to program: Everything at once?

    Creating a program from the ground up can be daunting, especially for new learners. Without support, they’ll likely get stuck sooner or later; programs rarely work the first time round. And the more complex the problem that a program is addressing, the more likely it is that the first version of the program won’t work.

    In a computing classroom, two girls concentrate on their programming task.

    One reason that learning to program can be challenging is that it involves understanding a lot of specific concepts and applying many varied skills. From early on in their learning journey, young people need to have a firm grasp of concepts such as repetition, selection, variables, and functions. Also fundamental to learning to program well is the skill of abstraction: understanding a task and identifying which details are relevant and which can be ignored.

    To get to grips with all these different concepts and skills, young people need structure — otherwise they’ll try to hold everything in their head at once, and likely feel overwhelmed by the cognitive load. This sort of experience may cause them to disengage instead of persisting. They may even decide that programming is not for them.

    In light of these challenges, the ‘levels of abstraction’ framework is a great tool for teaching.

    The benefits of the ‘levels of abstraction’ framework

    The framework breaks programming down into four levels, each focusing on a different aspect of creating a program:

    • Problem: Analysing the problem or task the program should address, to understand and record the requirements.
    • Design: Turning the analysis into an algorithm — a set of steps for the computer to follow to create the desired output. This can involve flowcharts or storyboards, but importantly no code.
    • Code: Developing the code based on the design (and building the physical components if any are involved).
    • Running the code: Testing the code, checking outputs, and debugging where necessary.

    Throughout the processes of developing a program, learners (and professional programmers) move between these levels as they implement their designs and debug them, sometimes even returning to the problem level if more analysis or clarification is needed.

    Young child in the classroom using Scratch to program.

    Potential benefits of the ‘levels of abstraction’ framework for teachers:

    • It helps you break down the activity of programming into discrete parts.
    • It helps you engage your learners, as you can show them that programming involves more than knowing how to code.
    • If your learners get stuck with their programming, the framework can help you guide them to a solution.

    Potential benefits for learners:

    • The framework will help them think through all the steps needed to create a program that works, and practise their problem-solving skills and analytical thinking.
    • They will more readily see how programming connects to their world — at the problem level — and find aspects of programming where they have strengths and can use their creativity.
    • They will gain a stronger idea of how software is built in the tech sector.

    Our new Quick Read shares tips on how to best use the framework in your teaching.

    Things to aim for when using the framework with your learners:

    • Be aware of what level they are working at and when it’s time to switch to a different one.
    • Understand that, when they encounter an issue with their program, they can step back and use the framework to figure out where the issue comes from. The issue might be a bug in the code, the algorithm not working as intended, or a description of the problem not taking into account something important.

    We hope you find the framework useful. If you have ideas for how to use it in your teaching, why not share them in the comments?

    Teaching programming: The wider context

    When following the ‘levels of abstraction’ approach, learners need to explain how programs work and debug them. That means program comprehension is a key skill here. You may have already helped your learners to develop and practise this skill, for example with the PRIMM approach. The Block Model is another useful tool for helping your learners talk about various aspects of a program. And if you use the pair programming approach in programming activities, your learners can improve their program comprehension by talking about their code with each other. On our website, you’ll find more guidance on the best ways to teach programming and computing.

    Photo of a young person coding on a desktop computer.

    And what about generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for programmers? In the age of AI, we think young people still need to learn to code because it empowers them to navigate and think critically about all digital technologies, including AI. And while generative AI tools can help a skilled programmer create quality code more quickly, more research is needed to show whether such tools help school-age young people build their understanding as they learn to code. You can see some of the great work being done in this area if you catch up with our 2024 research seminar series.

    The ‘levels of abstraction’ framework is useful in your teaching no matter what tools young people use to create programs. Even with an AI tool, they will still need to work at all four levels of abstraction to program effectively. 

    Website: LINK

  • This spinning water contraption is actually a functional battery

    This spinning water contraption is actually a functional battery

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    If you ask someone to think of a battery, they’re probably going to picture a chemical battery, like a AA alkaline or a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. But there are other kinds of batteries that store energy without any fancy chemistry at all. If you find a way to save energy for later, you have a useful battery. Erik, of the Concept Crafted Creations YouTube channel, achieved that by storing kinetic energy in a spinning flywheel weighted with water.

    This isn’t a crazy idea, because flywheels exist specifically to store kinetic energy in a spinning mass. In this case, most of that mass comes from tubes full of water. Water is cheaper than something like cast iron and it is easy to adjust the levels to maintain perfect balance.

