The Poetry Camera began life as an ‘AI classifier’ and was partly inspired by Kelin’s friend Susi Fu’s Artist and Machine performances examining how artists and computers can learn from each other. “Susie would draw sketches of the person standing in front of her, while a machine – using Raspberry Pi – printed out AI-drawn sketches of the same subject.”
An MIT computer science graduate turned digital product designer, Kelin took charge of the Raspberry Pi prototyping, learning how to solder, plus some basic electronics, while designing her first PCB (a HAT for Raspberry Pi). The initial cardboard design took only a few days to complete.
Industrial designer Ryan, meanwhile, has worked as a toy designer and in a creative technologist-type design role at Google where he learned “Javascript and a bit of Python,” and was introduced to Raspberry Pi for prototyping, which he’d “definitely recommend” for anyone who wants to build hardware prototypes that need a logic layer.
He was “ecstatic to create something from scratch, and prototype it on his home 3D printer”. Having started out as pen and paper sketches, Poetry Camera’s form was created and iterated on in Rhino.
Power play
As “the brain of the whole device,” Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W connects to a Camera Module 3 and a thermal printer via UART. It calls on remote AI models via an API for pointers on poem writing. The idea was that they’d get faster responses this way, but this approach necessitates connecting to Wi-Fi hotspots, which could be challenging depending on where they took Poetry Camera out and about. “In ideal conditions, it works like a well-oiled machine but Wi-Fi networks can be very spotty, especially at crowded events where there’s a lot of signal interference”. Six AA batteries keep everything powered (the thermal printer can drain batteries fast) with a buck converter to step down the voltage for Raspberry Pi. Kelin and Ryan chose Raspberry Pi for its wireless connectivity and the volume of tutorials on how to interface with cameras and thermal printers, starting with Raspberry Pi 3B+ before switching to Zero 2 W “since it hits a sweet spot in terms of small size and fast processing power”. They made use of Adafruit’s Python Thermal Printer library and found ChatGPT “very well versed” – pun hopefully intended – for creating code. “We were able to ask a question in our own naive way and get a custom tailored response that often works right out of the box, instantly.”
The pair are constantly tweaking and updating Poetry Camera. It’s already on version 4, and its creators have been delighted by how well it’s been received. “In the future, we’re looking forward to letting people customise their cameras’ outputs – by updating the poem prompts, or adding images, or using their own servers.”
“I’ve enjoyed actually learning about what AI is and how it works, because before I thought it was just a scary computer that thinks like a human,” a student learning with Experience AI at King Edward’s School, Bath, UK, told us.
This is the essence of what we aim to do with our Experience AI lessons, which demystify artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Through Experience AI, teachers worldwide are empowered to confidently deliver engaging lessons with a suite of resources that inspire and educate 11- to 14-year-olds about AI and the role it could play in their lives.
“I learned new things and it changed my mindset that AI is going to take over the world.” – Student, Malaysia
Experience AI students in Malaysia
Developed by us with Google DeepMind, our first set of Experience AI lesson resources was aimed at a UK audience and launched in April 2023. Next we released tailored versions of the resources for 5 other countries, working in close partnership with organisations in Malaysia, Kenya, Canada, Romania, and India. Thanks to new funding from Google.org, we’re now expanding Experience AI for 16 more countries and creating new resources on AI safety, with the aim of providing leading-edge AI education for more than 2 million young people across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
In this blog post, you’ll hear directly from students and teachers about the impact the Experience AI lessons have had so far.
Case study: Experience AI in Malaysia
Penang Science Cluster in Malaysia is among the first organisations we’ve partnered with for Experience AI. Speaking to Malaysian students learning with Experience AI, we found that the lessons were often very different from what they had expected.
Launch of Experience AI in Malaysia
“I actually thought it was going to be about boring lectures and not much about AI but more on coding, but we actually got to do a lot of hands-on activities, which are pretty fun. I thought AI was just about robots, but after joining this, I found it could be made into chatbots or could be made into personal helpers.” – Student, Malaysia
“Actually, I thought AI was mostly related to robots, so I was expecting to learn more about robots when I came to this programme. It widened my perception on AI.” – Student, Malaysia.
The Malaysian government actively promotes AI literacy among its citizens, and working with local education authorities, Penang Science Cluster is using Experience AI to train teachers and equip thousands of young people in the state of Penang with the understanding and skills to use AI effectively.
“We envision a future where AI education is as fundamental as mathematics education, providing students with the tools they need to thrive in an AI-driven world”, says Aimy Lee, Chief Operating Officer at Penang Science Cluster. “The journey of AI exploration in Malaysia has only just begun, and we’re thrilled to play a part in shaping its trajectory.”
Giving non-specialist teachers the confidence to introduce AI to students
“Our Key Stage 3 Computing students now feel immensely more knowledgeable about the importance and place that AI has in their wider lives. These lessons and activities are engaging and accessible to students and educators alike, whatever their specialism may be.” – Dave Cross, North Liverpool Academy, UK
“The feedback we’ve received from both teachers and learners has been overwhelmingly positive. They consistently rave about how accessible, fun, and hands-on these resources are. What’s more, the materials are so comprehensive that even non-specialists can deliver them with confidence.” – Storm Rae, The National Museum of Computing, UK
Experience AI teacher training in Kenya
“[The lessons] go above and beyond to ensure that students not only grasp the material but also develop a genuine interest and enthusiasm for the subject.” – Teacher, Changamwe Junior School, Mombasa, Kenya
Sparking debates on bias and the limitations of AI
When learners gain an understanding of how AI works, it gives them the confidence to discuss areas where the technology doesn’t work well or its output is incorrect. These classroom debates deepen and consolidate their knowledge, and help them to use AI more critically.
“Students enjoyed the practical aspects of the lessons, like categorising apples and tomatoes. They found it intriguing how AI could sometimes misidentify objects, sparking discussions on its limitations. They also expressed concerns about AI bias, which these lessons helped raise awareness about. I didn’t always have all the answers, but it was clear they were curious about AI’s implications for their future.” – Tracey Mayhead, Arthur Mellows Village College, Peterborough, UK
Experience AI students in UK
“The lessons that we trialled took some of the ‘magic’ out of AI and started to give the students an understanding that AI is only as good as the data that is used to build it.” – Jacky Green, Waldegrave School, UK
“I have enjoyed learning about how AI is actually programmed, rather than just hearing about how impactful and great it could be.” – Student, King Edward’s School, Bath, UK
“It has changed my outlook on AI because now I’ve realised how much AI actually needs human intelligence to be able to do anything.” – Student, Arthur Mellows Village College, Peterborough, UK
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do before this but now knowing more about AI, I probably would consider a future career in AI as I find it really interesting and I really liked learning about it.” – Student, Arthur Mellows Village College, Peterborough, UK
If you’d like to get involved with Experience AI as an educator and use our free lesson resources with your class, you can start by visiting experience-ai.org.
A microSD slot extender enables easy access, while an adapter board extends Raspberry Pi 5’s USB-C power port and converts its micro-HDMI outputs to full-size HDMI ones. It also houses a button battery for the real-time clock.
An IO expander board extends the GPIO pins, powers the two RGB fans, and connects the mini OLED. Then there’s an NVMe board to add an SSD (not supplied), and a power converter connected to a metal button that permits easy shutdown.
Power and control
Upon first power up, the fans spin continually. For full control of these and the RGB LEDs, you need to install the Pironman 5 software. This then creates a handy web dashboard for detailed system monitoring and the option to switch between several fan modes. Key stats are also shown on the mini OLED.
