Raspberry Pi in your school

[Mark_Love]

Hi All,

just a quick one to see who uses the good old "Raspberry Pi" in your schools?

what version of device you use and what advantages you have gained and pit falls you have encountered?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Mark

[JJanisch]

We haven't begun using them yet but due to the impracticality of unplugging computers and screens etc we have decided to set up a little area with some 24 inch TV's and all the PI equipment ready for after school clubs. The biggest interest right now is showing the children other Operating Systems (installing multiple perhaps - with guidance - and discussing what the children like most), using Scratch a little more advanced than they currently do in class, and some light introduction into Python (No, teacher, I don't want to install it on the network...).

 

I opted for the Model B+ with more USB's etc, you can buy everything you need for a kit (the B+, a small keyboard, pull-wire mouse, hdmi converters etc) from CPC for a good price. That's the only place I could find that stocked everything I needed, most pre-made kits were $$ and didn't have the new model Pi either.

[hallb15]

As a primary school, we haven't opted for Raspberry Pi as the general feeling has been that they are too complicated for most primary children. I would be interested to hear what other people think, especially with respect to the 2014 computing curriculum. Some of the aims of the computing curriculum for KS2 seem to fit well with programming on the Raspberry Pi and particularly interfacing with sensors and other external devices.

I was toying with the idea of resurrecting our Valliant Turtles by putting a Pi inside...

[JJanisch]

As a primary school, we haven't opted for Raspberry Pi as the general feeling has been that they are too complicated for most primary children. I would be interested to hear what other people think, especially with respect to the 2014 computing curriculum. Some of the aims of the computing curriculum for KS2 seem to fit well with programming on the Raspberry Pi and particularly interfacing with sensors and other external devices.

I was toying with the idea of resurrecting our Valliant Turtles by putting a Pi inside...

 

We're a primary school too. I'll post back here once I have hosted a club and hopefully give you some positive feedback. Won't be a for a little while though, I have too much else to do! (he says while on EduGeek)

[themightymrp]

We've got 25 in and they started to use them last week! We have a room set aside for them whereby students just plug in their own SD cards and away they go.

 

So far so good but its only been 1 lesson. The teacher is however, only one page ahead in the instructions to the kids :-/

[hallb15]

We've got 25 in and they started to use them last week! We have a room set aside for them whereby students just plug in their own SD cards and away they go.

 

So far so good but its only been 1 lesson. The teacher is however, only one page ahead in the instructions to the kids :-/

You have a whole room dedicated to Raspberry Pi!? I'll be lucky to find cupboard space for one!

[themightymrp]

We changed some of the IT rooms over Summer. This former IT suite was going to be ripped out and returned to a standard classroom, but the idea was put forward to leave the monitors/keyboards/mic in situ and just bin the towers. Then we could use it for the Pi's

 

I must confess, my knowledge of them is pretty poor. I'm not a Linux guy. I can get by enough to help in lessons because of the similarities with Apple Mac terminal

[Mark_Love]

thanks for the feed back.... having them situated in there own room seems like the way to go, we are looking at the practical side as in building robots and robot arms as well, so moving the proposed 30 Pi's around the school for an hour lesson isnt really practical.

[themightymrp]

One of our engineering teachers was using a raspberry pi last year to try and do something similar. Not sure how it went? She bought an interface card called the 'pi-face' or something! Love the name

[JJanisch]

We've got 25 in and they started to use them last week! We have a room set aside for them whereby students just plug in their own SD cards and away they go.

 

So far so good but its only been 1 lesson. The teacher is however, only one page ahead in the instructions to the kids :-/

 

What resource/book is the teacher using if you dont mind me asking?

[themightymrp]

Ummmm. I will find out and get back to you on that one!

[themightymrp]

Finally managed to catch up with the teacher. He tells me it's just the standard controlled assessment work that's part of the OCR GCSE in Computing. All he did was print out the worksheets provided for the course.

 

He's currently working through the basics of Linux command line i.e. what certain commands do, what permissions mean, how to create users with passwords and different levels of access etc. Apparently they've already done some lessons on Python where they had to create 3 different programs based on set tasks.

 

Hope that's of use?

[abillybob]

We bought two of them, the deputy head wanted a class full but I said buy a couple first to see how they go... They've never come out of their boxes yet. We bought them a year ago! Question is what to do with them with primary school kids.

