Kategorie: PC

  • Learning from our hybrid training programme for youth and community organisations

    Learning from our hybrid training programme for youth and community organisations

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we aim to democratise access to digital skills and technologies. One of the ways we do this is via partnerships with youth and community organisations that deliver frontline services to young people experiencing educational disadvantage.

    Two smiling adults at a computer.

    In 2023 we delivered a hybrid training programme to 14 youth organisations in the UK to help youth leaders and educators incorporate coding and digital making activities into their provision to young people. The training programme was supported by Amazon Future Engineer. In this blog, we summarise what we’ve learned from our evaluation of the training and its impact.

    Youth workers feel prepared to run digital making activities

    In total, 29 youth leaders and educators participated in the training, which consisted of 12 modules delivered across 4 online sessions and one in-person day. We asked participants to complete surveys at several points throughout the programme to enable us to explore their feedback, the training’s impact on their confidence in facilitating computing sessions, and their experiences of running activities with young people.

    The educators on this programme were already well motivated to run digital making sessions. But one of the main challenges youth organisations report to us most often is that their staff and volunteers need more confidence in their ability to deliver coding activities on an ongoing basis. It was therefore great to see that, following the training, every participant felt at least moderately prepared to run coding activities, with 2 out of every 5 participants feeling very prepared. Furthermore, we recorded positive impact of the training on participants’ readiness: after the training, 4 out of every 5 participants agreed they had the skills they needed to facilitate activities for young people.

    “It was pitched right for the majority of attendees with no knowledge of Scratch[.]” – Karl Nicholson, Manchester Youth Zone

    The training was well received

    Educators found the training to be high quality and, in almost all cases, beneficial. Participants reported that attending two online sessions in preparation for the in-person training day had improved their experience of the in-person activites.

    “It was really great. The online courses are excellent and being in-person to get answers to questions really helped. The tinkering was really useful and having people on hand to answer questions [was] massively helpful.” – Liam Garnett, Leeds Libraries

    Some participants told us they struggled with the second online training session. This may be because it contained more challenging content: moving from block-based coding (Scratch) to text-based coding (Python), a transition we know many people new to programming can find difficult.

    This feedback has helped inform the next iteration of our training programme for youth and community organisations.

    A Learning Manager is supporting two adult educators during a training session.

    Youth workers are now running digital making sessions

    Since the training, attendees across the 14 organisations have reported that, so far, 39 digital making sessions have taken place, reaching 422 young people. Youth leaders and educators who have already run sessions also told us they intend to continue with coding and digital making activities with their young people in the future.

    Young learners in a coding club.

    Among these youth leaders was Marie Henry, founder of Breadline London, a grassroots charitable organisation based in Haringey, London, that supports families and young people to break the cycle of poverty through financial education, training, and practical workshops.

    Since the training programme, Marie has gone on to start a regular coding club in her local area.

    “We are immensely grateful to the Raspberry Pi Foundation team for their encouragement and unwavering support in empowering us to launch our own coding club. Their guidance, expertise, hands-on training workshops, and provision of essential equipment and devices have been instrumental in our journey towards building a positive community for our young coders.

    With their help, we’ve gained the confidence, knowledge, and skills needed to inspire the next generation of coders and innovators. We still have a lot to learn, but with them by our side, we are confident that our coding club will be a great success.

    Thank you, Raspberry Pi Foundation, for believing in our vision and helping us turn it into reality.” – Marie Henry, Founder of Breadline London

    Some of the organisations that participated in the training have not yet run sessions, but plan to start delivery within the next 1 to 3 months. They continue to face some logistical challenges, ranging from staff shortages and volunteer availability, to encouraging local young people with limited prior exposure to computing to join the digital making activities. We are continuing to support these organisations to get up and running as soon as possible.

    “Oh my what a great coding after school session I’ve had this afternoon…Scratch not only sets a starting point for children in their ITC learning, but is also a fun way to learn and build on skills they can take with them as they grow.

Planting the seeds of aspirations!” – Heather Coultard, Doncaster Children’s University

    Our ongoing support to youth and community organisations

    Our previous blog highlighted the importance of increasing young people’s sense of belonging within a coding club environment, to appeal to marginalised youth. Our findings suggest we are on the right track. Overall, participants felt positive about the training and found it to be of high quality, and it has helped them to deliver digital making sessions to young people in their communities. The organisations’ detailed feedback and impact reporting will continue to inform and improve the development of our training programmes going forward.

    We thank Amazon Future Engineer for helping us run this rewarding programme. 

    For more information about how we can support youth and community organisations in the UK in starting their coding clubs, please send us a message on the subject ‘Partnerships’.

    Website: LINK

  • Young people’s Astro Pi code is sent to the International Space Station

    Young people’s Astro Pi code is sent to the International Space Station

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Young people taking part in the European Astro Pi Challenge are about to have their computer programs sent to the International Space Station (ISS). Astro Pi is run annually in collaboration by us and ESA Education, and offers two ways to get involved: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    This year, over 25,000 young people from across Europe and eligible ESA Member States are getting their programs ‘uplinked’ to the Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS, where they will be running over the next few weeks. 

    Mission Zero teams send their art into space

    Mission Zero is an exciting activity for kids with little or no experience with coding. We invite young people to create a Python program that displays an 8×8 pixel image or animation. This program then gets sent to the ISS, and each pixel art piece is displayed for 30 seconds on the LED matrix display of the Astro Pi computers on the ISS.

    Two Astro Pis on board the International Space Station.
    Astro Pis on the ISS

    We picked the theme ‘fauna and flora’ as the inspiration for young people’s pixel art, as it proved so popular last year, and we weren’t disappointed: this year, 24,378 young people submitted 16,039 Mission Zero creations!  

    We’ve tested every program and are pleased to announce that 15,942 Mission Zero programs will be sent to run on the ISS from mid May. 

    Once again, we have been amazed at the wonderful images and animations that young people have created. Seeing all the images that have been submitted is one of the most enjoyable and inspiring things to do as we work on the Astro Pi Challenge. Here is a little selection of some of our favourites submitted this year:

    A selection of pixel art images and animation inspired by nature submitted by young people.
    A selection of Mission Zero submissions

    Varied approaches: How different teams calculate ISS speed

    For Mission Space Lab, we invite more experienced young coders to take on a scientific challenge: to calculate the speed that the ISS orbits Earth. 

    Teams are tasked with writing a program that uses the Astro Pis’ sensors and visible light camera to capture data for their calculations, and we have really enjoyed seeing the different approaches the teams have taken. 

    The mark 2 Astro Pi units spin in microgravity on the International Space Station.

    Some teams decided to calculate the distance between two points in photos of the Earth’s surface and combine this with how long it took for the ISS to pass over the points to find the speed. This particular method uses feature extraction and needs to account for ground sampling distance — how many square metres are represented in one pixel in an image of the ground taken from above — to get an accurate output.  

    We’ve also seen teams use data from the gyroscope to calculate the speed using the angle readings and photos to get their outputs. Yet other teams have derived the speed using equations of motion and sampling from the accelerometer.

    An example of features of the earth’s surface being matched across two different images.
    Feature extraction example taken from images captured by the Astro Pis

    All teams that took multiple samples from the Astro Pi sensors, or multiple images, had to decide how to output a final estimate for the speed of the ISS. Most teams opted to use the mean average. But a few teams chose to filter their samples to choose only the ‘best’ ones based on prior knowledge (Bayesian filtering), and some used a machine learning model and the Astro Pi’s machine learning dongle to select which images or data samples to use. Some teams even provided a certainty score along with their final estimate.

    236 Mission Space Lab teams awarded flight status

    However the team choses to approach the challenge, before their program can run on the ISS, we need to make sure of a few things. For a start, we check that they’ve followed the challenge rules and meet the ISS security requirements. Next, we check that the program can run without errors on the Astro Pis as the astronauts on board the ISS can’t stop what they’re doing to fix any problems. 

    So, all programs submitted to us must pass a rigorous testing process before they can be sent into space. We run each program on several replica Astro Pis, then run all the programs sequentially, to ensure there’s no problems. If the program passes testing, it’s awarded ‘flight status’ and can be sent to run in space.

    The Astro Pi computers inside the International Space Station.

    This year, 236 teams have been awarded flight status. These teams represent 889 young people from 22 countries in Europe and ESA member states. The average age of these young people is 15, and 27% of them are girls. The UK has the most teams achieving flight status (61), followed by the Czech Republic (23) and Romania (22). You can see how this compares to last year and explore other breakdowns of participant data in the annual Astro Pi impact report.  

    Our congratulations to all the Mission Space Lab teams who’ve been awarded flight status: it is a great achievement. All these teams will be invited to join a live online Q&A with an ESA astronaut in June. We can’t wait to see what questions you send us for the astronaut.