    But this wet flywheel has another trick up its sleeve: adjustable moment of inertia. Watch an ice skater as they tuck into spin and you’ll understand this. By pulling their arms and legs close their axis of rotation, the skater can reduce their overall moment of inertia and increase their speed. Erik’s flywheel can do the same thing by actuating the cylinders of water to bring them in closer to the rotational axis.

    To control that process, Erik used an Arduino Nano board housed in a simple laser-cut box with a potentiometer for adjusting speed, and buttons to control power and the arm actuation. A beefy brushless DC motor spins up the flywheel under power. Then, when it is time to collect that power (such as to power the lightbulb Erik used for demonstration), that motor acts as a dynamo, like in a generator. 

    As a battery for long-term power storage, this isn’t very practical. In a vacuum with perfect frictionless bearings, it would be. But in the real-world the flywheel will slow down on its own in short order. Even so, it is still a great illustration of the concept.

    The post This spinning water contraption is actually a functional battery appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Elevate your IoT with ultra-wideband: Meet Arduino Stella and Portenta UWB Shield!

    Elevate your IoT with ultra-wideband: Meet Arduino Stella and Portenta UWB Shield!

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We are proud to announce two groundbreaking additions to the Arduino Pro portfolio: the Arduino Stella and Portenta UWB Shield, developed in partnership with Truesense. These advanced tools leverage ultra-wideband (UWB) technology to redefine precision tracking, indoor navigation, and contactless human-machine interactions, empowering IoT innovation across industries. Whatever you have in mind, you’ll leverage streamlined development thanks to ready-to-use Arduino IDE libraries, examples, and tutorials, enabling you to move from concept to prototype faster. 

    With UWB technology, you can achieve pinpoint accuracy in even the most complex environments, connect effortlessly with UWB-enabled smartphones and cloud platforms, and ensure your data remains private and secure thanks to UWB’s hard-to-intercept signals. You can learn more about our collaboration with Truesense and the power of UWB technology in our recent blog post: Arduino and Truesense partner to bring UWB technology to millions.

    Arduino Stella shines for precision and versatility

    Featuring an nRF52840 microcontroller and Truesense DCU040 module, the Arduino Stella delivers unparalleled accuracy for real-time tracking. Its compact design and seamless integration with UWB-enabled smartphones and apps like NXP Trimension, Apple’s Nearby Interaction, and Android’s UWB Jetpack library make it the perfect solution for modern tracking and automation needs.

    Stella excels in industries such as healthcare, logistics, and smart buildings, offering advanced functionality like:

    • Pinpointing location tracking for high-value assets
    • Intuitive human-machine interaction
    • Automated safety and monitoring systems
    • Reliable indoor navigation

    Portenta UWB Shield extends the end-to-end capabilities of the Portenta family

    Powered by the Truesense DCU150, the Portenta UWB Shield easily adds UWB connectivity to the Portenta C33. This versatile shield acts as a base station and a client device, enabling precise real-time location services (RTLS) and two-way ranging.

    With its modular and robust design, the Portenta UWB Shield is ideal for:

    • Smart logistics with dynamic route optimization
    • Interactive environments for enhanced user experiences
    • Secure and responsive IoT systems

    Expand possibilities with ultra-wideband!

    Every new addition to our ecosystem is a tool designed to make innovation accessible and scalable for professionals across industries. The Arduino Stella and Portenta UWB Shield, in particular, make it easier than ever to tackle applications such as:

    • Human-machine interaction: Enable intuitive commands and real-time feedback using UWB-equipped devices.
    • Follow-me AGVs: Automate logistics with autonomous vehicles that dynamically follow workers in warehouses.
    • Secure item transportation: Track critical items with proximity alerts and temperature monitoring during transit, leveraging compatibility with Modulino nodes.
    • Residential access control: Automate door access for authorized personnel with UWB-enabled smartphones.
    • EV automatic recharge: Streamline EV charging by triggering the process based on real-time vehicle positioning.
    • High-value asset tracking: Monitor valuable equipment in real time with location alerts and optimization tools.

    Ready to elevate your IoT projects to new heights, with unmatched precision, seamless integration, and secure communication? Find the Arduino Stella and Portenta UWB Shield on the Arduino Store today!

