MARIETTA, Ga. | Oct 10, 2018

The College of Computing and Software Engineering held a pilot workshop to introduce Georgia K-12 teachers to physical computing with the Raspberry Pi computer. The Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer, slightly bigger than a credit card, developed specifically for teaching the principles of computing. It can be used for programming, but was also especially designed to support physical computing. Unlike school and office computers, the Raspberry Pi is completely open and designed for connection to things like LEDs, buzzers, buttons, sensors, and even motors. It’s a real computer that can do real work, from word processing to running robots.

The workshop was offered free of charge to K-12 teachers, and each teacher took home a Raspberry Pi computer and parts kit for use in teaching.

The teachers who attended collectively work with nearly a thousand students each academic year.  Over 85% reported that they work with under-served youth or in a high-needs learning environment.  Fifty-seven percent of those who attended reported that, prior to the workshop, they had "heard of the Raspberry Pi but never seen one." All of the remainder reported, "I've seen one, but never used one," so this was a new experience for all of them.

The teachers did a brief guided experiment, then an individual project, followed by a small-group project. Participants designed their own projects, limited only by materials that were available in the teachers' kits. They produced a multi-player game, a couple of projects each with temperature and motion sensors, and a couple that used LEDs under program control.

Every teacher who responded to the post-workshop survey said they would recommend the workshop to colleagues. Everyone who responded also said they would use what they had learned in teaching their classes.

Among the comments we received after the workshop were. “I will be more confident in implementing technology in my lessons,” and “The workshop allowed me to see that students need to experiment in order to learn difficult things.”

The workshop was funded entirely by contributions from alumni of the Southern College of Technology, a predecessor of the College of Computing and Software Engineering.  We are currently seeking a grant to hold a series of these workshops for teachers statewide.