    A pause to recharge the ISS batteries 

    Normally, the Astro Pi programs run continuously from the end of April until the end of May. However, this year, there is an interesting event happening in the skies above us that means that programs will pause for a few days. The ISS will be moving its position on the ‘beta angle’ and pivoting its orientation to maximise the sunlight that it can capture with its solar panels. 

    A picture of the International Space Station.
    The International Space Station

    The ISS normally takes 90 minutes to complete its orbit, 45 minutes of which is in sunlight, and 45 minutes in darkness. When it moves along the beta angle, it will be in continual sunlight, allowing it to capture lots of solar energy and recharge its batteries. While in its new orientation, the ISS is exposed to increased heat from the sun so the window shutters must be closed to help the astronauts stay cool. That means taking photos of the Earth’s surface won’t be possible for a few days.

    What next?

    Once all of the programs have run, we will send the Mission Space Lab teams the data collected during their experiments. All successful Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab teams and mentors will also receive personal certificates to recognise their mission completion.

    Congratulations to all of this year’s Astro Pi Challenge participants, and especially to all successful teams.

    Website: LINK

  • Raspberry Pi 5 and Raspberry Pi Pico

    Raspberry Pi 5 and Raspberry Pi Pico

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Raspberry Pi 5 and Thonny IDE

    The easiest way to program Raspberry Pi Pico is with MicroPython, a Python-compatible programming language developed to run on microcontrollers. With Pico connected to Raspberry Pi 5 via USB, you can use the Thonny IDE (integrated development environment) application to write MicroPython programs and run them on Pico. Packed with features, Thonny is very user-friendly and its ‘Shell’ pane will show you any output from the running Pico program, or error messages if something goes wrong. It also features a built-in debugger which lets you walk through a program step by step to show what’s happening at each stage, helping you to find bugs.

    Programming Pico

    We’ll connect Pico to Raspberry Pi 5 and write a MicroPython program to blink its on-board LED.

    1. To program Pico using MicroPython, we’ll use the Thonny IDE. With Raspberry Pi 5 connected to a monitor, open Thonny – found in (top left) Menu > Programming.

    2. Connect the larger end of the cable to any free USB Type A port on Raspberry Pi 5. While holding Pico’s BOOTSEL button, connect the other end of the cable to Pico’s micro-USB port to mount it as a drive.

    3. We need to install the MicroPython firmware on Pico. In Thonny, click ‘Local Python 3’ at the bottom right of the window. Select ‘Install MicroPython’ from the pop-up menu.

    4. In the next menu, click the ‘variant’ drop-down and select your Pico model type to get the correct version. Finally, click the ‘Install’ button to flash the MicroPython firmware to Pico.

    5. A message in the Shell pane will confirm the version of MicroPython installed on the connected Pico. You are now ready to start programming it.

    6. To use Pico’s GPIO pins, we need to import the Pin class of the 

    machine

    MicroPython module. Add this code to Thonny’s main pane:

    from machine import Pin

    7. Next, we assign a variable (we’ve named it 

    led

    ) to the LED’s GPIO pin on Pico and set it as an output:

    led = Pin(“LED”, Pin.OUT)

    8. To toggle the LED on/off, we add the line:

    led.toggle()

    Click Thonny’s Run button to run the program and turn Pico’s LED on. Run it again to turn it off.

    9. To save your program, click Thonny’s Save button and name the file with a .py suffix – we called ours blink.py – and opt to save it on Raspberry Pi Pico.

    10. To toggle the LED at regular intervals, we’ll alter the code. Under line 1, add the following to import the 

    time

    module’s sleep class:

    from time import sleep

    11. Before 

    led.toggle

    , add a new line to create an infinite loop:

    while True:

    Indent 

    led.toggle

    by four spaces (so it becomes part of the loop).

    12. Add another indented line to the loop to add a one-second time delay each time:

    sleep(1)

    Now run the code and the LED should toggle on and off every second.

  • Sandeep Mistry profile

    Sandeep Mistry profile

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    After working for various companies as a software engineer in Ottawa, and also working remotely with Arduino, he started looking for a new way to use his expertise with embedded and mobile devices. There’s not much better place than Arm for that, and when an acquaintance of his mentioned a position coming up, he jumped at the chance.

    He’d already worked on a Raspberry Pi Pico project before joining Arm – if you cast your mind back to 2021 around the time Pico was released, he built a way to add Ethernet to Pico via the PIO. It was even featured on the blog. Since then, he’s been putting out software and hardware projects of varying levels of complexity, and has really shown off the power of Raspberry Pi in the process.

    Sandeep’s builds

    Give a plant a personality

    “[A favourite project of mine] was using Pico W to create a plant that texts you when it needs water, after it’s been watered, good morning/night, and random jokes,” Sandeep says. “It was the first time I used MicroPython, and it was fun to use the Pico W to give a plant a personality.”

    See sound in real time

    Building on the Pico microphone project, this project shows how you can create cool visualisers for sound using a display also hooked up to Pico. These specific visualisations are audio spectrograms, which display sound as amplitude over time for cool visual effects.

    Create a USB microphone

    Pico can do a lot with its PIO capabilities – and it also has an ADC (analogue-to-digital converter) onboard. Combining the ability to connect to a system as a USB device while also listening to a microphone means you can create a custom Pico-powered mic. It’s an interesting and fairly cheap way to add a mic to a computer.

  • Coming to Game Pass: Manor Lords, Another Crab’s Treasure, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, and More

    Coming to Game Pass: Manor Lords, Another Crab’s Treasure, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, and More

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    It’s nice to see you’re willing to take a break from watching “Fallout” on Prime Video, because I have the next round of amazing games for you to check out! We have new games coming to the Game Pass Core library, your PC, and even one you can download and start playing today! Let’s dive in.

    Available Today

    Harold Halibut (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
    Available on day one with Game Pass! Harold Halibut is a handmade narrative game about friendship and life on a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean. Join Harold as he explores a vibrant retro-future world in his quest to find the true meaning of ‘home’. You can learn more about Harold Halibut in Xbox Wire’s recent hands-on preview here.

    Coming Soon

    Orcs Must Die! 3 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 17
    Orcs Must Die! 3 ushers orc-slaying mayhem to a previously unimaginable scale. Solo, or 2-player co-op, arm yourself with a massive arsenal of traps and weapons. Slice, burn, toss, and zap hordes of repugnant orcs in this long-awaited successor to the award-winning tower defense series.

    EA Sports NHL 24 (Console) EA Play – April 18
    Just in time for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, NHL 24 is coming to Game Pass Ultimate via EA Play! Members can experience authentic on-ice action and give their Ultimate Team a boost with the EA Play Mega Players Pack until May 9, containing 30 items, all Gold Players, with at least five 80+ OVR Players for Ultimate Team mode in the game.

    Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 23
    Available on day one with Game Pass! Gather your allies for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, the grand JRPG adventure. Assemble your 6-party team from a cast of over a hundred heroes and shape your destiny in this lush, hand-crafted 2.5D world brimming with war, intrigue, and magic. Manage your town of vibrant characters, play delightful mini-games, and prepare for an unforgettable narrative of boundless charm.

    Another Crab’s Treasure (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 25
    Available on day one with Game Pass! A soulslike adventure set in a crumbling underwater world. As Kril the hermit crab, you’ll need to wear the trash around you as shells to withstand attacks from enemies many times your size. Embark on an epic treasure hunt to buy back your repossessed shell and discover the dark secrets behind the polluted ocean.

    Manor Lords (Game Preview) (PC) – April 26
    Available on day one with Game Pass! Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord — the seasons pass, the weather changes and cities rise and fall.

    Have A Nice Death (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 30
    In this darkly charming 2D action roguelike, play as an overworked Death, whose employees have run rampant, completely throwing off the balance of souls – and his vacation plans. Grab your trusty scythe and show your employees who’s boss.

    More Games Coming to Game Pass Core on April 23

    For Game Pass Core members, there are three more games coming to the library on April 23! Become a badass space Dwarf in Deep Rock Galactic, dance the slow-motion ballet of destruction in Superhot: Mind Control Delete, and face total demolition derby madness in Wreckfest.

    DLC / Game Updates

    Ark: Survival Ascended – Scorched Earth – Available now
    Saddle up and stake your claim on the Scorched Earth! Build new Western-style structures like your own rootin’ tootin’ saloon, then tickle the ivories on your own piano for an authentic frontier experience. Hunt for buried treasure with your trusty shovel, tame hardy new creatures to pull your configurable wagon and even hop aboard your own chugging steam train to explore those harsh badlands!

    Conan Exiles: Age of War Chapter 4 – Available now
     In the new Sacred Hunt, embark on a quest to fell the champions of Jhebbal Sag, Lord of Beasts. Discover a new hub area and uncover a new mystery. Unleash brutality with fatalities. Daze enemies by bringing their health low and then finish them off with a range of savagely animated finishing moves, depending on the weapon you have equipped. If there is glory in gore, you will find it.