    The post Elevate your IoT with ultra-wideband: Meet Arduino Stella and Portenta UWB Shield! appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Digging Deeper: The Inspirations Behind Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest

    Digging Deeper: The Inspirations Behind Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest

    Reading Time: 6 minutes
    SWTD DLC Hero Image

    Digging Deeper: The Inspirations Behind Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest

    Summary

    • Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest arrives today for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC.
    • The DLC expansion is set 11 years after the original game, with a new main character.
    • Learn about the new inspirations behind this haunting new story.

    Back in 2023, we shared some of the inspirations behind our narrative horror Still Wakes the Deep, which inspired its themes and structure, both in its grounded ’70s setting and its more fantastical horror elements. We took inspiration from a wide variety of sources, from classic horror films like The Thing and Annihilation to more unusual sources like Kes and Rosemary’s Baby.

    For our new story expansion, Siren’s Rest, we wanted to explore the Beira D oil rig in a whole new setting, which comes with its own set of inspirations. Set in 1986, 11 years after the events of the original game, you’ll play as saturation diver Mhairi, who sets off on a journey beneath the North Sea to discover what happened on the Beira D. The ocean is a rich vein for exploring all kinds of tales, and these are just a few things that helped us craft this new story:

    SWTD DLC Screenshot

    Thalassophobia

    The fear of deep water is the origin of the entire psychological palette of Siren’s Rest. And for any players who haven’t felt this… we hope that Siren’s Rest will give them a chance to get a taste of this phobia.

    We trawled through hundreds of articles of people experiencing this condition, people creating art about it, portraying it in a variety of thrilling and sensual ways. One thing that struck us: many thalassophobic photographs juxtapose a human with some yawning abyss or some looming form. The feeling you have isn’t just that this is a scary setting – rather, you feel a sense of enveloping dread for the person. Whoever that person is in that photograph, no matter how nonchalant they appear… you feel that they are in way over their heads (literally). They are facing their doom. That sense of overconfidence against the unknowable depths is something we wanted to capture in the game.

    Even just an image like this we found on Reddit of an oceanic abyss gets the creative juices flowing. Also, did you know that a thick mysterious cloud called a brine pool can form in the bottom of the sea that creates these strange images? We wanted to hold that tension, between beauty and dread, at the heart of every visual design choice.

    SWTD DLC Screenshot

    ‘Last Breath’ (2018) and Saturation Diving

    Saturation diving – named for the technique used to extend how long a diver can remain underwater – is an extraordinary profession. Dangerous, meticulous, weirdly poetic – everything deserving art to be made about it. It’s as dangerous as an astronaut going on a spacewalk… but far darker and far less well known. You are under tremendous pressure, literally, that messes with your mental state. You see things. You hear things. And all you are is a tiny flickering flame amid the everdark. This tension, loneliness, and thrill  are all portrayed beautifully in the documentary ‘Last Breath’.

    And for a more day-to-day explanation, just check out this Reddit AMA that was done a few years ago. Understanding what it means to live and work under such extreme conditions helped ground our narrative in real human stakes, even as the story veers into the surreal.

    SWTD DLC Screenshot

    ‘Blue Planet II –The Deep’

    This episode of ‘Blue Planet II’ served as a powerful entry point for us into the mystery and otherworldliness of the ocean’s most unreachable places. Nature’s own level design and art design is off the charts! The strange colours, mysterious beings. Our wonderful Earth with its impossible underwater geographies provided us with a visual vocabulary for portraying the bottom of the sea not as some strange spectacle, but with this all-consuming silent awe…

    SWTD DLC Screenshot

    Dante’s ‘Inferno’

    As clear a metaphor as it gets, right? Dante’s descent through Hell, in gripping 14th Century poetic language, of increasing delusion as one moves further into tender darkness – influenced how we approached the structure of Siren’s Rest.

    “Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart,
    Seized him with my beautiful form
    That was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me.”

    SWTD DLC Screenshot

    ‘The Descent’ (2005)

    This film is two decades old and still stands up incredibly well. It’s a Dante’s ‘Inferno’ story brought up to the modern-day. Definitely not for the faint-hearted, for sure! Its classic structure and masterful rhythm of making tense progress in unfamiliar, claustrophobic physical spaces is a huge inspiration.

    Submerged corridors, the pitch-black crevices of the story’s setting, technical, sophisticated characters whose psyches are run ragged, the mix of terror and hope and dread – it’s all there.

