Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi had intrigued me with the variety of options for infusing computer skills into my Technology class.

How did you introduce the Raspberry Pi to your students? We started by watching a video (Introduction to Raspberry Pi 3) to provided background information on the computer, its parts, and operating systems. In this instance, using a video for the introduction was the best pedagogical choice to help keep student attention and keep the “lecture” moving. After a quick class discussion of the video, students connected up their Pi and installed the operating system. We installed the Raspbian operating system using the NOOBS installer. Copying NOOBS to the microSD card took no time at all, but the actual installation of Raspbian on the Pi took about 10-15 minutes. During this time, we played Around the World using the terms presented in the video. Once the operating system was installed, students had time to begin exploring it.

What did the students do with the Raspberry Pi? For starters, we explored the Raspberry Pi in terms of coding options. A couple of students worked in the program Scratch to create their own games from “scratch” using block-based coding (yes, Scratch can be done on any computer not just a Pi). One Scratch game was an animated interactive story between characters and in another game a character moved through various levels to touch a coin to gain points. A student had the idea of combining the Makey Makeys we used at the beginning of the year to create a controller to use with his own Scratch game. The rest of the students had noticed that several classic and highly addictive Python games came installed on the Pi such as Wormy, Four in a Row, Gem Gem and Squirrel. To promote the educational aspect, I demonstrated how to get into the code for the game, what the code means, and how to make edits. Students set about changing variables such as speed and points, modifying colors, rewording text, and editing or completely replacing images. I had one group figure out how to transform a human vs computer four in a row game into a human vs human game. A different group worked on incorporating additional blocks to eat in the worm game.

What did you think about your class time with the Raspberry Pi? Over the course of time working with the Raspberry Pi, we only scratched the surface of possibilities. I was impressed with what we did accomplish: learning about computer parts, setting up the Pi, troubleshooting the Pi, and time for either an intro to Python coding by editing code or tinkering with block coding in Scratch. Throughout, it seemed as though the students were more focused on coding than if I had given them a regular laptop and asked them to do the same thing (Win!).

I also enjoyed the fact that each pair of students had their own microSD card, making it seem as if the computer was actually theirs. This cut back on the potential issue of work disappearing between classes and allowed students to take risks such as installing programs or changing settings. I had only one group that managed to adjust enough settings so that it was necessary to start over with a fresh install of the OS, which really isn’t time consuming.

What items were needed? A Raspberry Pi and power cord for each station. I chose to have the students work in pairs for this project to cut back on the required number of stations. Each pair of students received their own microSD card to use for the duration of the project. The school already owned compatible monitors, keyboards, and mice.