    Grounded: Fully Yoked Edition – Available now
    The ultimate Grounded experience is now bulging with new content that’s sure to get you pumped! Experience new ant queens, new game + mode and an exciting array of new gear. Are you ready to get Fully Yoked?

    Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks

    Fallout 76 Vault 33 Survivor Kit – Available now
    Vault-Tec is happy to offer Vault Dwellers a handy bundle of Wasteland survival and a sturdy Vault 33 Backpack to use in this vast open-world multiplayer entry in the Fallout universe.

    The Elder Scrolls Online 10th Anniversary Pack #1 – Available now
    Celebrate 10 years of The Elder Scrolls Online with a Perks bundle that includes three Grand Gold Coast Experience Scrolls and 500 Seals of Endeavor.  Explore and quest solo or with friends in the award-winning fantasy RPG today. 

    Leaving April 30

    The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon. Jump back in before they go or save 20% on your purchase to keep them in your library!

    • 7 Days to Die (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Besiege (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • EA Sports NHL 22 (Console)
    • Loot River (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Pikuniku (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Ravenlok (Cloud, Console, and PC)

    That wraps us up! Keep up with the coming games on social at @Xbox, @XboxGamePass or @XboxGamePassPC. Catch you next time!

    Website: LINK

  • Global Impact: Empowering young people in Kenya and South Africa

    Global Impact: Empowering young people in Kenya and South Africa

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    We work with mission-aligned educational organisations all over the world to support young people’s computing education. In 2023 we established four partnerships in Kenya and South Africa with organisations Coder:LevelUp, Blue Roof, Oasis Mathare, and Tech Kidz Africa, which support young people in underserved communities. Our shared goal is to support educators to establish and sustain extracurricular Code Clubs and CoderDojos in schools and community organisations. Here we share insights into the impact the partnerships are having.

    A group of young people outside a school.

    Evaluating the impact of the training 

    In the partnerships we used a ‘train the trainer’ model, which focuses on equipping our partners with the knowledge and skills to train and support educators and learners. This meant that we trained a group of educators from each partner, enabling them to then run their own training sessions for other educators so they can set up coding clubs and run coding sessions. These coding sessions aim to increase young people’s skills and confidence in computing and programming.

    We also conducted an evaluation of the impact of our work in these partnerships. We shared two surveys with educators (one shortly after they completed their initial training, a second for when they were running coding sessions), and another survey for young people to fill in during their coding sessions. In two of the partnerships, we also conducted interviews and focus groups with educators and young people. 

    Although we received lots of valuable feedback, only a low proportion of participants responded to our surveys, so the data may not be representative of the experience of all participating educators. 

    A group of young people coding on a laptop.

    New opportunities to learn to code

    Following our training, our partners themselves trained 332 educators across Kenya and South Africa to work directly in schools and communities running coding sessions. This led to the setup of nearly 250 Code Clubs and CoderDojos and additional coding sessions in schools and communities, reaching more than 11,500 young people.

    As a result, access to coding and programming has increased in areas where this provision would otherwise not be available. One educator told us:

    “We found it extremely beneficial, because a lot of our children come from areas in the community where they barely know how to read and write, let alone know how to use a computer… [It provides] the foundation, creating a fun way of approaching the computer as opposed to it being daunting.”

    Curiosity, excitement and increased confidence

    We found encouraging signs of the impact of this work on young people.

    Nearly 90% of educators reported seeing an increase in young people’s computing skills, with over half of educators reporting that this increase was large. Over three quarters of young people who filled in our survey reported feeling confident in coding and computer programming.

    The young people spoke enthusiastically about what they had learned and the programs they had created. They told us they felt inspired to keep learning, linking their interests to what they wanted to do in coding sessions. Interests included making dolls, games, cartoons, robots, cars, and stories. 

    A young person points at a screen.

    When we spoke with educators and young people, a key theme that emerged was the enthusiasm and curiosity of the young people to learn more. Educators described how motivated they felt by the excitement of the young people. Young people particularly enjoyed finding out the role of programming in the world around them, from understanding traffic lights to knowing more about the games they play on their phones.

    One educator told us:

    “…students who knew nothing about technology are getting empowered.” 

    This confidence is particularly encouraging given that educators reported a low level of computer literacy among young people at the start of the coding sessions. One educator described how coding sessions provided an engaging hook to support teaching basic IT skills, such as mouse skills and computer-related terms, alongside coding. 

    Addressing real-world problems

    One educator gave an example of young people using what they are learning in their coding club to solve real-world problems, saying:

    “It’s life-changing because some of those kids and the youths that you are teaching… they’re using them to automate things in their houses.” 

    Many of these young people live in informal settlements where there are frequent fires, and have started using skills they learned in the coding sessions to automate things in their homes, reducing the risk of fires. For example, they are programming a device that controls fans so that they switch on when the temperature gets too high, and ways to switch appliances such as light bulbs on and off by clapping.

    A young learner coding on a laptop.

    Continuing to improve our support

    From the gathered feedback, we also learned some useful lessons to help improve the quality of our offer and support to our partners. For example, educators faced challenges including lack of devices for young people, and low internet connectivity. As we continue to develop these partnerships, we will work with partners to make use of our unplugged activities that work offline, removing the barriers created by low connectivity.

    We are continuing to develop the training we offer and making sure that educators are able to access our other training and resources. We are also using the feedback they have given us to consider where additional training and support may be needed. Future evaluations will further strengthen our evidence and provide us with the insights we need to continue developing our work and support more educators and young people.

    Our thanks to our partners at Coder:LevelUp, Blue Roof, Oasis Mathare, and Tech Kidz Africa for sharing our mission to enable young people to realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies. As we continue to build partnerships to support Code Clubs and CoderDojos across South Africa and Kenya, it is heartening to hear first-hand accounts of the positive impact this work has on young people.

    If your organisation would like to partner with us to bring computing education to young people you support, please send us a message with the subject ‘Partnerships’.

    Website: LINK

  • #MagPiMonday

    #MagPiMonday

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Every Monday we ask the question: have you made something with a Raspberry Pi over the weekend? Every Monday, our followers send us amazing photos and videos of the things they’ve made.

    Here’s a selection of some of the awesome things we got sent this month. Remember to follow along at the hashtag #MagPiMonday!

  • Mini Observatory

    Mini Observatory

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    A familiar tale

    Matt began with a series of traditional telescopes, but found them “a little frustrating to use in practice”. It was hard to locate objects in the sky and most of what he could see was “often just a grey smudge”. Digital telescopes were not that common and were expensive, but when Raspberry Pi launched the HQ camera sensor Matt wondered whether he could build a really simple digital telescope with the Raspberry Pi at the heart of it.

    The gearing allows the telescope to move vertically and horizontally in 0.004-degree steps

    He had already built an Aurora clock that lets you know if there’s a chance of seeing the Northern Lights, and a similar device using Raspberry Pi to track the International Space Station. With ten years of Raspberry Pi familiarity to draw upon, Matt was confident he could handle both high- and low-level functions and decided it would be the ideal basis for his own telescope and observatory design. “I knew there were Python packages available and I hoped to find pre-existing solutions to most of my needs”. The initial plans were for a Raspberry Pi Pico project but Matt soon realised he needed more power, switching to “Raspberry Pi 4B with RP2040 help”.

    Matt was less confident of his 3D design skills: he needed to create more parts than he’d ever done previously and regarded this aspect as a distraction at the time, but says it’s a new skill that has come in useful elsewhere since.

    Seeing the lights

    The Mini Observatory design emerged from successive experiments using Raspberry Pi Pico. Having started tinkering, Matt gradually developed routines to solve specific problems, learning how to control stepper motors and the technical aspects of the HQ camera. He needed precision here and went to a specialist company called Stepperonline to source them. Matt bought other parts from well-known Raspberry resellers such as The Pi Hut and Pimoroni, with more generic nuts and bolts from general hardware stores. He cautions over scrimping on potentially dangerous items such as power supplies: “always buy them from a trusted source”.

    A processed photo of the Andromeda galaxy using images gathered by the telescope using a 50mm lens

    The project provided a great learning experience, with the observatory, gears and mechanism all home-grown. The ‘semi-intelligent’ motor controller for the telescope is probably the most novel element. Matt needed a way for the telescope to move while Raspberry Pi was busy taking photographs, so gave the motors a little RP2040 microprocessor brain. “They were released at the perfect time.”

    Matt was able to make use of Python packages such as Skyfield, OpenCV, PiDNG and Astroalign and says it was a good choice for his Mini Observatory project. He is also really keen to process the photographs in real time onboard the telescope. “I haven’t solved that yet, so I still need to do some offline processing afterwards. Realtime processing must be possible, I just have to research more.”

    The software attempts to recognise objects and helps ‘tune’ the system

    Since Matt first unveiled the project, several other makers have created versions, providing invaluable feedback and prompting him to tweak a few elements such as removing the infrared cutoff filters from his cameras which will make more objects visible.