    SWTD DLC Screenshot

    ‘The Lighthouse’ (2019)

    A recent dark masterclass in isolation, yearning, and the mind tricks that these feelings can conjure up. The film portrays two men (played by Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe) unravelling under the weight of routine, myths, and their own strange company. Those parallel the emotional current running beneath Siren’s Rest – a deep, almost delirious human longing – for connection, for redemption, for closure…

    A central relationship between two characters who are equally isolated, equally alone with their thoughts and expectations – that stuck with us. The surreal juxtaposition between the raw, unforgiving environment, the arcane chores needed for survival, and the distantly warm conjuring of lost memories… we certainly hoped to capture that.

    SWTD DLC Screenshot

    The Unexplained Ocean Sound, “Julia”

    Sometimes even just a sonic phenomena can serve as an inspiration. A low-frequency sound, recorded by NOAA on March 1st 1999 and dubbed “Julia”, remains unexplained. The sound was loud enough to be detected across the Pacific Ocean and lasted for about two minutes and 43 seconds. An absolute treasure trove of strange explanations exists, spanning from giant sea creatures to aliens, naturally.

    Julia’s inclusion in our early discussions around Siren’s Rest served as a symbol of the unknown – the uncanny idea that something might be out there, massive or silent, beyond our comprehension…

    SWTD DLC Screenshot

    Màiri Mhòr nan Òran

    The Hebridean poet Màiri Mhòr nan Òran shares a name with our protagonist, and her work comprises much of the emotional tone of Siren’s Rest. Her verses, rooted in exile, land, and longing, speak to the cultural and personal ruptures at the heart of this new story. They anchor the narrative in a Scottish identity that feels both deeply local and profoundly mythic – a legacy we feel incredibly privileged to portray.

    The Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest DLC expansion arrives today for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC.

    The post Digging Deeper: The Inspirations Behind Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest appeared first on Xbox Wire.

    Website: LINK

  • Coming to Game Pass: Rematch, Warcraft I & II: Remastered, Warcraft III: Reforged, Call of Duty: WWII, and More

    Coming to Game Pass: Rematch, Warcraft I & II: Remastered, Warcraft III: Reforged, Call of Duty: WWII, and More

    Reading Time: 7 minutes

    Coming to Game Pass: Rematch, Warcraft I & II: Remastered, Warcraft III: Reforged, Call of Duty: WWII, and More

    • Megan Spurr, Senior Community Lead, Xbox Game Pass

    Xbox Game Pass - Wave 2 - June 2025

    Hope you all completed your bingo card for the Xbox Games Showcase and Outer Worlds 2 Direct – between Xbox Play Anywhere, Game Pass, and World Premieres, that was almost a full row there! We’re on a roll and have more games for you to prep your download queue, so let’s get to them.

    Available Today

    FBC: Firebreak (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

    Available on day one with Game Pass! A cooperative first-person shooter set within a mysterious federal agency under assault by otherworldly forces. As a years-long siege on the agency’s headquarters reaches its boiling point, only Firebreak – the Bureau’s most versatile unit – has the gear and the guts to plunge into the building’s strangest crises, restore order, contain the chaos, and fight to reclaim control.

    FBC Firebreak Key Art

    Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (Console and PC)
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard

    Crash fourward into a time-shattered adventure with your favorite marsupials. Neo Cortex and N. Tropy are back at it again and launching an all-out assault on not just this universe, but the entire multiverse! Crash and Coco are here to save the day by reuniting the four Quantum Masks and bending the rules of reality.

    Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

    Available on day one with Game Pass! Lost in Random: The Eternal Die blends dynamic real-time action, tactical combat, and risk-reward dice mechanics for thrilling second-to-second battles. Unravel an original stand-alone story as Queen Aleksandra, the once great ruler of Random, on a mission for vengeance and redemption.

    Coming Soon

    Star Trucker (Xbox Series X|S) – June 18
    Now with Game Pass Standard

    Hop into the driver’s seat of your rocket-powered big rig as you haul cargo, scavenge for salvage, and interact with an eclectic cast of star-hopping truckers in this Americana-infused journey on the ultimate open road – space!

    Wildfrost (Console) – June 18
    Now with Game Pass Standard

    Take on the elements in Wildfrost, a tactical roguelike deck builder! Collect and upgrade card companions, ready to withstand waves of deceptively cute Pengoons, Gobblers, and brutish boss monsters. Test your skills in daily challenges and build up the town of Snowdwell, unlocking more cards to aid in your fight against the everlasting frost…

    Rematch (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – June 19
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

    Available on day one with Game Pass! Step onto the pitch in Rematch, a third-person, team-based football game where every pass, volley, and tackle matters. Designed for 5v5 online play, Rematch puts you in full control of one athlete, with no offsides, no fouls, and no downtime. Pass smart, play with purpose, and win together.