Cooling performance is impressive: in a five-minute stress test of all four cores, the CPU temperature maxed out at just above 60°C. Wi-Fi signal strength and quality does suffer a little due to the metal parts of the case, but it’s fine when kept reasonably close to the router.
Verdict
9/10
Quality components and detailed documentation make for a robust, beautiful cooling case with excellent performance.
Features
Tower cooler with PWM fan, 2 × RGB fans with dust filters, 0.96-inch OLED, NVMe M.2 SSD board, 2 × full-size HDMI ports, power button, RTC battery.
Registration is now open for the European Astro Pi Challenge 2024/25! The Astro Pi Challenge, an ESA Education project run in collaboration with us here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, offers young people the incredible opportunity to write computer programs that will run in space.
Young people can take part in two exciting missions for beginners and more experienced coders, and send their code to run on special Raspberry Pi computers, called Astro Pis, on board the International Space Station (ISS).
Meet the new Astro Pi ambassador, Sławosz Uznański
Sławosz UznańskiSławosz Uznański at the European Space Agency
We are delighted that new ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański will be the ambassador for this year’s Astro Pi Challenge. Sławosz, born in Poland in 1984, has a background in space systems engineering and has conducted research in radiation effects. He recently served as the Engineer in Charge of CERN’s largest accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.
Mission Zero: Send your pixel art into space
In Mission Zero, young people create beautiful pixel art to display on the Astro Pis’ LED screens. This mission requires no prior experience of Python coding, and it can be completed in around an hour.
Pixel art examples by Mission Zero 2023/24 participants
To take part, young people design and code pixel art inspired by nature on Earth and beyond, to display on the Astro Pi computers for the astronauts on the ISS to see as they go about their daily tasks.
Using our step-by-step Mission Zero project guide, young people will learn to create simple Python programs in which they will code with variables and use the colour sensors on the Astro Pis to change the background colour in their images. To help your teams create their designs, check out the examples from teams that took part in Mission Zero in 2023/24 in the project guide.
Young people can create their Mission Zero programs individually or in teams of up to 4 people, and this year, we have added a save function for young people as they code. This will make it easier for mentors to run Mission Zero over more than one session, and also means that young people can finish their projects at home. They will need to use your classroom code and their team name to load their saved projects.
Mission Space Lab: Calculate the speed of the ISS
Mission Space Lab asks teams to solve a real-world scientific task in space. It is ideally suited to young people who would like to learn more about space science and stretch their programming skills.
A photo of Mexico taken using an Astro Pi computer during a team’s experiment in Mission Space Lab 2023/24
In Mission Space Lab this year, the task for teams of 2 to 6 young people is to calculate the speed at which the International Space Station is travelling — as accurately as possible. Teams need to write a Python program that:
Collects data from the Astro Pi computers’ sensors or cameras about the orientation and motion of the ISS as it orbits the Earth, and
Uses this data to calculate the travel speed
The Astro Pi computers at a window in the International Space Station.
This year we have created a new way for teams to test their programs, with an online version of the Astro Pi Replay tool. All teams need to do is select their program and run it in Astro Pi Replay, which will create a real-time simulation of the program running on the ISS, using historical data and images. Astro Pi Replay will also show program outputs and report errors. This means teams can code their program in their preferred code editor, then test with an internet browser. However, if they wish, teams can still run the Astro Pi Replay tool offline with Thonny.
Important dates for your diary
16 September 2024: Registration is now open for Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab!
24 February 2025: Mission Space Lab submissions close
24 March 2025: Mission Zero submissions close
April–May 2025: Astro Pi programs run on the International Space Station
June 2025: Astro Pi teams receive their certificates
Register today
Both missions are open to young people up to age 19 from eligible countries — all ESA Member States and beyond. To find out more and register, visit astro-pi.org.
Look out for updates and resources being shared on the Astro Pi website, including a Mission Zero video codealong and Mission Space Lab live streams. You can also keep up-to-date with all the Astro Pi news on the Astro Pi X account, our Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, or by signing up to the newsletter at astro-pi.org.
Since we launched the Experience AI learning programme in the UK in April 2023, educators in 130 countries have downloaded Experience AI lesson resources. They estimate reaching over 630,000 young people with the lessons, helping them to understand how AI works and to build the knowledge and confidence to use AI tools responsibly. Just last week, we announced another exciting expansion of Experience AI: thanks to $10 million in funding from Google.org, we will be able to work with local partner organisations to provide research-based AI education to an estimated over 2 million young people across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Experience AI teacher training in Kenya
This blog post explains how we use research to continue to shape our Experience AI resources, including the new AI safety resources we are developing.
The beginning of Experience AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications are part of our everyday lives — we use them every time we scroll through social media feeds organised by recommender systems or unlock an app with facial recognition. For young people, there is more need than ever to gain the skills and understanding to critically engage with AI technologies.
We wanted to design free lesson resources to help teachers in a wide range of subjects confidently introduce AI and ML to students aged 11 to 14 (Key Stage 3). This led us to develop Experience AI, in collaboration with Google DeepMind, offering materials including lesson plans, slide decks, videos (both teacher- and student-facing), student activities, and assessment questions.
SEAME: The research-based framework behind Experience AI
The Experience AI resources were built on rigorous research from the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre as well as from other researchers, including those we hosted at our series of seminars on AI and data science education. The Research Centre’s work involved mapping and categorising over 500 resources used to teach AI and ML, and found that the majority were one-off activities, and that very few resources were tailored to a specific age group.
An example activity in the Experience AI lessons where students learn about bias.
To analyse the content that existing AI education resources covered, the Centre developed a simple framework called SEAME. The framework gives you an easy way to group concepts, knowledge, and skills related to AI and ML based on whether they focus on social and ethical aspects (SE), applications (A), models (M), or engines (E, i.e. how AI works.)
Through Experience AI, learners also gain an understanding of the models underlying AI applications, and the processes used to train and test ML models.
An example activity in the Experience AI lessons where students learn about classification.
Our Experience AI lessons cover all four levels of SEAME and focus on applications of AI that are relatable for young people. They also introduce learners to AI-related issues such as privacy or bias concerns, and the impact of AI on employment.
The six foundation lessons of Experience AI
What is AI?: Learners explore the current context of AI and how it is used in the world around them. Looking at the differences between rule-based and data-driven approaches to programming, they consider the benefits and challenges that AI could bring to society.
How computers learn: Focusing on the role of data-driven models in AI systems, learners are introduced to ML and find out about three common approaches to creating ML models. Finally they explore classification, a specific application of ML.
Bias in, bias out: Students create their own ML model to classify images of apples and tomatoes. They discover that a limited dataset is likely to lead to a flawed ML model. Then they explore how bias can appear in a dataset, resulting in biased predictions produced by a ML model.
Decision trees: Learners take their first in-depth look at a specific type of ML model: decision trees. They see how different training datasets result in the creation of different ML models, experiencing first-hand what the term ‘data-driven’ means.
Solving problems with ML models: Students are introduced to the AI project lifecycle and use it to create a ML model. They apply a human-focused approach to working on their project, train a ML model, and finally test their model to find out its accuracy.
Model cards and careers: Learners finish the AI project lifecycle by creating a model card to explain their ML model. To complete the unit, they explore a range of AI-related careers, hear from people working in AI research at Google DeepMind, and explore how they might apply AI and ML to their interests.