    Matt is also plotting a second version of his mini observatory, and is excited about the possibilities of Raspberry Pi with improved imagery and support for a second camera: one camera to do the tracking another to photograph the heavens. In fact “Raspberry Pi 5 may trigger quite a rewrite!”

  • Celebrating the community: Arno & Timo

    Celebrating the community: Arno & Timo

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    We love hearing from members of the community and sharing the stories of amazing young people, volunteers, and educators who are using their passion for technology to create positive change in the world around them.

    Arno helping young coders at the CoderDojo Netherlands tenth birthday celebrations
    Arno helping young coders at the CoderDojo Netherlands tenth birthday celebrations

    In our latest story, we’re heading to Alkmaar, the Netherlands, to meet Arno and Timo, CoderDojo enthusiasts who have transitioned from club members to supportive mentors. Their journey at CoderDojo and their drive to give back and support the next generation of coders in their community has been an inspiration to those around them.

    Introducing Arno and Timo

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NglMhw3KwMU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Arno and Timo have been friends since childhood, and embarked on their CoderDojo journey at the age of 12, eager to explore the world of coding. Under the guidance of mentors like Sanneke, Librarian and Chair of CoderDojo Netherlands, they not only honed their technical skills, but also learned about the value of collaboration, curiosity, and perseverance. As they grew older, they in turn were inspired to support young coders, and wanting to remain part of the CoderDojo community, they decided to become mentors to the next generation of club attendees. 

    Having been helping younger members of the club for years, the transition to official mentors and proud owners of the much-coveted mentor T-shirt was seamless. 

    Timo with Mirthe and Linus, two young CoderDojo members
    Timo with Mirthe and Linus, two young CoderDojo members

    The power of mentorship

    Sanneke reflects on the impact young mentors like Timo and Arno have on the young learners at CoderDojo:

    “Having young mentors who are just slightly older than our youngest… I think it helps them to see what happens when you grow up and how they can help. They can be examples for how to help others.” – Sanneke, Librarian, CoderDojo mentor, and Chair of CoderDojo Netherlands

    Timo echoes this sentiment, highlighting how mentoring provides a fantastic opportunity to help people and make a positive impact in the local community: 

    “I think volunteering is important, because you’re doing something for the community, in a city or village, supporting them in their journey in learning coding.” – Timo

    As they continue their journey, Timo and Arno remain committed to supporting and inspiring the next generation of coders. They also encourage anyone who is thinking of volunteering at a club to give it a go: 

    “If you want to volunteer at the CoderDojo, just go for it. You don’t really need that much experience. […] The kids can learn it, so can you.” – Arno

    The CoderDojo movement in the Netherlands is celebrating a decade of impact, and champions a culture of growth and learning. Arno and Timo’s story serves as an inspiration to us all, shining a light on the power of mentorship and the impact of volunteering in building stronger, more supportive communities. 

    Inspire the next generation of young coders

    Arno and Timo’s story showcases the importance of mentorship for both individuals and communities, and the real impact you can have by donating an hour of your time a week. If you’re interested in becoming a CoderDojo volunteer, head to coderdojo.com to find out how to get started.

    Help us celebrate Arno and Timo and their inspiring journey by sharing their story on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Facebook.

    Website: LINK

  • Passive Cooling Open CNC case review

    Passive Cooling Open CNC case review

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    On the smooth opposite side of the two parts are thermal pads; for the top piece, there are three that stick to the SoC, power management IC, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module. The base section is almost totally covered by a single thermal pad that sticks to the underside of Raspberry Pi 5.

    The case comprises two aluminium heatsink parts that sandwich Raspberry Pi 5 between thermal pads

    Unlimited access

    The two case parts are secured in place with long bolts. With no side pieces, access to Raspberry Pi 5’s ports is unobstructed. Cutouts in the top part give access to the GPIO pins and PoE header. There are also slots for the two camera/display MIPI ports and the UART and RTC battery connectors, while the fan connector remains uncovered.

    So, how much cooling does this case provide? A lot! When idle, Raspberry Pi 5 was 10–15°C cooler than without a case; running a stress test, the difference was around 40°C.

    Verdict

    9/10

    Provides an impressive amount of cooling while giving full access to all Raspberry Pi 5’s ports.

    Specs

    Cooling: Two large heatsink panels (top and base) with thermal pads attached

    Features: Cutouts/slots for all Raspberry Pi 5 top-side ports; open sides for the others

  • Localising AI education: Adapting Experience AI for global impact

    Localising AI education: Adapting Experience AI for global impact

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    It’s been almost a year since we launched our first set of Experience AI resources in the UK, and we’re now working with partner organisations to bring AI literacy to teachers and students all over the world.

    Developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind, Experience AI provides everything that teachers need to confidently deliver engaging lessons that will inspire and educate young people about AI and the role that it could play in their lives.

    Over the past six months we have been working with partners in Canada, Kenya, Malaysia, and Romania to create bespoke localised versions of the Experience AI resources. Here is what we’ve learned in the process.

    Creating culturally relevant resources

    The Experience AI Lessons address a variety of real-world contexts to support the concepts being taught. Including real-world contexts in teaching is a pedagogical strategy we at the Raspberry Pi Foundation call “making concrete”. This strategy significantly enhances the learning experience for learners because it bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. 

    Three learners and an educator do a physical computing activity.

    The initial aim of Experience AI was for the resources to be used in UK schools. While we put particular emphasis on using culturally relevant pedagogy to make the resources relatable to learners from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the tech industry, the contexts we included in them were for UK learners. As many of the resource writers and contributors were also based in the UK, we also unavoidably brought our own lived experiences and unintentional biases to our design thinking.

    Therefore, when we began thinking about how to adapt the resources for schools in other countries, we knew we needed to make sure that we didn’t just convert what we had created into different languages. Instead we focused on localisation.

    Educators doing an activity about networks using a piece of string.

    Localisation goes beyond translating resources into a different language. For example in educational resources, the real-world contexts used to make concrete the concepts being taught need to be culturally relevant, accessible, and engaging for students in a specific place. In properly localised resources, these contexts have been adapted to provide educators with a more relatable and effective learning experience that resonates with the students’ everyday lives and cultural background.

    Working with partners on localisation

    Recognising our UK-focused design process, we made sure that we made no assumptions during localisation. We worked with partner organisations in the four countries — Digital Moment, Tech Kidz Africa, Penang Science Cluster, and Asociația Techsoup — drawing on their expertise regarding their educational context and the real-world examples that would resonate with young people in their countries.

    Participants on a video call.
    A video call with educators in Kenya.

    We asked our partners to look through each of the Experience AI resources and point out the things that they thought needed to change. We then worked with them to find alternative contexts that would resonate with their students, whilst ensuring the resources’ intended learning objectives would still be met.

    Spotlight on localisation for Kenya

    Tech Kidz Africa, our partner in Kenya, challenged some of the assumptions we had made when writing the original resources.

    An Experience AI lesson plan in English and Swahili.
    An Experience AI resource in English and Swahili.

    Relevant applications of AI technology

    Tech Kidz Africa wanted the contexts in the lessons to not just be relatable to their students, but also to demonstrate real-world uses of AI applications that could make a difference in learners’ communities. They highlighted that as agriculture is the largest contributor to the Kenyan economy, there was an opportunity to use this as a key theme for making the Experience AI lessons more culturally relevant. 

    This conversation with Tech Kidz Africa led us to identify a real-world use case where farmers in Kenya were using an AI application that identifies disease in crops and provides advice on which pesticides to use. This helped the farmers to increase their crop yields.

    Training an AI model to classify healthy and unhealthy cassava plant photos.
    Training an AI model to classify healthy and unhealthy cassava plant photos.

    We included this example when we adapted an activity where students explore the use of AI for “computer vision”. A Google DeepMind research engineer, who is one of the General Chairs of the Deep Learning Indaba, recommended a data set of images of healthy and diseased cassava crops (1). We were therefore able to include an activity where students build their own machine learning models to solve this real-world problem for themselves.

    Access to technology

    While designing the original set of Experience AI resources, we made the assumption that the vast majority of students in UK classrooms have access to computers connected to the internet. This is not the case in Kenya; neither is it the case in many other countries across the world. Therefore, while we localised the Experience AI resources with our Kenyan partner, we made sure that the resources allow students to achieve the same learning outcomes whether or not they have access to internet-connected computers.

    An AI classroom discussion activity.
    An Experience AI activity related to farming.

    Assuming teachers in Kenya are able to download files in advance of lessons, we added “unplugged” options to activities where needed, as well as videos that can be played offline instead of being streamed on an internet-connected device.

    What we’ve learned

    The work with our first four Experience AI partners has given us with lots of localisation learnings, which we will use as we continue to expand the programme with more partners across the globe:

    • Cultural specificity: We gained insight into which contexts are not appropriate for non-UK schools, and which contexts all our partners found relevant. 
    • Importance of local experts: We know we need to make sure we involve not just people who live in a country, but people who have a wealth of experience of working with learners and understand what is relevant to them. 
    • Adaptation vs standardisation: We have learned about the balance between adapting resources and maintaining the same progression of learning across the Experience AI resources. 