    REMATCH Key Art

    Volcano Princess (Cloud, Console, and PC) – June 24
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

    Prepare the next monarch by finding her hobbies, training her for battle, and befriending the citizens she’ll one day protect. Dive into an all-new parenting-simulator-RPG adventure, where every decision you make will not only affect the future of your daughter but that of an entire empire!

    Against the Storm (Cloud and Console) – June 26
    Game Pass Ultimate

    Currently available on Xbox PC and coming soon to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta)! A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization’s last survivors.

    WarCraft Key Art

    Warcraft I: Remastered (PC) – June 26
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

    Experience the inciting war between Orcs and Humans that shook Azeroth to its core. Defend the realm as the noble Alliance, or seek to conquer it as the bloodthirsty Horde, across thrilling faction campaigns or custom skirmish games. Warcraft I: Remastered features updated hand-painted art, widescreen battles, and rebalanced classic music. Enjoy modern UI tweaks, enhanced controls, and never-before-seen 1994 concept art!

    Warcraft II: Remastered (PC) – June 26
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

    Captain your own fleet in the second Warcraft title created in 1995, now remastered with vivid, all-new visuals and modernized controls! War between orc and man rages on across the seas, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance as the great tacticians of the Horde and the Alliance clash. Only one thing is certain: winning this war will demand unprecedented cunning, courage, and nerves of steel.

    Warcraft III: Reforged (PC) – June 26
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

    Warcraft III: Reforged features a thorough visual overhaul, a suite of contemporary social and matchmaking features, and more. Command the Night Elves, Undead, Orcs, and Humans and relive epic battles, explore vast campaigns, build armies, and challenge friends in multiplayer matchmaking!

    Call of Duty: WWII Key Art

    Call of Duty: WWII (Console and PC) – June 30
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard

    Call of Duty: WWII is a thrilling experience that redefines World War II. Land in Normandy on D-Day and battle across Europe through iconic locations in history’s most monumental war. Experience classic Call of Duty combat, the bonds of camaraderie, and the unforgiving nature of war against a global power throwing the world into tyranny.

    Little Nightmares II (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 1
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard

    Return to a world of charming horror in Little Nightmares II, a suspense adventure game in which you play as Mono, a young boy trapped in a world that has been distorted by the humming transmission of a distant tower. Will you dare to face this collection of new, little nightmares?

    Rise of the Tomb Raider (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 1
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard

    Making a return to the Game Pass library! Featuring epic, high-octane action moments set in the most beautifully hostile environments on earth, Rise of the Tomb Raider delivers a cinematic survival action adventure where you will join Lara Croft on her first tomb raiding expedition.

    DLC / Game Updates

    Fallout 76: Gone Fission – Available now
    Head over to angler’s rest to begin your angler journey. Combine different baits and rods to catch over thirty new fish and perhaps even hook a Local Legend. Enjoy your hard-earned gains by cooking up new recipes or proudly displaying trophies at your C.A.M.P.

    Minecraft: Chase the Skies – Available today
    Experience the joy of soaring above the Overworld with Minecraft’s Chase the Skies drop! Fly with your happy ghast, build high into the clouds, leash a caravan of camels together, find wandering friends with the Player Locator bar, and more. Players on Bedrock Edition can also soak in breathtaking views with Minecraft‘s biggest official visual refresh – Vibrant Visuals.

    Dead by Daylight: Five Nights at Freddy’s – Available today
    Dead by Daylight: Five Nights at Freddy’s brings Springtrap – once known as William Afton  – into The Fog as The Animatronic. A brutally efficient new Killer featuring unique gameplay mechanics and 3 fear-inducing Perks, Springtrap specializes in map wide surveillance, unrelenting pursuit, and delivering the jump-scares you love to hate.

    Leaving June 30

    The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon. Be sure to check them out before they go or use your membership discount to save up to 20% on your purchase to keep them in your library.

    • Arcade Paradise (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Journey to the Savage Planet (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • My Friend Peppa Pig (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Robin Hood: Sherwood Builders (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • SteamWorld Dig (Cloud and Console)
    • SteamWorld Dig 2 (Console and PC)

    We’re adding more games over time to the Stream Your Own Game collection for Game Pass Ultimate members. Visit Xbox.com/Play to see the list of available cloud playable games to stream on supported devices if you own them.

    As always, we’ll keep you up to date with the latest reminders of when “coming soon” turns into “available today” (and will give you a virtual high five if you did get Bingo during the Xbox Games Showcase!) on @Xbox, @GamePass, and @XboxGamePassPC. Will talk to you here soon!