[Mark_Love]

Ok so the general census is that you really need a dedicated room for them to live in, that makes sense when you consider the time and effort it takes to set them up and pack them away. We are looking at getting 30 in so quite time consuming. That said i have one on my desk and have been playing with it looking for ways that it can be used and how best it needs to be set up.

After my desk looking like spaghetti junction for the last few days i decided to set up a remote desktop connection to it, this was surprisingly easy and actually works well, i now only have a power cable and a network cable plugged into the Paspberry Pi. This seems like an almost perfect solution, we can use our existing keyboards and mice + monitor.

The students can remote in, do the lesson and if the Pi is attached to a robotic device then all that is needed is a network connection.

This is almost too easy.... what have i missed?!

[Sheridan]

I'm not sure if I'm missing something about pi's, but I think we'll be able to do everything we want in this respect by running linux in a VM in our ICT suites - kids can then experience the os and programming etc but using existing hardware. Worked when we ran python in a vm to allow them to 'break' things!

[Simcfc73]

We got 20 last year and they haven't been out of the box. Tried to work out a simple way to use a room for dual purposes with splitters etc. but I really don't want kids unhooking cables. Also our monitors aren't HDMI so need a converter.

[Mark_Love]

True Sheridan, but for us the build of a physical device such as a Robot arm or wheeled robot, then being able to see the final program writen by the pupils in action in a physical state I.E the motion of a device, is what we are looking for and the Pi provides this. if programing is all you looking for then running python or linux on a VM machine is ideal.

[themightymrp]

The Pi's that our school got came with HDMI converters, not sure if it was a special deal or something??

 

I have to say, for what we are using them for (Linux commands and Python), I don't see the point of having them. We aren't using them for engineering this year so a VM would serve just as well. I think it's more of a toy for the IT teachers to use.

[SimpleSi]

Pi in the class on their own are not great devices.

 

If you get a teacher wanting to use Minecraft/Python API then they are the bees knees

 

And good for physical computing but a lot to said for using Arduinos for this instead as much more compatible with exisiting desktop/laptop investment

 

Simon

Can't be beat for making easy robots

[mats]

People using Pi's for minecraft - are you using the Pi as a client or a server?

 

I've just done some python with year 5 - got them to ssh into an old desktop running ubuntu, worked quite well. We were doing caesar cyphers and scratch isn't great for that.

 

Glad I'm not the only one with an eye on the old Vailant turtles..

[blundellm]

What you're missing about the Pi's is that the kids can own their own computer. The experience of working on a VM is quite abstract. The kids love having their hands on the physical equipment, and it gives them a chance to use the plug-in boards etc.

[MrZippy]

I have a few schools I'm responsible for.

 

Most of them have 5-10, being used in Primary (K-Grade 6) for extra-curricular clubs.

 

One school, we have 35... we started an Evil Genius Club (for all grades, but definitely focused to Gr6-8). We were hoping for 10, and got 35. This year, it's just a club, getting them interested in coding etc. The teacher and I are going to develop a curriculum for a JH option for next year. Currently, all of the Pis are B+.. but for the curriculum next year we're going to use RPi2's, and have modules for Raspbian / Python, and using the Win 10 IoT Developer edition recently announced. Kids will get to program games, as well as learn basics for python, C+, and other wonderous stuffs.

 

In order to conform with existing security principles, we had to create a separate subnet that was isolated from the school LAN for wired access (to allow for net connection when doing setup etc), that still went through our filter. Easiest way was to create a firewall (I used Untangle NG) and then put some switches in the classroom. Because we are low on space, our system was teardown. Also, this year, the kids own the Pis.. so they're working on their own machines. For the class option, the school will buy the Pi's, and we'll have the kids purchase their own SD cards (that will be the "textbook" for the class). Allows for multiple users for the Pis, with no worries as to what the previous user did. With the school-owned Pi's.. I'll probably get some VESA mounts for them and attach them directly to the monitors, for easier teardown (all they would have to do is power off).

 

So far, so good. And it's not a huge investment on the school's side either.

[Renfield-64]

I have been running an after school Raspberry Pi club for Y5 & Y6 children - using 5 devices, 2 children per device. I have fitted Pibrellas to all of them and we have been coding things in Python like traffic lights, pelican crossing etc.