Pies come in all shapes and sizes and with various fillings, but very few are as extraordinary as the Raspberry Pi, which instead of juicy fruit contains a silicon chip and has metal frame replacing crusty pastry. The talk here is, of course, of the revolutionising educational tool, which is changing the way in which computer science is taught in primary and secondary schools. The humble Pi is much more than a didactical prop, it is stirring innovative thinking amongst its users, by asking them to develop programme code to run different processes on the standardised Pi hardware.
Perhaps most exciting of these challenges is currently underway in my native Space Sector, as British astronaut Tim Peake deploys Astro Pi, a space faring version of the credit-card-sized mini-computer, as part of his visit to the International Space Station. A UK-wide competition was run amongst schools to develop a most interesting Space experiment, to be run by the winning team, using the basic sensing and processing capabilities available on the Pi platform.
The aim in this is, of course, to stimulate interest in innovation and entrepreneurship from as young an age as possible, leading the cutting edge development of the Space Industry by bringing science and technology in step and on the horizon of young innovators and future astronauts. As the data collected by the Astro Pi unit becomes available to any Raspberry Pi user down here on Earth, an unchartered ocean of possibility awaits young coders.
Hence, though Raspberry’s surname actually relates to the original coding language used, Python, its advancement of STEM subjects certainly places it proudly as the raspberry on top of the pie (cherries and cakes are outdated!). Lets hope that as many young bright minds as possible get their πr2/x share.
(This is sort of a day late as it was an outreach piece written to celebrate the Pi Day, but was eventually not published where initially intended.)