We also offer two additional stand-alone lessons: one on large language models, how they work, and why they’re not always reliable, and the other on the application of AI in ecosystems research, which lets learners explore how AI tools can be used to support animal conservation.
New AI safety resources: Empowering learners to be critical users of technology
We have also been developing a set of resources for educator-led sessions on three topics related to AI safety, funded by Google.org.
AI and your data: With the support of this resource, young people reflect on the data they have already provided to AI applications in their daily lives, and think about how the prevalence of AI tools might change the way they protect their data.
Media literacy in the age of AI: This resource highlights the ways AI tools can be used to perpetuate misinformation and how AI applications can help people combat misleading claims.
Using generative AI responsibly: With this resource, young people consider their responsibilities when using generative AI, and their expectations of developers who release Experience AI tools.
Other research principles behind our free teaching resources
As well as using the SEAME framework, we have incorporated a whole host of other research-based concepts in the design principles for the Experience AI resources. For example, we avoid anthropomorphism — that is, words or imagery that can lead learners to wrongly believe that AI applications have sentience or intentions like humans do — and we instead promote the understanding that it’s people who design AI applications and decide how they are used. We also teach about data-driven application design, which is a core concept in computational thinking 2.0.
Share your feedback
We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback about using the Experience AI resources. Your comments help us to improve the current materials, and to develop future resources. You can tell us what you think using this form.
And if you’d like to start using the Experience AI resources as an educator, you can download them for free at experience-ai.org.
At a workshop for the study, teachers collaborated to identify adaptations to Computing lessons
We used a set of ten areas of opportunity to scaffold and prompt teachers to look for ways that Computing resources could be adapted, including making changes to the content or the context of lessons, and using pedagogical techniques such as collaboration and open-ended tasks.
Today’s blog lays out our findings about how teachers can bring students’ identities into the classroom as an entry point for culturally responsive Computing teaching.
Collaborating with teachers
A group of twelve primary teachers, from schools spread across England, volunteered to participate in the study. The primary objective was for our research team to collaborate with these teachers to adapt two units of work about creating digital images and vector graphics so that they better aligned with the cultural contexts of their students. The research team facilitated an in-person, one-day workshop where the teachers could discuss their experiences and work in small groups to adapt materials that they then taught in their classrooms during the following term.
A shared focus on identity
As the workshop progressed, an interesting pattern emerged. Despite the diversity of schools and student populations represented by the teachers, each group independently decided to focus on the theme of identity in their adaptations. This was not a directive from the researchers, but rather a spontaneous alignment of priorities among the teachers.
An example of an adapted Computing activity to create a vector graphic emoji.
The focus on identity manifested in various ways. For some teachers, it involved adding diverse role models so that students could see themselves represented in computing, while for others, it meant incorporating discussions about students’ own experiences into the lessons. However, the most compelling commonality across all groups was the decision to have students create a digital picture that represented something important about themselves. This digital picture could take many forms — an emoji, a digital collage, an avatar to add to a game, or even creating fantastical animals. The goal of these activities was to provide students with a platform to express aspects of their identity that were significant to them whilst also practising the skills to manipulate vector graphics or digital images.
Funds of identity theory
After the teachers had returned to their classrooms and taught the adapted lessons to their students, we analysed the digital pictures created by the students using funds of identity theory. This theory explains how our personal experiences and backgrounds shape who we are and what makes us unique and individual, and argues that our identities are not static but are continuously shaped and reshaped through interactions with the world around us.
Funds of identity framework, drawing on work by Esteban-Guitart and Moll (2014) and Poole (2017).
In the context of our study, this theory argues that students bring their funds of identity into their Computing classrooms, including their cultural heritage, family traditions, languages, values, and personal interests. Through the image editing and vector graphics activities, students were able to create what the funds of identity theory refers to as identity artefacts. This allowed them to explore and highlight the various elements that hold importance in their lives, illuminating different facets of their identities.
Students’ funds of identity
The use of the funds of identity theory provided a robust framework for understanding the digital artefacts created by the students. We analysed the teachers’ descriptions of the artefacts, paying close attention to how students represented their identities in their creations.
1. Personal interests and values
One significant aspect of the analysis centered around the personal interests and values reflected in the artefacts. Some students chose to draw on their practical funds of identity and create images about hobbies that were important to them, such as drawing or playing football. Others focused on existential funds of identity and represented values that were central to their personalities, such as cool, chatty, or quiet.
2. Family and community connections
Many students also chose to include references to their family and community in their artefacts. Social funds of identity were displayed when students featured family members in their images. Some students also drew on their institutional funds, adding references to their school, or geographical funds, by showing places such as the local area or a particular country that held special significance for them. These references highlighted the importance of familial and communal ties in shaping the students’ identities.
3. Cultural representation
Another common theme was the way students represented their cultural backgrounds. Some students chose to highlight their cultural funds of identity, creating images that included their heritage, including their national flag or traditional clothing. Other students incorporated ideological aspects of their identity that were important to them because of their faith, including Catholicism and Islam. This aspect of the artefacts demonstrated how students viewed their cultural heritage as an integral part of their identity.
Implications for culturally responsive Computing teaching
The findings from this study have several important implications. Firstly, the spontaneous focus on identity by the teachers suggests that identity is a powerful entry point for culturally responsive Computing teaching. Secondly, the application of the funds of identity theory to the analysis of student work demonstrates the diverse cultural resources that students bring to the classroom and highlights ways to adapt Computing lessons in ways that resonate with students’ lived experiences.
An example of an identity artefact made by one of the students in the culturally adapted lesson on vector graphics.
However, we also found that teachers often had to carefully support students to illuminate their funds of identity. Sometimes students found it difficult to create images about their hobbies, particularly if they were from backgrounds with fewer social and economic opportunities. We also observed that when teachers modelled an identity artefact themselves, perhaps to show an example for students to aim for, students then sometimes copied the funds of identity revealed by the teacher rather than drawing on their own funds. These points need to be taken into consideration when using identity artefact activities.
Finally, these findings relate to lessons about image editing and vector graphics that were taught to students aged 8- to 10-years old in England, and it remains to be explored how students in other countries or of different ages might reveal their funds of identity in the Computing classroom.
Moving forward with cultural responsiveness
The study demonstrated that when Computing teachers are given the opportunity to collaborate and reflect on their practice, they can develop innovative ways to make their teaching more culturally responsive. The focus on identity, as seen in the creation of identity artefacts, provided students with a platform to express themselves and connect their learning to their own lives. By understanding and valuing the funds of identity that students bring to the classroom, teachers can create a more equitable and empowering educational experience for all learners.
We would like to thank all the researchers who worked on this project, including our collaborations with Lynda Chinaka from the University of Roehampton, and Alex Hadwen-Bennett from King’s College London. Finally, we are grateful to Cognizant for funding this academic research, and to the cohort of primary Computing teachers for their enthusiasm, energy, and creativity, and their commitment to this project.
While the company also produces PLCs based on Arduino and ESP32 microcontrollers, the model reviewed here is one of the Raspberry Pi-based range and therefore benefits from superior processing power – an advantage when handling multiple real-time processes – and the ability to run a full Linux operating system, the familiar Raspberry Pi OS, by default. You can connect the unit to a monitor via HDMI if needed, but in most cases operators will SSH in from another computer.
Raspberry Pi power
The PLC 38R model is based around a standard Raspberry Pi 4 (with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB RAM), with the optional addition of up to two extra communications boards such as 4G cellular and LoRA. Naturally, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are built-in, thanks to Raspberry Pi 4, along with dual Ethernet ports (the board’s built-in port plus an extra one).