    Throughout this process we have also reflected on the design principles for our resources and the choices we can make while we create more Experience AI materials in order to make them more amenable to localisation. 

    Join us as an Experience AI partner

    We are very grateful to our partners for collaborating with us to localise the Experience AI resources. Thank you to Digital Moment, Tech Kidz Africa, Penang Science Cluster, and Asociația Techsoup.

    We now have the tools to create resources that support a truly global community to access Experience AI in a way that resonates with them. If you’re interested in joining us as a partner, you can register your interest here.

    (1) The cassava data set was published open source by Ernest Mwebaze, Timnit Gebru, Andrea Frome, Solomon Nsumba, and Jeremy Tusubira. Read their research paper about it here.

    Website: LINK

  • Insights into students’ attitudes to using AI tools in programming education

    Insights into students’ attitudes to using AI tools in programming education

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Educators around the world are grappling with the problem of whether to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the classroom. As more and more teachers start exploring the ways to use these tools for teaching and learning computing, there is an urgent need to understand the impact of their use to make sure they do not exacerbate the digital divide and leave some students behind.

    A teenager learning computer science.

    Sri Yash Tadimalla from the University of North Carolina and Dr Mary Lou Maher, Director of Research Community Initiatives at the Computing Research Association, are exploring how student identities affect their interaction with AI tools and their perceptions of the use of AI tools. They presented findings from two of their research projects in our March seminar.

    How students interact with AI tools 

    A common approach in research is to begin with a preliminary study involving a small group of participants in order to test a hypothesis, ways of collecting data from participants, and an intervention. Yash explained that this was the approach they took with a group of 25 undergraduate students on an introductory Java programming course. The research observed the students as they performed a set of programming tasks using an AI chatbot tool (ChatGPT) or an AI code generator tool (GitHub Copilot). 

    The data analysis uncovered five emergent attitudes of students using AI tools to complete programming tasks: 

    • Highly confident students rely heavily on AI tools and are confident about the quality of the code generated by the tool without verifying it
    • Cautious students are careful in their use of AI tools and verify the accuracy of the code produced
    • Curious students are interested in exploring the capabilities of the AI tool and are likely to experiment with different prompts 
    • Frustrated students struggle with using the AI tool to complete the task and are likely to give up 
    • Innovative students use the AI tool in creative ways, for example to generate code for other programming tasks

    Whether these attitudes are common for other and larger groups of students requires more research. However, these preliminary groupings may be useful for educators who want to understand their students and how to support them with targeted instructional techniques. For example, highly confident students may need encouragement to check the accuracy of AI-generated code, while frustrated students may need assistance to use the AI tools to complete programming tasks.

    An intersectional approach to investigating student attitudes

    Yash and Mary Lou explained that their next research study took an intersectional approach to student identity. Intersectionality is a way of exploring identity using more than one defining characteristic, such as ethnicity and gender, or education and class. Intersectional approaches acknowledge that a person’s experiences are shaped by the combination of their identity characteristics, which can sometimes confer multiple privileges or lead to multiple disadvantages.

    A student in a computing classroom.

    In the second research study, 50 undergraduate students participated in programming tasks and their approaches and attitudes were observed. The gathered data was analysed using intersectional groupings, such as:

    • Students who were from the first generation in their family to attend university and female
    • Students who were from an underrepresented ethnic group and female 

    Although the researchers observed differences amongst the groups of students, there was not enough data to determine whether these differences were statistically significant.

    Who thinks using AI tools should be considered cheating? 

    Participating students were also asked about their views on using AI tools, such as “Did having AI help you in the process of programming?” and “Does your experience with using this AI tool motivate you to continue learning more about programming?”

    The same intersectional approach was taken towards analysing students’ answers. One surprising finding stood out: when asked whether using AI tools to help with programming tasks should be considered cheating, students from more privileged backgrounds agreed that this was true, whilst students with less privilege disagreed and said it was not cheating.

    This finding is only with a very small group of students at a single university, but Yash and Mary Lou called for other researchers to replicate this study with other groups of students to investigate further. 

    You can watch the full seminar here:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oIGA7NJREI?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Acknowledging differences to prevent deepening divides

    As researchers and educators, we often hear that we should educate students about the importance of making AI ethical, fair, and accessible to everyone. However, simply hearing this message isn’t the same as truly believing it. If students’ identities influence how they view the use of AI tools, it could affect how they engage with these tools for learning. Without recognising these differences, we risk continuing to create wider and deeper digital divides. 

    Join our next seminar

    The focus of our ongoing seminar series is on teaching programming with or without AI. 

    For our next seminar on Tuesday 16 April at 17:00 to 18:30 GMT, we’re joined by Brett A. Becker (University College Dublin), who will talk about how generative AI can be used effectively in secondary school programming education and how it can be leveraged so that students can be best prepared for continuing their education or beginning their careers. To take part in the seminar, click the button below to sign up, and we will send you information about how to join. We hope to see you there.

    The schedule of our upcoming seminars is online. You can catch up on past seminars on our blog and on the previous seminars and recordings page.

    Website: LINK

  • Coding in an AI age

    Coding in an AI age

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Artists are understandably less than thrilled that AI is producing facsimiles of their work without giving them credit, or payment. For coders: AI changes everything. It can help you write, explain, understand, and improve the quality of code, and increase productivity by enhancing performance. It’s versatile in all programming languages and can help translate code between them.

    On the downside, GPT can spit out code that kind of works for people who sort of understand it. And, as it gets better, they may not need, or even want, to understand it.

    Abstract arts

    Everybody involved in technology knows about abstraction. The process whereby the intricate technology stack gets hidden away, and the user is presented with a simpler interface. The iPhone is easier than the GUI PC, which is easier than the DOS PC, which is easier than the PDP.

    This next step: the ChatGPT “How can I help today?” rather than an IDE and knowledge of coding.

    Raspberry Pi exists, on some level, counter to abstraction. We want to tear people away from their shiny slabs of glass and glue, and show them the insides of a computer. “It isn’t magic, it’s just billions of on/off switches flicking on and off at a billion times per second!” Which is, in itself, a form of magic.

    Anybody doubting the importance of GPT and similar technologies isn’t really paying attention. The negative responses remind me of Douglas Adams’ three rules:

    1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

    2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re 15 and 35 is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

    3. Anything invented after you’re 35 is against the natural order of things.

    Most of us are somewhere between two and three, but objections to AI aren’t just Ludditism. When applied to creative arts, AI devalues human involvement and can be accused of plagiarism. The same can be said of code, of course, but art feels instinctively more personal.

    Coding is an incredibly cerebral process and requires creativity and deep thought. But coders stand on the shoulders of giants. I may understand a merge-sort algorithm, but I sure as heck didn’t come up with it. And using AI to put it to work and explain it to me feels inherently useful. John von Neumann might disagree if he was around, but somehow I feel he’d be delighted.

  • Backpack Cyberdeck

    Backpack Cyberdeck

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    A great framework

    The Backpack Cyberdeck was inspired by Davide’s need to move his experiments easily without setup breakdowns – he works in the metalworking industry, and reasoned that a custom-designed frame that fits inside a commercially available backpack would come in mighty useful for other people as well as himself. He says the idea is that hobbyists and professionals can carry, use and interact with a variety of devices on the go. Raspberry Pi 4 was chosen for its compactness and power efficiency and serves as the ‘brain’ of Davide’s mobile setup. It allows him to remotely control devices mounted on the frame. The project runs on open-source software – “primarily GNU Radio for wireless communications analysis, and Kali Linux tools for security and penetration testing tasks”. He says the build cost was “moderate, reflecting the price of the Raspberry Pi, the backpack, and some additional electronic components like the RTL-SDR”.

    A slightly overclocked and power-efficient Raspberry Pi 4 acts as the brain, allowing for the components to be remotely controlled

    Sharing the build photos on Facebook, Davide explains that it transforms a simple backpack into a customisable platform, allowing for the creation of mobile workstations, entertainment systems, or unique projects through 3D-printed attachments”. The Backpack Cyberdeck avoids the risk of damage or subsequent discomfort because there is no desk outdoors. Having cycled to his destination he can conduct his outdoor experiments “the most comfortable way”.

    Bag your own

    For Davide, one advantage of using Raspberry Pi is its compact size, which allowed him to design a system that was both powerful and practical. The design is entirely original, with all parts created or modified by him to suit his project’s requirements.

    Davide has now developed an online store for versions of his Backpack Cyberdeck

    Interest in the backpack led Davide to set up Bag Builds as an online custom bag business, but he designed the Backpack Cyberdeck’s frame for DIY enthusiasts with a passion for 3D printing. He shares STL files for several versions of the Backpack Cyberdeck on his GitHub page, with customisation options for the hardware components all designed to fit neatly into a standard backpack. There is plenty of opportunity for DIY builds to be customised, since some users may need holes to allow antennae through, and to fit cables.