    The post Coming to Game Pass: Rematch, Warcraft I & II: Remastered, Warcraft III: Reforged, Call of Duty: WWII, and More appeared first on Xbox Wire.

    Website: LINK

  • Igniting innovation: How Experience AI is empowering teachers and students across Kenya

    Igniting innovation: How Experience AI is empowering teachers and students across Kenya

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    This blog post is written by Victor Murithi, Communications and Media Consultant at Young Scientists Kenya, one of our global partners for Experience AI in Kenya.

    When over 100 teachers from across Kenya gathered at Kangaru High School in Embu County for the Kenya Science and Engineering Fair Nationals in April, few anticipated just how transformative a two-day workshop could be. Delivered by the Experience AI Young Scientists Kenya (YSK) team, with support from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the training sparked more than curiosity — it sparked a shift in mindset.

    This wasn’t just about introducing new tools: it was about empowering teachers to confidently lead their students into an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven future.

    Students in a classroom learn about Experience AI.

    National reach and local impact

    What began as a plan to train just 40 teachers quickly grew into something much bigger. By the time the workshop kicked off, 104 teachers from over 80 schools across 37 counties in Kenya, had registered and participated — nearly tripling the initial target.

    This overwhelming interest confirmed a powerful insight: teachers are eager to understand AI, not only to better prepare their students for the future, but also for their own professional growth.

    The workshop’s curriculum didn’t just focus on technical skills, it aimed to create confidence, clarity, and community among the attendees — key ingredients for successfully integrating AI into teaching and learning.

    “Helping teachers move past their fear of AI and understand its potential is incredibly powerful. Because AI is the future, and through this training, we’re reaching the minds that will shape it,” explained Lucy Mwaniki, AI Community Trainer at YSK.

    Practical skills, real outcomes

    As part of the training, the attendees completed interactive worksheets, tested basic machine learning models, and sat a final comprehension test, something they found both validating and motivational.

    “We were able to do the summative test… which turned out to be a very effective way of us understanding how in-depth and how well they grasped the knowledge,” says Lucy Mwaniki.

    In one standout session, teachers collaboratively brainstormed ways AI could address national educational challenges. Ideas included models to assist students in selecting academic pathways within Kenya’s Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). Several teachers also successfully built working models, demonstrating the potential of applied learning. 

    “It was a very eye-opening session… some of the teachers were able to create a very basic model, which was a wonderful experience for them,” Lucy Mwaniki explains. 

    What made this training exceptional was its immediate applicability and long-term vision. By the end of two days, teachers weren’t just AI-aware — they were AI-ready, with many already starting to explore how AI tools could support entrepreneurship, lesson planning, and personalised learning pathways.

    Students in a classroom setting; two of them are using a laptop to learn about AI.

    Celebrating our achievements and impact 

    At the close of the training, each teacher received a Certificate of Participation, recognising their commitment to professional development and their new capacity to bring AI into the classroom. The awarding of certificates added a sense of accomplishment and pride, reinforcing that teachers are key drivers of technological transformation in education.

    And the impact of the training was measurable:

    • 95% of teachers agreed that the training increased their knowledge and confidence to teach AI concepts
    • 88% of teachers agreed that the training was high quality and useful for preparing them to teach the Experience AI lessons

    But it doesn’t end there, as Vanessa Inziani, Head of Programs at YSK, explains, “Our commitment doesn’t end with the training — we continue to support educators with resources, mentorship, and follow-up to ensure success in delivering the program in the classroom.”

    Looking ahead towards a promising AI journey

    With the rapidly evolving digital landscape, AI is no longer a distant concept — it’s a present-day classroom necessity. Yet, introducing AI into schools isn’t just about technical literacy; it’s about confidence, clarity, and community and the approach the Young Scientist Kenya team and Experience AI delivered during the two-day training is anchored in this belief. 

    As AI continues to shape the global education landscape, programs like Experience AI provide the bridge needed to equip teachers, inspire students, and future-proof education systems. The Kangaru High School session was not a one-off — it was a catalyst for systemic change. 

    Experience AI is scaling. As it expands across Kenya and beyond, the benefits are clear:

    • Empowered educators who gain confidence and skills to integrate AI in their teaching
    • Future-ready students who grasp foundational AI concepts and their real-world applications
    • Sustainable impact as trained teachers go on to influence thousands of learners in their communities

    The journey from fear to fluency starts with a single step, a willingness for us all to explore what’s possible. Together, we can equip educators, inspire students, and shape Kenya’s future, one AI-literate classroom at a time. 