Raspberry Pi 4 is secreted inside a robust plastic case with a large metal heatsink on the base. The whole unit weighs 711g and is mountable on a DIN rail. The ambient operating temperature is 0 to 50°C, with a humidity level of 10 to 90%, while the case has a shockproof resistance of 80m/s2 in the X, Y, and Z axes.
Cutouts in the case provide access to Raspberry Pi 4’s USB and Ethernet ports on one side and – in a recess – micro-HDMI ports and the USB-C power port. You can’t power the whole unit that way, however: instead you’ll need to connect a 12–24V DC supply via two screw terminals, making sure the polarity is correct. Industrial Shields offers a suitable DIN rail power supply for €25.
To protect the electronics and avoid data corruption during sudden voltage drops in the event of a power outage, the PLC 38R has an integrated UPS shield. When the UPS kicks in, the outputs maintain their last activation state until the unit is rebooted. A real-time clock is also included, powered by a button battery – easily replaceable by removing a plastic panel. Insulation resistance is provided to the tune of 20mΩ at 500VDC between the AC terminals and protective earth terminal. Dialectic strength is rated as 2300 VAC at 50/60Hz for one minute with a maximum leakage current of 10mA.
Pinned to the ground
The most important feature of any PLC is its range of I/Os. Raspberry Pi PLC 38R is absolutely loaded with them, divided into zones and connectable via removable screw terminal blocks. On the right-hand side of the unit are sets of analogue (0 to 10V) and digital/PWM outputs. Underneath, there’s a long row of I/O and power/ground pins covering standard protocols such as SPI, I2C, and RS485, plus a couple of direct GPIO pin connections.
The remainder of that side is taken up by ten sets of relay switch connections. Another six are found on the left side of the unit, along with opto-isolator protected digital/analogue inputs, configurable by two sets of four dip switches. Note that other Raspberry Pi PLC models feature varying numbers of I/Os and relays, so you can choose the one that best suits your requirements.
The downloadable documentation is fairly detailed and features examples of how to use pre-installed Bash scripts to read various inputs, and trigger outputs and relays, so it’s fairly easy to get started.
Verdict
9/10
Protected by a robust case, this PLC is packed with I/Os and relays, making it suitable for a wide variety of industrial applications.
Specs
Processing: Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB RAM
Last week, we were honoured to attend UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week conference to present our free Experience AI resources and how they can help teachers demystify AI for their learners.
The conference drew a worldwide audience in-person and online to hear about the work educators and policy makers are doing to support teachers’ use of AI tools in their teaching and learning. Speaker after speaker reiterated that the shared goal of our work is to support learners to become critical consumers and responsible creators of AI systems.
In this blog, we share how our conference talk demonstrated the use of Experience AI for pursuing this globally shared goal, and how the Experience AI resources align with UNESCO’s newly launched AI competency framework for students.
Presenting the design principles behind Experience AI
Our talk about Experience AI, our learning programme developed with Google DeepMind, focused on the research-informed approach we are taking in our resource development. Specifically, we spoke about three key design principles that we embed in the Experience AI resources:
Firstly, using AI and machine learning to solve problems requires learners and educators to think differently to traditional computational thinking and use a data-driven approach instead, as laid out in the research around computational thinking 2.0.
Thirdly we described how we used the SEAME framework we adapted from work by Jane Waite (Raspberry Pi Foundation) and Paul Curzon (Queen Mary University, London) to categorise hundreds of AI education resources and inform the design of our Experience AI resources. The framework offers a common language for educators when assessing the content of resources, and when supporting learners to understand the different aspects of AI systems.
By presenting our design principles, we aimed to give educators, policy makers, and attendees from non-governmental organisations practical recommendations and actionable considerations for designing learning materials on AI literacy.
How Experience AI aligns with UNESCO’s new AI competency framework for students
At Digital Learning Week, UNESCO launched two AI competency frameworks:
A framework for students, intended to help teachers around the world with integrating AI tools in activities to engage their learners
A framework for teachers, “defining the knowledge, skills, and values teachers must master in the age of AI”
AI competency framework for students
We have had the chance to map the Experience AI resources to UNESCO’s AI framework for students at a high level, finding that the resources cover 10 of the 12 areas of the framework (see image below).
An adaptation of a summary table from UNESCO’s new student competency framework (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO), highlighting the 10 areas covered by our Experience AI resources
For instance, throughout the Experience AI resources runs a thread of promoting “citizenship in the AI era”: the social and ethical aspects of AI technologies are highlighted in all the lessons and activities. In this way, they provide students with the foundational knowledge of how AI systems work, and where they may work badly. Using the resources, educators can teach their learners core AI and machine learning concepts and make these concepts concrete through practical activities where learners create their own models and critically evaluate their outputs. Importantly, by learning with Experience AI, students not only learn to be responsible users of AI tools, but also to consider fairness, accountability, transparency, and privacy when they create AI models.
Teacher competency framework for AI
UNESCO’s AI competency framework for teachers outlines 15 competencies across 5 dimensions (see image below). We enjoyed listening to the launch panel members talk about the strong ambitions of the framework as well as the realities of teachers’ global and local challenges. The three key messages of the panel were:
AI will not replace the expertise of classroom teachers
Supporting educators to build AI competencies is a shared responsibility
Individual countries’ education systems have different needs in terms of educator support
All three messages resonate strongly with the work we’re doing at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Supporting all educators is a fundamental part of our resource development. For example, Experience AI offers everything a teacher with no technical background needs to deliver the lessons, including lesson plans, videos, worksheets and slide decks. We also provide a free online training course on understanding AI for educators. And in our work with partner organisations around the world, we adapt and translate Experience AI resources so they are culturally relevant, and we organise locally delivered teacher professional development.
A summary table from UNESCO’s new teacher competency framework (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
The teachers’ competency framework is meant as guidance for educators, policy makers, training providers, and application developers to support teachers in using AI effectively, and in helping their learners gain AI literacy skills. We will certainly consult the document as we develop our training and professional development resources for teachers further.
Towards AI literacy for all young people
Across this year’s UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week, we saw that the role of AI in education took centre stage across the presentations and the informal conversations among attendees. It was a privilege to present our work and see how well Experience AI was received, with attendees recognising that our design principles align with the values and principles in UNESCO’s new AI competency frameworks.
We look forward to continuing this international conversation about AI literacy and working in aligned ways to support all young people to develop a foundational understanding of AI technologies.
A lot of people who get into making reckon that they used to take things apart and put them back together when they were kids. Whenever I tried doing that I got told off. Instead, whenever anything broke, it was my job to take it apart and try to work out how to fix it. That way, it wouldn’t matter if I broke it further. I fixed a broken lawnmower for my mum once and was extremely chuffed with myself!
I never did my electronics at school – I still have a scar on my finger from defending myself from a 14-year-old psychopath with a soldering iron – but I got into it a few years ago when I made my first electric guitar effect. It’s a simple device, with only a handful of components, but it’s identical to the vintage Fuzz Face pedal used by Jimi Hendrix, right down to the new old stock transistors. Pretty much anyone can put one of those together, but mine is unique because I made it.
When did you first learn about Raspberry Pi?
Ooh, back before it was available. I was one of the first lot of customers who placed an order for this super-cheap computer back in 2012. Back then they didn’t have the supply chain they do now, so it took ages to arrive, and when it eventually did my attention had moved on, so the Raspberry Pi just sat in a drawer somewhere. I think I still have it.