    Reassuring curious but impressed project followers, Davide says all the components meet flight-safe guidelines for power output, so it could potentially be taken on board aircraft too. Davide is at pains to point out that everything he’s done with the Backpack Cyberdeck is legal and poses no security issues. He has posted several assembly videos on YouTube that show the breadth of uses for his backpacks, including using one as a mobile radio station.

    “The idea could be adapted for various other purposes, such as mobile video streaming, electronic repair setups, or even as a simple organiser,” he says. “My advice to anyone interested in similar projects is to start small, and to pay attention to the interference that the various devices and cables could generate, compromising the functionality of some parts.”

  • Careers in computer science: Two perspectives

    Careers in computer science: Two perspectives

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    As educators, it’s important that we showcase the wide range of career opportunities available in the field of computing, not only to inspire learners, but also to help them feel sure they’re choosing to study a subject that is useful for their future. For example, a survey from the BBC in September 2023 found that more than a quarter of UK teenagers often feel anxious, with “exams and school life” among the main causes. To help young people chart their career paths, we recently hosted two live webinars for National Careers Week in the UK.

    A student in a computing classroom.
    Two teenage learners in a classroom.

    Our goal for the webinars was to highlight the breadth of careers within computing and to provide insights from professionals who are pursuing their own diverse and rewarding paths. Each webinar featured engaging discussions and an interactive Q&A session with learners who use our Ada Computer Science platform. The learners could ask their own questions to get firsthand knowledge and perspectives from our guest speakers.

    Our guest speakers

    Jess Van Brummelen is a Human–Computer Interaction Research Scientist at Niantic, the video games company behind augmented reality game Pokémon Go. After developing an interest in programming during her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, she went on to complete a Master’s degree and PhD in computer science at MIT.

    Ashley Edwards is a Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, working on reinforcement learning. She received her PhD in 2019 from Georgia Tech, spent time as an intern at Google Brain, and worked as a research scientist at Uber AI Labs.

    You can read extracts from our interviews with Jess and Ashley and watch the full videos below. Teachers have contacted us to say they’ll be using the webinars for careers-focused sessions with their students. We hope you will do the same!

    Please note that we have edited the extracts below to add clarity.

    Jess Van Brummelen

    Jessica Van Brummelen.

    Hi Jess. What advice would you give to a student who is thinking about a career in human–computer interaction in the gaming industry?

    In terms of HCI and gaming, I’d actually recommend that you keep gaming! It’s a small part of my job but it’s really important to understand what’s fun and enjoyable in games. Not only that; gaming can be great for learning to problem-solve — there’s been all sorts of research on the positive impact of gaming.

    A second thing, going back to how I felt in my mechanical engineering classes, I really felt like an ‘other’ and not someone who is the standard computer scientist or engineer. I would encourage students to pursue their dreams anyway because it’s so important to have diversity in these types of careers, especially technology, because it goes out to so many different people and it can really affect society. It’s really important that the people who make it come from many different backgrounds and cultures so we can create technology that is better for everyone.

    [From Owen, a student on the livestream] What’s the most impossible idea you’ve come up with while working at Niantic?

    I’m currently publishing a paper addressing the question, ‘Can we guide people without using anything visual on their phone?’ That means using audio and haptic (technology that transmits information via touch, e.g. vibrations) prompts instead. We tried out different commands where the phone said ‘turn left’ and ‘turn right’, but we really wanted to test how to guide someone more specifically in a game environment. For example, if there was a hidden object on a wall in a game that a person couldn’t see, could we guide them to that object while they’re walking? So I ran a study where I guided people to scan a statue by moving around it. Scanning is the process of using the camera on your phone to scan an object in real life, which is then reconstructed on your phone. Scanning objects can trigger other augmented reality experiences within a game. For example, you might scan a real-life box in a room and this might trigger an animation of that box opening to reveal a secret within the game. We tested a lot of different things. For example, test subjects listened to music as they were walking and when they were on the right path, the music sounded really good. But when they were off the path, it sounded terrible. So it helped them to look for the right path. Then if you were pointing the phone in the wrong direction for scanning objects, you would get warning vibrations on the phone. So we did the study and we were hoping it would improve safety. It turns out it was neutral on improving safety — I think this is because it was such a novel system. People weren’t used to using it and still bumped into things! But it did make people better at scanning the objects, which was interesting.

    Watch Jess’s full interview:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uneG8u2rsMM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Ashley Edwards

    Ashley Edwards.

    Hi Ashley. Is there something you studied in school that you found to be more useful now than you ever thought it would be?

    Maths! I always enjoyed doing maths, but I didn’t realise I would need it as a computer scientist. You see it popping up all the time, especially in machine learning. Having a strong knowledge of calculus and linear algebra is really helpful.

    How do you train an AI model using machine learning? 

    You start by asking the question, ‘What is the problem I’m trying to solve?’ Then typically you need input data and the outputs you want to achieve, so you ask two more questions, ‘What data do I want to come in?’ and ‘What do I want to come out?’ Let’s say you decide to use a supervised learning model (a category of machine learning where labelled data sets are used to train algorithms to detect patterns and predict outcomes) to predict whether a photo contains a cat. You train the model using a giant set of images with labels that say either ‘This is a cat’ or ‘This isn’t a cat’. By training the model with the images, you get to a point where your model can analyse the features of any image and predict whether it contains a cat or not.

    In my field of research, I work on something called reinforcement learning, which is where you train your model through trial and error and the use of ‘rewards’. Let’s imagine we are trying to train a robot. We might write a program that tells the robot, ‘I am going to give you a reward if you take the right step forward and it’s going to be a positive reward. If you fall over, I’m going to give you a negative reward.’ So you train the robot to prioritise the right behaviours to optimise the rewards it’s getting.

    [From a student] Will I still need to learn to code in the future?

    I think it is going to be very different in the future, but we’ll still need to learn how to build different types of algorithms and we’re going to need to understand the concepts behind coding as well. We’ll still need to ask questions like, ‘What is it that I want to build?’ and ‘Is this actually doing the correct thing?’

    Watch Ashley’s full interview:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBQga1NtSPg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Broadening access

    Jess and Ashley are forging successful careers not only through a combination of smart choices, hard work, talent, and a passion for technology; they also had access to opportunities to discover their passion and receive an education in this field. Too many young people around the world still don’t have these opportunities.

    That is why we provide free resources and training to help schools broaden access to computing education. For example, our free learning platform, Ada Computer Science, provides students aged 14 to 19 with high-quality computing resources and interactive questions, written by experts from our team. To learn more, visit adacomputerscience.org.

    Website: LINK

  • Meet Sara Parodi: The MagPi’s new designer

    Meet Sara Parodi: The MagPi’s new designer

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    “Growing up, I went to art school in Italy,” Sara says. “It felt like the right path for me to undertake, and through the years I pushed myself to try different things; I would find myself at events drawing on walls or floors, other times I would be at home testing lino printing using a DIY device made from an olive press. I’d even try painting on T-shirts or home-printing personalised stickers to stick everywhere. At the time I couldn’t figure out a specific definition of what I wanted to do, but nowadays I feel that the best way to explain it is that I love to work as a visual communicator. So here I am.”

    How did you join Raspberry Pi?

    At the end of 2021 I was submitting my final major project for an illustration MA at Falmouth University. In January I was ready to get back into the creative industry, so I began looking for job vacancies when I came across to a catchy one on LinkedIn. In a series of paragraphs, I saw described what I enjoy doing, and I applied for it straight away. The interview was great and I remember coming back home very enthusiastic about it.

    What Raspberry Pi design stuff have you worked on?

    I’m lucky enough to be in a place where projects vary, and the nice part is that depending on the scale of them I might be working on my own or with the skillset of my colleagues. So far I’ve worked on a variety of projects of different scales, such as packaging design, visual communication for events and related merch, design layout for case studies, books, flyers, brochures and now magazines!

    Some of the more recent, simple (and very stylish) graphic design that has been the work of Sara

    Have you made anything with a Raspberry Pi, or have any plans to?

    I’d never done any coding before joining Raspberry Pi, so I’m still in a phase of learning while watching [my partner] doing some small home projects. Last year I participated in a couple of workshops on using Pico on a breadboard, and learned how to turn on some LEDs!

    In regards to future plans… I have an idea for creating something that involves my artwork, like a sort of flipping book installation, or a projected animated GIF, but I need to define the idea first and understand how to use Raspberry Pi with it.

    Raspberry Pi prides itself on simple yet beautiful packaging – we especially love the new Touch Display designs which Sara worked on

    What other hobbies do you have?

    I love creating bodies of work that mix illustration with fine art, along with testing new materials and techniques. I usually do this at the studio space I share with other creatives in the heart of Cambridge. I enjoy going there to meet them for a coffee or to chat about what they’re up to. Sometimes we organise open studios or small exhibitions next door.

