Pimoroni Mood lamp

I bought the Pimoroni Mood Lamp kit way back in March at the Raspberry Pi Birthday Party, but I held off building it until Louise could come around, especially as I was nervous about soldering all of those pins onto the Pi Zero so I thought it would be a nice project for us toContinue reading “Pimoroni Mood lamp”

An Easter gift – RPi beginner’s worksheet

[edit] As of June 2017, there is a version of Scratch 2.0 on Raspbian which makes this worksheet obsolete [/edit] I’ve been running a few workshops for Crossover Solutions and have created some Raspberry Pi Physical Computing resources that seem to go down well with both children and adults and so, as a little EasterContinue reading “An Easter gift – RPi beginner’s worksheet”

A busy few months

I know you guys love hearing about what I’m up to so here are a few fantastic events that I’ll be appearing it either running workshops or giving talks – it’d be great if you could come along and join in the fun! Firstly, this weekend I’m taking the pi-top Champions to The National MuseumContinue reading “A busy few months”

Shakey Sense Hat Cat

[edit] As of June 2017, there is a version of Scratch 2.0 on Raspbian which makes this worksheet obsolete [/edit] After Sunday’s coding session, I set the boys the task of making our Scratch Sense Hat Cat Shake, just like Carrie Anne’s Interactive Pixel Pet. The first thing the boys did was to figure outContinue reading “Shakey Sense Hat Cat”

Sense Hat Cat using Scratch

[edit] As of June 2017, there is a version of Scratch 2.0 on Raspbian which makes this worksheet obsolete [/edit] So, I absolutely LOVE the Interactive Pixel Pet activity from the Raspberry Pi website, and while I was playing with the Sense Hat the other day, I realised it was possible to imitate it usingContinue reading “Sense Hat Cat using Scratch”

Etcher -the BEST tool ever for burning OS to SD cards

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about burning SD cards on a mac… but I’m not gonna lie, I found it quite difficult to do. You can imagine my delight, when someone at work suggested I try Etcher near the end of last year. What a fantastic app for making burning SDcardsContinue reading “Etcher -the BEST tool ever for burning OS to SD cards”

A Strange Experience – Being on the Other Side

Since I’ve been working for pi-top, I’ve experienced being on the other side of the EdTech system and it’s certainly been a bit of an eye-opener I’ve tested various products over the years and found problems and complaints, bugs and surprises, delights and nightmares, but it has been a really interesting experience for me beingContinue reading “A Strange Experience – Being on the Other Side”

Swift Playgrounds

It’s about time Apple joined the Coding Revolution – with Raspberry Pi, code.org and Google running projects for years, it was only a matter of time before something was released. And boy is it a good one… with glossy graphics and slick tutorials, Swift Playgrounds has certainly hit the ground running as a way toContinue reading “Swift Playgrounds”

Headlines about Computer Science

It’s been well over two years since the new computer science curriculum was introduced in the UK. Not that long ago, Roehampton University released its wonderful Annual Computing Education Report 2015 which says clearly, in black and white, that the numbers of pupils taking computing compared to those that took ICT are significantly lower nowContinue reading “Headlines about Computer Science”