At the time I was working on a Linux magazine. We’d heard about this $25 computer and thought it would be lovely to make it famous, so we gave the Raspberry Pi its first magazine cover. Without me, this company would be nowhere!
What is your favourite thing you’ve made with Raspberry Pi?
My favourite Raspberry Pi project is still my first one: making an LED flash on and off. I had tried several times to learn computer programming, and never got very far. I can very clearly remember being shown how to write ‘hello world’ in Python by a colleague, beaming from ear to ear as if I was gaining the key to a magic kingdom, but I just didn’t get it. How is writing a script that prints ‘hello world’ any different from typing it in yourself on a word processor? It takes longer, it’s more keystrokes… To this day I think that teaching students to start with ‘hello world’ is counterproductive.
But learning to flash an LED on and off is completely different. If you’ve got a physical example in front of you of what the code is doing, then it’s easy to see how you can go from there to turning a motor on and off, or controlling a robotic arm, or a drone, or an automatic plant watering system.
What future project plans do you have?
After the summer we’ve had, my dream project would probably be a solar-powered laser turret to zap the slugs that have destroyed my pumpkins this year. I don’t want to put poison down for them, but I reckon an automated, AI laser might be enough to make them turn around and leave my allotment alone.
Out of the box it looks a bit like an unassuming full Raspberry Pi in a nice heat-sink case, albeit a fair bit chunkier. The size comes from the sheer number of features packed into the box – UPS modules, power-over-Ethernet, multiple RJ45 ports, 4G modules, LoRa capabilities, external antenna ports, SSD slot, an array of terminals, and a Compute Module 4 to power it all.
A lot of these add-ons are optional and you can build your preferred R1000 online or get one of the pre-made packages – we specifically have the R1025 build for review, which comes with 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC – and there are various modules for adding 4G or LoRaWAN that range in price and functionality.
Good to go
It comes pre-assembled out of the box like the rest of the range, and is dead easy to disassemble and update, swap out, or add compatible hardware such as the optional extras. There’s a comprehensive guide in the Seeed Studio docs which also covers how to flash a new OS to the hardware. Raspberry Pi OS is supported as you’d expect, with extra drivers you’ll need to install when flashing from scratch, and there’s also official Ubuntu support. While a product like this will largely be used headless, there is a HDMI port in case you need to do some work at the box itself, such as turn on SSH if you forgot during the flashing process.
The hardware comes with a little clip to mount it on its side, making it jut out from whatever surface it’s attached to, which seems a little precarious. Still, it holds strong and does let you keep all the various I/O easily accessible, with the all-important serial ports on the front.
Full support
Thanks to the installed CM4 it is very easy to use and customise, and it’s nice and quick as well. The build quality is really top notch too, just as we’d expected, and the docs are fairly comprehensive whether you want to use it in an industrial setting or even at home as your IoT controller with Home Assistant – and at the lower end of its price scale it’s not that uncompetitive for using at home either if you have some serious home automation requirements.
Verdict
10/10
Very complete piece of hardware that you can customise for nearly any use of IoT, from consumer to industry
Two years ago, we announced Experience AI, a collaboration between the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind to inspire the next generation of AI leaders.
Today I am excited to announce that we are expanding the programme with the aim of reaching more than 2 million students over the next 3 years, thanks to a generous grant of $10m from Google.org.
Why do kids need to learn about AI
AI technologies are already changing the world and we are told that their potential impact is unprecedented in human history. But just like every other wave of technological innovation, along with all of the opportunities, the AI revolution has the potential to leave people behind, to exacerbate divisions, and to make more problems than it solves.
Part of the answer to this dilemma lies in ensuring that all young people develop a foundational understanding of AI technologies and the role that they can play in their lives.
That’s why the conversation about AI in education is so important. A lot of the focus of that conversation is on how we harness the power of AI technologies to improve teaching and learning. Enabling young people to use AI to learn is important, but it’s not enough.
We need to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, and mindsets to use AI technologies to create the world they want. And that means supporting their teachers, who once again are being asked to teach a subject that they didn’t study.
Experience AI
That’s the work that we’re doing through Experience AI, an ambitious programme to provide teachers with free classroom resources and professional development, enabling them to teach their students about AI technologies and how they are changing the world. All of our resources are grounded in research that defines the concepts that make up AI literacy, they are rooted in real world examples drawing on the work of Google DeepMind, and they involve hands-on, interactive activities.
The Experience AI resources have already been downloaded 100,000 times across 130 countries and we estimate that 750,000 young people have taken part in an Experience AI lesson already.
In November 2023, we announced that we were building a global network of partners that we would work with to localise and translate the Experience AI resources, to ensure that they are culturally relevant, and organise locally delivered teacher professional development. We’ve made a fantastic start working with partners in Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, and Romania; and it’s been brilliant to see the enthusiasm and demand for AI literacy from teachers and students across the globe.
Thanks to an incredibly generous donation of $10m from Google.org – announced at Google.org’s first Impact Summit – we will shortly be welcoming new partners in 17 countries across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with the aim of reaching more than 2 million students in the next three years.
AI Safety
Alongside the expansion of the global network of Experience AI partners, we are also launching new resources that focus on critical issues of AI safety.
AI and Your Data: Helping young people reflect on the data they are already providing to AI applications in their lives and how the prevalence of AI tools might change the way they protect their data.
Media Literacy in the Age of AI: Highlighting the ways AI tools can be used to perpetuate misinformation and how AI applications can help combat misleading claims.
Using Generative AI Responsibly: Empowering young people to reflect on their responsibilities when using Generative AI and their expectations of developers who release AI tools.
Get involved
In many ways, this moment in the development of AI technologies reminds me of the internet in the 1990s (yes, I am that old). We all knew that it had potential, but no-one could really imagine the full scale of what would follow.
We failed to rise to the educational challenge of that moment and we are still living with the consequences: a dire shortage of talent; a tech sector that doesn’t represent all communities and voices; and young people and communities who are still missing out on economic opportunities and unable to utilise technology to solve the problems that matter to them.
We have an opportunity to do a better job this time. If you’re interested in getting involved, we’d love to hear from you.
The faster dual-core RP2350 processor running at 150Mhz enables Thumby Color to run an 0.85-inch 128×128px 16-bit backlit colour TFT LCD display inside an absolutely miniscule case measuring 51.6 × 30 × 11.6mm. The case has a hole through it enabling Thumby Color to double up as a keychain fob; enabling you to play games when you’re not unlocking your door.
Thumby Color comes with pre-loaded with six games (with more planned). These have been custom-built by Glitchbit using the Thumby Color API and showcase what you can create with the device. With names like Bust a Thumb, Solitaire and 4connect they take inspiration from classic arcade and board games.
What surprised us was how playable these games are. We expected it to be a novelty and, while it’s not exactly a Steam Deck, we found Thumby Color games to run perfectly well.
Get developing
Two versions of Thumby Color are currently available. There’s the Thumby Color, on Kickstarter and a slightly larger development version with larger buttons. We have both in for testing here.
Both have nine buttons: a four-way D-pad, A/B buttons, L/R bumpers, and a Menu button. There’s an on/off rocker switch and a USB-C connection for charging and connectivity alongside a 110mAh Rechargeable LiPo battery. The presence of a tiny rumble motor is a particularly nice touch.