    Recently I also started to explore working with ceramics, and how to bring out the personal artwork in such tactile material.

  • Coming to Xbox Game Pass: LEGO 2K Drive, EA Sports PGA Tour, Harold Halibut, and More

    Coming to Xbox Game Pass: LEGO 2K Drive, EA Sports PGA Tour, Harold Halibut, and More

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    My favorite part about “coming soon” to Game Pass is that it quickly turns into “available today” messaging. From driving to golfing to tomb raiding, there’s plenty here that’s going to be available sooner rather than later. Let’s take a look at the games that are mere moments away from your download queue!

    Available Today

    Superhot: Mind Control Delete (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    Returning to the Game Pass library today, Superhot: Mind Control Delete gives you more insight into the signature power fantasy world of Superhot with more story, more signature gameplay, more action, more guns. Keep dancing the slow-motion ballet of destruction for much longer than ever before.

    Coming Soon

    LEGO 2K Drive (Cloud and Console) – April 3
    Welcome to Bricklandia, home of a massive open-world LEGO driving adventure. Race anywhere, play with anyone, build your dream rides, and defeat a cast of wild racing rivals for the coveted Sky Trophy!

    Lil Gator Game (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 4
    Who wouldn’t want to be an adorable Lil Gator? Embark on a cute “lil” quest, discovering new friends, and uncovering everything its island has to offer. Climb, swim, glide, and slide your way into the hearts of the many different characters you meet along the way in this adorable open-world adventure!

    EA Sports PGA Tour (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) EA Play – April 4
    EA Sports PGA Tour is coming to The Play List with PC Game Pass and Ultimate via EA Play. Become a Major champion, tee off on the Par 3 Course at Augusta National, along with three new 2024 Major host courses.

    EA Sports PGA Tour Key Art

    Kona (Cloud and Console) – April 9
    Another game is making a return to the Game Pass library! A strange blizzard ravages Atamipek Lake. Step into the shoes of a detective to explore the eerie village, investigate surreal events, and battle the elements to survive in this chilly, interactive tale you won’t soon forget.

    Botany Manor (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 9
    Available on day one with Game Pass! Explore the historic manor home of retired botanist Arabella Greene, who has amassed a collection of rare, long-forgotten flora that require special conditions to help them bloom. Unlock new seeds, look for clues in the items scattered around the residence, and solve each gardening puzzle to revive these plants.

    Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 11
    Experience the final chapter of Lara’s origin as she is forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be. Combining the base game, all seven DLC challenge tombs, as well as all downloadable weapons, outfits, and skills, Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition is the ultimate way to experience Lara’s defining moment.

    Harold Halibut (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 16
    Available on day one with Game Pass! Harold Halibut is a handmade narrative game about friendship and life on a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean. Join Harold as he explores a vibrant retro-future world in his quest to find the true meaning of ‘home’. You can learn more about Harold Halibut in Xbox Wire’s recent hands-on preview here.

    DLC / Game Updates

    No Man’s Sky Orbital Update – Available now
    Dock your fully customized starship in the sleek new space stations of update 4.6, Orbital! Space stations have been completely overhauled internally and externally; new starships can be constructed from salvaged parts; frigate fleets can reach out for guidance with interstellar expeditions; standing and guilds have been improved, trading and system economies have been deepened – and much more! Learn more about No Man’s Sky’s Orbital update here on Xbox Wire.

    Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks

    Final Fantasy XIV Online: Starter Edition – Available now
    Join over 30 million adventures worldwide in the critically acclaimed online RPG.  From now through April 19, the Final Fantasy XIV Online – Starter Edition base game is now free for a limited time – including a 30-day free play period for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. Terms apply. You can also learn how to build your Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy XIV Online here on Xbox Wire.

    YouTube Premium 3 Month Trial – Available now
    Watch your favorite YouTube creators without ads, offline, and in the background. Plus, stream the latest songs from your favorite artists with uninterrupted access to YouTube Music. New users only. Monthly subscription fee starts at the end of trial. Cancel anytime. Not available in all regions. Terms apply.

    Battlefield 2042: Season 7 Field Kit – Available now
    In the iconic all-out warfare first-person shooter of Battlefield 2042, Game Pass Ultimate and EA Play members can get the Battlefield 2042 Season 7 Field Kit containing a Ride’em Crab Boy Weapon Charm, Rising Tide AM40 Weapon Skin, and Dustproof Specialist Headgear.  Check out the other EA Play member rewards and Perks here on Xbox Wire.

    Leaving April 15

    Make sure you give the following games a proper farewell before they leave the Game Pass library. As always, you can save up to 20% off your purchase to keep them in your library.

    • Amnesia Collection (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Amnesia: Rebirth (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Back 4 Blood (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Phantom Abyss (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Research and Destroy (Cloud, Console, and PC)
    • Soma (Cloud, Console, and PC)

    That wraps us up! Let us know which game you’re planning on playing first over at @Xbox,  @XboxGamePass or @XboxGamePassPC. Catch you next time!

    Website: LINK

  • New resource to help teachers make Computing culturally relevant

    New resource to help teachers make Computing culturally relevant

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we believe that it’s important that our academic research has a practical application. An important area of research we are engaged in is broadening participation in computing education by investigating how the subject can be made more culturally relevant — we have published several studies in this area. 

    Licensed under the Open Government Licence.

    However, we know that busy teachers do not have time to keep abreast of all the latest research. This is where our Pedagogy Quick Reads come in. They show teachers how an area of current research either has been or could be applied in practice. 

    Our new Pedagogy Quick Reads summarises the central tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy (the theory) and then lays out 10 areas of opportunity as concrete ways for you to put the theory into practice.

    Why is culturally relevant pedagogy necessary?

    Computing remains an area where many groups of people are underrepresented, including those marginalised because of their gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, additional educational needs, or age. For example, recent stats in the BCS’ Annual Diversity Report 2023 record that in the UK, the proportion of women working in tech was 20% in 2021, and Black women made up only 0.7% of tech specialists. Beyond gender and ethnicity, pupils who have fewer social and economic opportunities ‘don’t see Computing as a subject for somebody like them’, a recent report from Teach First found. 

    In a computing classroom, a girl laughs at what she sees on the screen.

    The fact that in the UK, 94% of girls and 79% of boys drop Computing at age 14 should be of particular concern for Computing educators. This last statistic makes it painfully clear that there is much work to be done to broaden the appeal of Computing in schools. One approach to make the subject more inclusive and attractive to young people is to make it more culturally relevant. 

    As part of our research to help teachers effectively adapt their curriculum materials to make them culturally relevant and engaging for their learners, we’ve identified 10 areas of opportunity — areas where teachers can choose to take actions to bring the latest research on culturally relevant pedagogy into their classrooms, right here, right now. 

    Applying the areas of opportunity in your classroom

    The Pedagogy Quick Read gives teachers ideas for how they can use the areas of opportunity (AOs) to begin to review their own curriculum, teaching materials, and practices. We recommend picking one area initially, and focusing on that perhaps for a term. This helps you avoid being overwhelmed, and is particularly useful if you are trying to reach a particular group, for example, Year 9 girls, or low-attaining boys, or learners who lack confidence or motivation. 

    Two learners do physical computing in the primary school classroom.

    For example, one simple intervention is AO1 ‘Finding out more about our learners’. It’s all too easy for teachers to assume that they know what their students’ interests are. And getting to know your students can be especially tricky at secondary level, when teachers might only see a class once a fortnight or in a carousel. 

    However, finding out about your learners can be easily achieved in an online survey homework task, set at the beginning of a new academic year or term or unit of work. Using their interests, along with considerations of their backgrounds, families, and identities as inputs in curriculum planning can have tangible benefits: students may begin to feel an increased sense of belonging when they see their interests or identities reflected in the material later used. 

    How we’re using the AOs

    The Quick Read presents two practical case studies of how we’ve used the 10 AO to adapt and assess different lesson materials to increase their relevance for learners. 

    Case study 1: Teachers in UK primary school adapt resources

    As we’ve shared before, we implemented culturally relevant pedagogy as part of UK primary school teachers’ professional development in a recent research project. The Quick Read provides details of how we supported teachers to use the AOs to adapt teaching material to make it more culturally relevant to learners in their own contexts. Links to the resources used to review 2 units of work, lesson by lesson, to adapt tasks, learning material, and outcomes are included in the Quick Read. 

    A table laying out the process of adapting a computing lesson so it's culturally relevant.
    Extract from the booklet used in a teacher professional development workshop to frame possible adaptations to lesson activities.

    Case study 2: Reflecting on the adaption of resources for a vocational course for young adults in a Kenyan refugee camp

    In a different project, we used the AOs to reflect on our adaptation of classroom materials from The Computing Curriculum, which we had designed for schools in England originally. Partnering with Amala Education, we adapted Computing Curriculum materials to create a 100-hour course for young adults at Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya who wanted to develop vocational digital literacy skills. 