    About Experience AI

    Experience AI is an AI literacy programme, co-developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind, that teaches students aged 11 to 14 about AI and machine learning. Thanks to funding from Google.org, Young Scientists Kenya has partnered with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to provide free training to Kenyan educators, equipping them with the skills they need to effectively deliver the programme in their settings. They are one of two global partners working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation in Kenya.

    You can find out more about the programme on our website: rpf.io/expai-ysk-blogpost

    Website: LINK

  • Build your own 4DOF robotic arm on a budget

    Build your own 4DOF robotic arm on a budget

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Robot arms are very cool and can be quite useful, but they also tend to be expensive. That isn’t just markup either, because the components themselves are pricey. However, you can save a lot of money if you make some sacrifices and build everything yourself. In that case, you can follow Ruben Sanchez’s tutorial to create your own four degrees of freedom robot arm from scratch.

    This design has four actuated axes: the base, the shoulder, the elbow, and the wrist. Depending on the end effector you need, a gripper might count as another. It has a reach of up to 80cm and a maximum payload capacity of 350g, which is enough to move small objects.

    Sanchez reduced the cost of this robot arm (compared to typical designs) in two ways. The first is by constructing the frame from aluminum sheet cut by hand, with laser markings as a guide template. The second is by using DC gear motors with external encoders for actuation, rather than purpose-built robotic actuators. They won’t have as much accuracy or repeatability, but they’re affordable.

    An Arduino Due board controls the motors through Pololu drivers. The Arduino receives movement commands from a connected PC, which can look at the work area through an Intel RealSense camera attached by the end effector.

    Sanchez provides the Arduino Sketch to get started, but encourages users to develop their own control software. To help with that, his writeup includes some nice explanations of inverse kinematics, the math involved, and how to implement it.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZUxTX9gKQQ?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Build your own 4DOF robotic arm on a budget appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Bringing data science to life for K–12 students with the ‘API Can Code’ curriculum

    Bringing data science to life for K–12 students with the ‘API Can Code’ curriculum

    Reading Time: 7 minutes

    As data and data-driven technologies become a bigger part of everyday life, it’s more important than ever to make sure that young people are given the chance to learn data science concepts and skills.

    David Weintrop
    David Weintrop
    Rotem Israel-Fishelson
    Rotem Israel-Fishelson
    Peter F Moon
    Peter F Moon

    In our April research seminar, David Weintrop, Rotem Israel-Fishelson, and Peter Moon from the University of Maryland introduced API Can Code, a data science curriculum designed with high school students for high school students. Their talk explored how their innovative work uses real-world data and students’ own experiences and interests to create meaningful, authentic learning experiences in data science.

    Quick note for educators: Are you interested in joining our free, exploratory data science education workshop for teachers on 10 July 2025 in Cambridge, UK? Then find out the details here.

    David started by explaining the motivation behind the API Can Code project. The team’s goal was not to turn students into future data scientists, but to offer students the data literacy they need to explore and critically engage with a data-driven world. 

    The work was also guided by a shared view among leading teachers’ organisations that data science should be taught across all subjects in the K–12 curriculum. It also draws on strong research showing that when educational experiences connect with students’ own lives and interests, it leads to deeper engagement and better learning outcomes.

    Reviewing the landscape

    To prepare for the design of the curriculum, David, Rotem, and Peter wanted to understand what data science education options already exist for K–12 students. Rotem described how they compared four major K–12 data science curricula and examined different aspects, such as the topics they covered and the datasets they used. Their findings showed that many datasets were quite small in size, and that the datasets used were not always about topics that students were interested in.

    A classroom of young learners and a teacher at laptops

    The team also looked at 30 data science tools used across different K–12 platforms and analysed what each could do. They found that tools varied in how effective they were and that many lacked accessibility features to support students with diverse learning needs. 

    This analysis helped to refine the team’s objective: to create a data science curriculum that students find interesting and that is informed by their values and voices.

    Participatory design

    To work towards this goal, the team used a methodology called participatory design. This is an approach that actively involves the end users — in this case, high school students — in the design process. During several in-person sessions with 28 students aged 15 to 18 years old, the researchers facilitated low-tech, hands-on activities exploring the students’ identities and interests and how they think about data.