Like the original Thumby being able to play games on a 2.1cm display isn’t the main attraction (although we found it a surprisingly fun way to pass the time). The real deal is the ability to investigate the API and create games yourself by following the tutorials.
To this end, Thumby has an online Code Editor and a starter guide. The web Code Editor is undergoing some integration with Thumby, and we found the filesystem not fully functional at the time of testing.
The second approach is to use Thonny IDE with the MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico) interpreter. We prefer coding in Thonny IDE although the Code Editor has better integration and a built-in Arcade section with over 100 games from the original Thumby. All of these are compatible with Thumby Color, and it’s where you’ll find new games as they become available. Tiny Circuits tells us that Thumby Color support will be added to the Code Editor soon.
There’s also a vibrant forum for Thumby (and other Tiny Circuits projects) that you can find at magpi.cc/tinyforum.
We enjoyed Thumby Color tremendously, and it’s a great showcase for the extra power of Raspberry Pi’s RP2350 microcontroller.
Verdict
9/10
An incredibly fun device that’s a great showcase for RP2350. Thumby Color shrinks gaming down to a keychain and enables you to code your own games. The detailed API and tutorials make Thumby special and there’s much creative fun to find here.
The UK Bebras Challenge, the nation’s largest computing competition, is back and open for entries from schools. This year’s challenge will be open for entries from 4–15 November. Last year, over 400,000 students from across the UK took part. Read on to learn how your school can get involved.
What is UK Bebras?
UK Bebras is a free-to-enter annual competition that is designed to spark interest in computational thinking among students aged 6 to 19 by providing engaging and thought-provoking activities. The 45-minute challenge is accessible to everyone, offering age-appropriate interactive questions for students at different levels, including a tailored version for students with severe sight impairments.
The questions are designed to give every student the opportunity to showcase their potential, whether they excel in maths or computing, or not. With self-marking questions and no programming required, it’s easy for schools to participate.
“Thank you for another fantastic Bebras event! My students have really enjoyed it. This is the first year that one of my leadership team actually did the Bebras to understand what we are preparing the children for — she was very impressed!” Reference 5487
“I really enjoyed doing the Bebras challenge yesterday. It was the most accessible it’s ever been for me as a braillist/screen reader user.” Reference 5372
What does a UK Bebras question look like?
The questions are inspired by classic computing problems but are presented in a fun, age-appropriate way. For instance, a puzzle for 6- to 8-year-olds might involve guiding a hungry tortoise along the most efficient path across a lawn, while 16- to 19-year-olds could be asked to sort members for quiz teams based on who knows who — a challenging problem relating to graph theory.
Here’s a question we ran in 2023 for the Castors group (ages 8 to 10). Can you solve it?
Planting carrots
A robotic rabbit is planting carrot seeds in these four earth mounds.
It can respond to these commands:
jump left to the next mound
jump right to the next mound
plant a carrot seed in the mound you are on
Here is a sequence of commands for the rabbit:
We don’t know which mound the rabbit started on, but we do know that, when it followed this sequence, it placed each of three carrot seeds on different mounds.
Question:
Which picture shows how the carrot seeds could have been planted by the robot following the sequence of commands?
Example puzzle answer
The correct answer is:
The image below shows the route the robot takes by following the instructions:
After executing the first two commands
the rabbit places the seed on the mound to the far right:
It then executes the commands
and lays the next seed:
Then it jumps to the left twice and lays the last seed
So the carrot seeds will be on the hills in the order:
Did you get it right?
How do I get my school involved?
Visit the UK Bebras website for more information and to register your school. Once you’ve registered, you’ll get access to the entire UK Bebras back catalogue of questions, allowing you to create custom quizzes for your students to tackle at any time throughout the year. These quizzes are self-marking, and you can download your students’ results to keep track of their progress. Schools have found these questions perfect for enrichment activities, end-of-term quizzes, lesson starters, and even full lessons to develop computational thinking skills.
From our perspective, this gives us a bigger and better magazine. It also opens up a new aspect of making that we haven’t traditionally given as much thought to as HackSpace. While The MagPi magazine tends to focus heavily on Raspberry Pi products – it is “the Official Raspberry Pi magazine” after all – HackSpace covers a much wider range of electronic boards and even maker projects that feature little or no electronics. In particular, HackSpace features 3D printing, and it’s fascinating to see features like Objet 3d’art make their way into The MagPi. And we love their tutorials and group tests.
Andrew Gregory, HackSpace’s Features Editor is now working on The MagPi, and this month he wrote up an excellent Pico 2 feature. We’ve also picked up a stable of HackSpace freelance writers who will be bringing their skills to our combined publication.
In the moment
Still: I feel for HackSpace readers. It’s never easy when a magazine closes and we were rather hoping that HackSpace would continue alongside The MagPi forever. But magazines are often of the moment, even if they do get stored in The British Library for all time. I still miss Wireframe as well.
Ben Everard, the outgoing HackSpace editor wrote: “For the past six and a half years, we’ve poured our heart and soul into this great magazine. We’ve had a great time both building projects and seeing the amazing projects that you have built. In some ways, this is a happy time. By bringing HackSpace into The MagPi, we’re continuing to give space for makers in print media, and securing this space for the future. This space for makers works both ways – it means there’s space for you to learn and see the great projects others are making, and it also means there’s space for you to teach and show off the great projects you’re making. HackSpace always was a place both by makers and for makers, and as part of The MagPi it will continue to be so.”
I do hope HackSpace readers who find themselves in The MagPi’s extension will feel at home. We’re going to lengths to ensure that you are welcome, and that your magazine remains at heart – the same. It’ll make everything better in the long run. We’re easy to get in touch with via email or social media. So please let me know what you think.
It has faster processors, more memory, greater power efficiency, and industry-leading security features and you can choose between Arm and RISC-V cores. The new Pico 2 is an incredible microcontroller board and we’ve secured interviews with the Raspberry Pi engineering team.
RP2350 Products out now
Plenty of companies are already using RP2350 in their products, and we’ve got the scoop on just about all of them. Inside this month’s mag you’ll discover breakout boards, development boards, integrated screens, tiny stamp sized boards, motion controllers, LoRa radio modules and much more.
Do the hustle
HackSpace is now part of The MagPi, and in this month’s magazine Jo Hinchcliffe looks at building up a side hustle as a maker. In this feature Jo outlines a plan to set up a hustle maker business using the Tindie platform.
Lenticular Clock
HackSpace Top Projects can now be found in The MagPi, and we love this Lenticular Clock by Moritz Sivers. Lenticular images are sliced up, so that when an array of lenses is placed over them, the image appears to move when you change the angle you look at it. This build is hard to explain so take a look at it in this month’s magazine.
M.A.R.S Rover
The M.A.R.S. Rover from 4tronix is one of the best robotics kits around. Based on NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars, this six-wheeled robot features a similar rocker-bogie suspension system that enables it to crawl over rocks and navigate tough terrain. This month, Phil King shows you how to setup your M.A.R.S. Rover kit, calibrate the servo motors, and control it from a remote computer.
Gugusse Roller
The Gugusse roller uses Raspberry Pi HQ camera and Pi 4B+ to import and digitise analogue film footage. Unhappy with the quality of results from his setup, Denis-Carl Robidoux set about integrating Raspberry Pi into Gugusse Roller with vastly improved results.
Poetry Camera
Take a photo with Poetry Camera and, rather than producing an image, it prints out a poem based on what it captured. You can adjust the poem type with a knob – ranging from sonnets and haikus to alliteration poems. This clever camera began life as an AI classifier and uses OpenAI API to create the poems. These are then printed out onto thermal paper.