    The diagram below shows our ratings of the importance of applying each AO while adapting materials for this particular context. In this case, the most important areas for making adaptations were to make the context more culturally relevant, and to improve the materials’ accessibility in terms of readability and output formats (text, animation, video, etc.). 

    Importance of the areas of opportunity to a course adaptation.

    You can use this method of reflection as a way to evaluate your progress in addressing different AOs in a unit of work, across the materials for a whole year group, or even for your school’s whole approach. This may be useful for highlighting those areas which have, perhaps, been overlooked. 

    Applying research to practice with the AOs

    The ‘Areas of opportunity’ Pedagogy Quick Read aims to help teachers apply research to their practice by summarising current research and giving practical examples of evidence-based teaching interventions and resources they can use.

    Two children code on laptops while an adult supports them.

    The set of AOs was developed as part of a wider research project, and each one is itself research-informed. The Quick Read includes references to that research for everyone who wants to know more about culturally relevant pedagogy. This supporting evidence will be useful to teachers who want to address the topic of culturally relevant pedagogy with senior or subject leaders in their school, who often need to know that new initiatives are evidence-based.

    Our goal for the Quick Read is to raise awareness of tried and tested pedagogies that increase accessibility and broaden the appeal of Computing education, so that all of our students can develop a sense of belonging and enjoyment of Computing.

    Let us know if you have a story to tell about how you have applied one of the areas of opportunity in your classroom.

    To date, our research in the field of culturally relevant pedagogy has been generously supported by funders including Cognizant and Google. We are very grateful to our partners for enabling us to learn more about how to make computing education inclusive for all.

    Website: LINK

  • Our new theory of change

    Our new theory of change

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    One of the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s core values is our focus on impact. This means that we are committed to learning from the best available evidence, and to being rigorous and transparent about the difference we’re making.

    A smiling girl holding a robot buggy in her lap

    Like many charities, an important part of our approach to achieving and measuring our impact is our theory of change. We are excited to launch a newly refreshed theory of change that reflects our mission and strategy to ensure that young people can realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies.

    What is a theory of change?

    A theory of change describes the difference an organisation aims to make in the world, the actions it takes to achieve this, and the underlying assumptions about how its actions will create change.

    Two learners sharing a laptop in a coding session.

    It’s like a good cake recipe. It describes the ingredients and tools that are required, how these are combined, and what the results should be. But a theory of change goes further: it also addresses why you need the cake in the first place, and the reasons why the recipe will produce such a good cake if you follow it correctly!

    What is the change we want to make?

    Our theory of change begins with a statement of the problem that needs solving: too many young people are missing out on the enormous opportunities from digital technologies, and access to opportunities to learn depends too much on who you are and where you were born.

    We want to see a world where young people can take advantage of the opportunities that computers and digital technologies offer to transform their own lives and communities, to contribute to society, and to help address the world’s challenges.

    Learners in a computing classroom.

    To help us empower young people to do this, we have identified three broad sets of outcomes that we should target, measure, and hold ourselves accountable for. These map roughly to the COM-B model of behaviour change. This model suggests that for change to be achieved, people need a combination of capabilities, opportunities, and motivation.

    Our identified outcomes are that we support young people to:

    1. Build knowledge and skills in computing
    2. Understand the opportunities and risks associated with new technologies
    3. Develop the mindsets to confidently engage with technological change

    How do we make a difference?

    We work at multiple levels throughout education systems and society, which together will achieve deep and long-lasting change for young people. We design learning experiences and initiatives that are fun and engaging, including hundreds of free coding and computing projects, the Coolest Projects showcase for young tech creators, and the European Astro Pi Challenge, which gives young people the chance to run their computer programs in space.

    Three learners working at laptops.

    We also support teachers, youth workers, volunteers, and parents to develop their skills and knowledge, and equip them to inspire young people and help them learn. For example, The Computing Curriculum provides a complete bank of free lesson plans and other resources, and Experience AI is our educational programme that includes everything teachers need to deliver lessons on artificial intelligence and machine learning in secondary schools.

    Finally, we aim to elevate the state of computing education globally by advocating for policy and systems change, and undertaking our own original research to deepen our understanding of how young people learn about computing.

    How will we use our theory of change?

    Our theory of change is an important part of our approach to evaluating the impact of our resources and programmes, and it informs all our monitoring and evaluation plans. These plans identify the questions we want to answer, key metrics to monitor, and the data sources we use to understand the impact we’re having and to gather feedback to improve our impact in future.

    An educator teaches students to create with technology.

    The theory of change also informs a shared outcomes framework that we are applying consistently across all of our products. This framework supports planning and helps keep us focused as we consider new opportunities to further our mission.

    A final role our theory of change plays is to help communicate our mission to other stakeholders, and explain how we can work with our partners and communities to achieve change.

    You can read our new theory of change here and if you have any questions or feedback on it, please do get in touch.

    Website: LINK

  • Get coding with Raspberry Pi in The MagPi magazine #140

    Get coding with Raspberry Pi in The MagPi magazine #140

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Get coding with Raspberry Pi

    Learn to code with Raspberry Pi computers

    In this month’s edition of The MagPi we look at your coding options with Raspberry Pi: should you learn Python, Node.JS, or Go? And which IDE is best? PJ Evans has you covered with this in-depth guide to coding.

    Raspberry Pi 5 & Pico

    Double your making ability by using two of Raspberry Pi's products together

    Raspberry Pi 5 is the fastest Raspberry Pi ever made, and Pico is the RP2040 microcontroller-based computing board. Put the two together and you can really start learn code, and electronics and build some amazing things.

    Cyberdeck Backback

    This backpack features Raspberry Pi and a wide range of electronic and wireless communication technology. With it Davide Marchetti can take his mobile lab from place to place performing security and wireless communication analysis.

    Improve your upcycled Sonos Play:1

    Trick out your upcycled Sonos Play: 1 system with fresh Raspberry Pi 5 software

    PJ has converted a Sonos Play:1 into a Raspberry Pi-driven powerhouse of sound. This month he’s going to trick it out with software.

    Amazing new projects: Red Telephone

    Turn a classic piece of history into a Raspberry Pi-powered personal assistant

    Rob Miles returns with a brand new project. The red telephone takes a classic analogue rotary phone and turns it into a super smart assistant with Raspberry Pi in the innards. 

    Get your copy today

    Grab your copy of The MagPi magazine today! Straight from our Raspberry Pi Press Store.

  • Win a Raspberry Jam Bundle!

    Win a Raspberry Jam Bundle!

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    We were honoured to find out that a year long subscription to The MagPi is part of the Raspberry Jam bundle sent out to event organisers over the next couple of months, and thought we’d give our readers a chance to win a version of the bundle with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2! You can enter below…

  • Supporting Computing in England through our renewed partnership with Oak National Academy

    Supporting Computing in England through our renewed partnership with Oak National Academy

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    We are pleased to announce that we are renewing our partnership with Oak National Academy in England to provide an updated high-quality Computing curriculum and lesson materials for Key Stages 1 to 4.

    In a computing classroom, a girl looks at a computer screen.

    New curriculum and materials for the classroom

    In 2021 we partnered with Oak National Academy to offer content for schools in England that supported young people to learn Computing at home while schools were closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

    A teacher and learner at a laptop doing coding.

    In our renewed partnership, we will create new and updated materials for primary and secondary teachers to use in the classroom. These classroom units will be available for free on the Oak platform and will include everything a teacher needs to deliver engaging lessons, including slide decks, worksheets, quizzes, and accompanying videos for over 550 lessons. The units will cover both the general national Computing curriculum and the Computer Science GCSE, supporting teachers to provide a high-quality Computing offering to all students aged 5 to 16.

    Secondary school age learners in a computing classroom.

    These new resources will update the very successful Computing Curriculum and will be rigorously tested by a Computing subject expert group.

    “I am delighted that we are continuing our partnership with Oak National Academy to support all teachers in England with world-leading resources for teaching Computing and Computer Science. This means that all teachers in England will have access to free, rigorous and tested classroom resources that they can adapt to suit their context and students.” – Philip Colligan, CEO

    All our materials on the Oak platform will be free and openly available, and can be accessed by educators worldwide.

    Research-informed, time-saving, and adaptable resources

    As we did with The Computing Curriculum, we’ll design these teaching resources to model best practice, and they will be informed by leading research into pedagogy and computing education, as well as by user testing and feedback. 

    Young learners at computers in a classroom.

    The materials will bring teachers the added benefit of saving valuable time, and schools can choose to adapt and use the resources in the way that works best for their students

    Supporting schools in England and worldwide

    We have already started work and will begin releasing units of lessons in autumn 2024. All units across Key Stages 1 to 4 will be available by autumn 2025.

    A teenager learning computer science.

    We’re excited to continue our partnership with Oak National Academy to provide support to teachers and students in England. 

    And as always, our comprehensive classroom resources can be downloaded for free, by anyone in the world, from our website.

    Website: LINK