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Raspberry Pi Workshop

Practical programming workshop for schools

Raspberry Pi is a powerful pocket-sized computer that enables students to learn to code with programming languages such as Scratch and Python. It is used for many projects such as building an alarm circuit, creating a file server, electronic circuits, building robots and more.

This workshop will give students a basic understanding of the Raspberry Pi by getting them engaged in practical activities. The workshop assumes students have no prior knowledge of programming or coding.

Format

We can deliver sessions in parallel.
1 instructor can deliver the following in a full day:
Secondary+: 3 sessions x 1 hr 30 mins
( students per session)
Contact us for larger events.

Age Group

Y9 - Higher Education

Introduction to Raspberry Pi

  • Raspberry Pi specification
  • Models and main components
  • General Purpose Input and Output (GPIO)

Control an LED

Students will learn how to build a simple circuit to turn on and off an LED using the Raspberry-Pi GPIO pins.

raspberry-pi-leds

Programme Traffic Lights

They will also learn to build a traffic light sequence, and learn how to programme them. This will give students an understanding of real-life applications of programming. Watch the video below to see what we will create on the day of the workshop.

Programme Traffic Lights

Students will complete the exercise with the Scratch programming language and higher learners will also repeat the activity with Python. Scratch is an easy to use drag and drop block programming language that will help students grasp the basic concepts behind coding. During the exercises the students will learn how we can use programming languages to control the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi.

scratch-programme

Requirements

We will bring the Raspberry Pis (1 per 2 students), chargers, all necessary wires, cables and circuit components.
The school must provide a computer room with monitors (1 between 2) that has either a VGA or an HDMI input, keyboards and a mouse.

Higher Learners

We also provide coding workshops to college and undergraduate university students. Read more here


Typical Workshop Day*

Usually, we will reset the session and repeat it for more groups of children on the same day. On occasions, we will end the day with a street-dance performance.

* The activities may vary on the day depending on the length of the workshops and the age and ability of the students.


Bringing Coding and Robotics into Education

Read our blog post to find out how teachers can bring coding into schools for free here.