We have developed an innovative activity to support young people as they transition from visual programming languages like Scratch to text-based programming languages like Python.
This activity introduces a unique interface that empowers learners to easily interact with Python while they create a customised painting app.
“The kids liked the self-paced learning, it allowed them to work at their own rate. They liked using RGB tables to find their specific colours.” – Code Club mentor
Why learn to code Python?
We’ve long been championing Python as an ideal tool for young people who want to start text-based programming. Python has simple syntax and needs very few lines of code to get started, and there is a vibrant community of supportive programmers surrounding it.
However, we know that starting with Python can be challenging for young people who have never done any text-based coding. They can face obstacles such as software installation issues, getting used to a new syntax, and the need for appropriate typing skills.
How ‘Paint with Python’ helps learners get started
‘Paint with Python’ is an online educational activity that addresses many of these challenges and helps young people learn to code Python for the first time. It’s entirely web-based, requiring no software installation beyond a web browser. Instructions are displayed in a side panel, allowing learners to read and code without needing to switch tabs.
To help young people with creating their painting app, much of the initial code is pre-written behind the scenes, which enables learners to focus on experimenting with Python and observing the outcomes. They engage with the code by clicking on suggested options or, in some cases, by typing small snippets of Python. For example, they can select colours from a range of options or, as they grow more confident, type RGB values to create custom colours.
The activity is fully responsive for mobile and tablet devices and provides a final view of the full program on the last page, together with suggested routes to continue learning text-based programming.
An accessible introduction to text-based programming
We believe this activity offers an accessible way for young learners to begin their journey with text-based programming and learning to code Python. The code they write is straightforward and the activity is designed to minimise errors. When mistakes do occur, the interface provides clear, constructive feedback, guiding learners to make corrections.
Try out ‘Paint with Python’ at rpf.io/paint-with-python. We’d love to hear your feedback! Please send any thoughts you have to uxresearch@raspberrypi.org.
This activity was developed with support from the Cisco Foundation. Through our funding partnership with them, we’ve been able to provide thousands of young people with the inspiration and opportunity to progress their coding skills anywhere, and on any device.
Save 35% off the cover price with a subscription to The MagPi magazine. UK subscribers get three issues for just £10 and a FREE Raspberry Pi Pico W, then pay £30 every six issues. You’ll save money and get a regular supply of in-depth reviews, features, guides and other Raspberry Pi enthusiast goodness delivered directly to your door every month.
It can be nice to pootle around a lake, especially with some delicious food and company. This Raspberry Pi-powered raft uses arcade controls to move around on the water.
Teslonda
Custom electric car
Taking a 1981 Honda Accord and souping it up is one thing, then there’s making it an electric hot rod. All powered by Raspberry Pi, of course.
Arcade machine
Retro cool
In Retro Gaming with Raspberry Pi, we show you how to make your own nifty arcade cabinet powered by Raspberry Pi, and with your own custom vinyls too!
Doodleborg
Big rover
PiBorg’s biggest robot is a rover they made themselves. It’s powerful enough to pull a caravan, which is why it has a tow ball on it. It was built to show just how powerful PiBorg tech is.
Odyssey Lights
Illuminating Blackpool
One of the biggest Raspberry Pi builds around, these 11-metre-high interactive towers are full of lights, lasers, speakers and other special effects which were made possible with Raspberry Pi.
Interactive TTRPG table
Digital D&D
Built for in-person Dungeons & Dragons using popular remote virtual table software, the only thing it’s missing is an ornate carved fascia.
SailBot
Robotic boat
Tired of winning robotic sailing regattas, a group of university students created an autonomous sailboat that could cross the Atlantic ocean all by itself.
Magic Mirror
Rite of passage
A classic project that just about every Raspberry Pi fan has attempted at least once, the software for it is very powerful and easy to use too.
Pinball machine
Steel ball run
The folks at Team Pinball design and build their own pinball machines, and decided that Raspberry Pi was the perfect computer to run these throwback games.
Open weed locator
Raspberry Pi farming
This big robot travels fields and uses Raspberry Pi with computer vision software to scan for, and pull up, unwanted weeds and other plants.
Moonhack is a free, international coding challenge for young people run online every year by Code Club Australia, powered by our partner the Telstra Foundation. The yearly challenge is open to young people worldwide, and in 2023, over 44,500 young people registered to take part.
Moonhack 2024 runs from 14 to 31 October. This year’s theme is taken from World Space Week 2024: climate change. As always, the projects cater for everyone from brand-new beginners to more experienced coders. And young people have a chance to win a prize for their submitted project!
We caught up with Kaye North, Community and Engagement Manager at Code Club Australia, to find out more.
What to expect from Moonhack in 2024
For this year’s projects, Kaye told us that she collaborated with farmers, scientists, and young people from across Australia to cover diverse topics related to climate change and space. The projects will help participants learn about topics from how people who work in agriculture use climate data to increase crop yields and practise sustainable farming, to the impact of rising global temperatures on sea life populations.
Kaye also hopes to help young people understand the role of satellite data related to climate change, such as the data NASA collects and shares via satellite. Satellite data on rising sea levels, called out in United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, forms the basis of one of the Moonhack projects this year.
Moonhack participants will be able to code with Scratch, micro:bit, or Python. They can also take on a project brief where they may choose their favourite programming language and even include physical computing if they wish.
All six projects will be available from 1 September when registration opens, and projects can be submitted until 30 November.
Inspiring young people to create a better future
Climate change is an issue that affects everyone, and for many young people it’s a source of concern. Kaye’s aim this year is to show small changes young people can make to contribute to a big, global impact.
“Moonhack’s question this year is ‘Can we create calls to action through our coding to influence others to make better choices, or even inform them of things that they didn’t know that they can share with others?’” – Kaye North, Code Club Australia
Moonhack support for volunteers, teachers and parents
This year’s Moonhack includes new resources to help educators and mentors who are supporting young people to take part:
Get your young coders involved: Key info
Registration for Moonhack 2024 opens on 1 September
The challenge runs from 14 to 31 October, and projects can be submitted until 30 November
Participation is free and open to any young coder worldwide, whether they are part of a Code Club or not
Everyone from beginners to advanced coders can participate
The six projects for Moonhack 2024 will be available in around 30 languages
One of our favourite things is 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.
Recently, we had the pleasure of speaking with Isabel, a computer science teacher at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College in Eastleigh, England. She told us her fascinating journey from industry to education, along with how she is helping to make the tech space inviting to all.
From industry to the classroom: Isabel’s journey to encourage diversity in tech
Isabel’s path to working in the tech sector started with her early exposure to engineering thanks to her father’s career in telecoms.
“I find this is true for a lot of female engineers my age: you will find that their dad or their uncle was an engineer. I remember that when I made the decision to study engineering, my teachers asked me if I was sure that it was something I wanted to do.”
Isabel pursued a degree in engineering because she loved the technical aspects, and during her studies she found a passion for programming. She went to work as a software engineer in Hampshire, contributing to the development of 3G mobile phone technology.
Despite enjoying her career in tech, Isabel felt a strong pull towards teaching due to her long-standing involvement with youth groups and a desire to give back to the community.
“While I was at university in London, I took part in a scheme where we could go into local primary schools and help with their science teaching. At the time, I just thought this was my way of giving back, I hadn’t really thought of it as a career. But actually, after a while, I thought ‘I’m enjoying this programming, but I really liked helping the young kids as well’.”