    One activity, Empathy Map, involved students working together to create a persona representing a student in their school. They were asked to describe the persona’s daily life, interests, and concerns about technology and data:

    The students’ involvement in the design process gave the team a better understanding of young people’s views and interests, which helped create the design of the API Can Code curriculum.

    API Can Code: three units, three key tools

    Peter provided an overview of the API Can Code curriculum. It follows a three-unit flow covering different concepts and tools in each unit:

    1. Unit 1 introduces students to different types of data and data science terminology. The unit explores the role of data in the students’ daily lives, how use and misuse of data can affect them, different ways of collecting and presenting data, and how to evaluate databases for aspects such as size, recency, and trustworthiness. It also introduces them to RapidAPI, a hub that connects to a wide range of APIs from different providers, allowing students to access real-world data such as Zillow housing prices or Spotify music data.
    2. Unit 2 covers the computing skills used in data science, including the use of programming tools to run efficient data science techniques. Students learn to use EduBlocks, a block-based programming environment where students can draw in JSON files from RapidAPI datasets, and process and filter data without needing a lot of text-based programming skills. The students also compare this approach with manual data processing, which they discover is very slow.
    3. Unit 3 focuses on data analysis, visualisation, and interpretation. Students use CODAP, a web-based interactive data science tool, to calculate summary statistics, create graphs, and perform analyses. CODAP is a user-friendly but powerful platform, making it perfect for students to analyse and visualise their data sets. Students also practise interpreting pre-made graphs and the graphs and statistics that they are creating.

    Peter described an example activity carried out by the students, showing how these three units flow together and build both technical skills and an understanding of the real-world uses of data science. Students were tasked with analysing a dataset from Zillow, a property website, to explore the question “How much does a house in my neighbourhood cost?” The images below show the process the students followed, which uses the data science skills and tools from all three units of the curriculum.

    Slide from an API Can Code lesson.
    Slide from an API Can Code lesson.
    Slide from an API Can Code lesson.
    Click on an image to enlarge it.

    Interest-driven learning in action

    A central tenet of API Can Code is that students should explore data that matters to them. A diverse range of student interests was identified during the design work, and the curriculum uses these areas of interest, such as music, movies, sports, and animals, throughout the lessons.

    The curriculum also features an open-ended final project, where students can choose a research question that is important to them and their lives, and answer it using data science skills.

    The team shared two examples of memorable final projects. In one, a student set out to answer the question “Is Jhené Aiko a star?” The student found a publicly available dataset through an API provided by Deezer, a music streaming platform. She wrote a program that retrieved data on the artist’s longevity and collaborations, analysed the data, and concluded that Aiko is indeed a star. What stood out about this project wasn’t just the fact that the student independently defined stardom and answered their research question using real data, but that this was a truly personal, interest-driven project. David noted that the researchers could never have come up with this activity, since they had never previously heard of Jhené Aiko!

    Jhené Aiko, an R&B singer-songwriter
    Jhené Aiko, an R&B singer-songwriter 
    (Photo by Charito Yap, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0)

    Another student’s project analysed data about housing in Washington DC to answer the question “Which ward in DC has the most affordable houses?” Rotem explained that this student was motivated by her family thinking about moving away from the city. She wanted to use her project to persuade her parents to stay by identifying the most affordable ward in DC that they could move to. She was excited by the outcome of her project, and she presented her findings to other students and her parents.

    These projects underscore the power of personally important data science projects driven by students’ interests. When students care about the questions they are exploring, they’re more invested in the process and more likely to keep using the skills and concepts they learn.

    Resources

    API Can Code is available online and completely free to use. Teachers can access lesson plans, tutorial videos, assessment rubrics, and more from the curriculum’s website https://apicancode.umd.edu/. The site also provides resources to support students, including example programs and glossaries.

    Join our next seminar

    In our current seminar series, we’re exploring teaching about AI and data science. Join us at our next seminar on Tuesday, 17 June from 17:00 to 18:30 BST to hear Netta Iivari (University of Oulu) introduce transformative agency and its importance for children’s computing education in the age of AI.

    To sign up and take part in our research seminars, click below:

    You can also view the schedule of our upcoming seminars, and catch up on past seminars on our previous seminars and recordings page.

    Website: LINK

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    Curious to join us? The event is open to professionals, researchers, and students alike – and there’s discounted pricing for academic attendees. Head to the event site to register and check out the full program!

    Register now

    See you in Milan – and be sure to come say hi to the Arduino team on site!

    The post Find your way to AI with Arduino, at the EDGE AI FOUNDATION’s event in Milan appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

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    Website: LINK