The transition wasn’t easy, as Computer Science was not widely taught in schools at the time, but Isabel persevered, teaching IT and Media to her classes as well.
Once Isabel settled into her teaching role, she began thinking about how she could tackle a problem she noticed in the STEM field.
Championing diversity in tech
Having experienced first-hand what it was like to be the only woman in STEM spaces, Isabel’s commitment to diversity in technology is at the core of her teaching philosophy. She works hard to create an inclusive environment and a diversity of opportunities in her classroom, making sure girls feel encouraged to pursue careers in tech through exploring various enrichment activities.
Isabel focuses on enrichment activities that bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world application. She runs various projects and competitions, ensuring a balanced representation of girls in these initiatives, and gives her students the opportunity to participate in programs like the Industrial Cadets, Student Robotics, and Coolest Projects.
Isabel told us that she feels these opportunities provide essential soft skills that are crucial for success in any career.
“The A level environment is so academic; it is heavily focused on working on your own on very abstract topics. Having worked in industry and knowing the need to collaborate, I found that really hard. So I’ve always made sure to do lots of projects with my students where we actually work with real engineers, do real-world projects. I believe strongly in teaching soft skills like team working, project management, and time management.”
Harnessing trusted resources
A key resource in Isabel’s teaching toolkit is the Ada Computer Science platform. She values its reliability and the timely updates to the topics, which are crucial in a rapidly evolving subject like Computer Science.
She said she encourages both her students and fellow teachers, especially those who have retrained in Computer Science, to use the platform as a resource.
“Ada Computer Science is amazing. We know we can rely on saying to the students ‘look on Ada, the information will be correct’ because I trust the people creating the resources. And we even found ourselves as teachers double-checking things on there. We struggle to get Computer science teachers, so actually only two of us are Computer Science teachers, and the other three are Maths teachers we have trained up. To be able to say ‘if you are not sure about something, look on Ada’ is a really nice thing to have.”
The ongoing challenge and hope for the future
Despite her efforts, Isabel acknowledges that progress in getting more girls to pursue tech careers is slow. Many girls still view tech as an uninviting space and feel like they don’t belong when they find themselves as one of a few girls — if not the only one — in a class. But Isabel remains hopeful that continuous exposure and positive experiences can change these perceptions.
“I talk to students who are often the only girl in the class and they find that really hard. So, if at GCSE they are the only girl in the class, they won’t do [the subject] at A level. So, if we leave it until A level, it is almost too late. Because of this, I try as much as I can to get as many girls as possible onto my engineering enrichment projects to show them as many opportunities in engineering as possible early on.”
Her work with organisations like the UK Electronics Skills Foundation reflects her commitment to raising awareness about careers in electronics and engineering. Through her outreach and enrichment projects, Isabel educates younger students about the opportunities in these fields, hoping to inspire more girls to consider them as viable career paths.
Looking ahead
As new technology continues to be built, Isabel recognises the challenges in keeping up with rapid changes, especially with fields like artificial intelligence (AI). She stays updated through continuous learning and collaborating with her peers, and encourages her students to be adaptable and open to new developments. “The world of AI is both exciting and daunting,” she admits. “We need to prepare our students for a future that we can hardly predict.”
Isabel’s dedication to teaching, her advocacy for diversity, and her efforts to provide real-world learning opportunities make her an inspiring educator. Her commitment was recognised by the Era Foundation in 2023: Isabel was named as one of their David Clark Prize recipients. The award recognises those who “have gone above and beyond the curriculum to inspire students and showcase real-world engineering in the classroom”.
Isabel not only imparts technical knowledge — she inspires her students to believe in their potential, encouraging a new generation of diverse tech professionals.
If Isabel’s story has inspired you to encourage the next generation of young tech creators, check out the free teaching and training resources we provide to support your journey.
If you are working in Computer Science teaching for learners age 14 and up, take a look at how Ada Computer Science will support you.
Construction is simple – simply slot the Gateway Module into the HAT’s mini PCIe connector, and slot the HAT on top of your Raspberry Pi. There are external antennas to add as well, including a fancy GPS module in case you need to know its location.
From source
The software is a little more involved though. The docs help guide you in the setup, which includes compiling the software from source and connecting everything up to thethings.network so you can control it all remotely. It’s a bit of a lengthy process, however it’s definitely streamlined once you get past the initial compiling phase. This is not for folks wanting to try out their first IoT set up though, with LoRaWAN products definitely having a more professional user in mind, and the docs don’t help you beyond getting the gateway working.
That said, if you know your LoRaWAN stuff, you’re all ready to start connecting devices. The range on the gateway is very good, and we didn’t have any problems with devices around our home not reaching it. We even put some sensors outside and they worked a treat. The GPS worked well too, something you’d need if you’re deploying gateways out on a farm or throughout a wider area. You could probably jury rig it to work as a GPS tracker or Geocacher if you’d like to as well, however there are better ways to do that.
Prosumer uses
This is definitely a very powerful piece of kit, and very reasonably priced at that, although you will need to supply your own Raspberry Pi for it as well. If you’re feeling the strain in your home automation network and fancy upgrading to the next level, it’s definitely a great way to try out and experiment with LoRaWAN too, and Elecrow also has Node Boards you can use with it if you need to upgrade that part too.
Verdict
8/10
A great piece of kit designed for folks with serious remote automation needs that fits snugly atop a Raspberry Pi.
“[It’s a] technical version of a magnifying glass to help people with low vision,” Markus tells us. “It’s basically a camera that can be connected to any HDMI screen, with a simple interface to scale and modify images. There are lots of professional devices out there, and a few DIY takes on the category as well. My goal was to make it simple, portable and affordable. There’s also experimental support for reading out text.”
Markus came up with the idea when his grandmother was prescribed one of these professional devices after suffering from macular degeneration.
“Even though she generally shunned away from most technology beyond a telephone or TV, this improved her life a lot and she enjoyed reading and writing again, be it letters, books or the newspaper,” Markus says. “However, it’s a bulky device that was placed in the living room, so when she needed it for cooking recipes she had to frequently go back and forth between the kitchen and the living room.”
According to him, a DIY solution is at least a tenth of the price of professional versions.
Rapid prototyping
While a tablet or laptop would have done the job, the constant updates and unlock codes felt like a barrier. Raspberry Pi with a Camera Module and a screen seemed like the best solution to Markus.
“The software was relatively easy,” Markus explains. “But I experimented a lot with the form factor. I started out with a wooden setup as I wanted to make it look nice and non-technical, but my latest version is 3D-printed and I’m quite proud of its simple and portable design.”
There are three main functions for the magnifier: a button cycles through different magnification levels, while another can change colour modes. This includes inverting the colours or tinting it yellow or blue.
“There’s also an experimental readout feature,” says Markus. “[It takes] a picture and then uses Tesseract OCR to get the text which is later read out via the pico TTS library, all on-device without the need for an internet connection.”
Book smarts
“This has been an interesting project where I’ve learned a lot over the years,” Markus mentions. Everytime he revisits it he thinks about little tweaks he can make but is happy that the code is up on his GitHub so others can modify it to their needs.
Unfortunately Markus’ grandmother had a stroke before getting to test it, and is now unable to use it. However, other folks have been able to give feedback, much of it positive. He’s gone on to use Raspberry Pi and Camera Modules for other projects, such as a portable photo booth for weddings – sounds like something we need to cover in a future issue.
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