Experiencing Picademy!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the first ever Picademy held in the United States at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.  I, along with 39 other educators from all over the United States spent two days working with Raspberry Pis: programming in Python and Scratch, using Minecraft, and working with electrical components such as LEDs, motors, and add-on boards like the Sense HAT and Explorer HAT.  At the end of it, we were all officially Raspberry Pi Certified Educators.  It was amazing (applications for the next Picademy at the Computer History Museum are open now)!

Everyone I talked to was shocked they had even been selected; I myself remember telling my coworkers that there was almost no chance, but I was going to apply anyways.  When I got the email that I had been selected, I was jumping up and down. Personally, I have used Raspberry Pis for projects and we also use it for our cataloging station, but because I'm a librarian and don't have access to a set group of students, I struggle getting them to do anything besides play Minecraft.  

Our docent in front of the machine on which she learned to program

I attending the reception on Friday, which not only gave us an opportunity to meet our classmates and instructors, but also to take a tour of the Computer History Museum (despite living in the Bay Area, I had never been there before).  The tour guide was a woman, who had learned to program on one of the machines on exhibit (and she was fabulous).  I loved seeing all the old machines, particularly those towards the end of the exhibit that were more familiar to me.  

Writing the code for the Sense HAT.

The next day and official start, we were split into groups and started learning about different projects we could do with Pi.  The Sense HAT was a lot of fun, and I loved how we started using paper and colored pencils to draw out our pattern, before moving into Python to actually code it.  The result was a pattern of colored lights that matched our drawing.  I definitely want to buy these for our students!

Turning on an LED light

We then got to play with the Explorer HAT, which allows you to add sensors and other components to the Raspberry Pi, much like you would with an Arduino.  I had never done anything like that before with it with the Pi, but we practiced turning LED lights on and with the Explorer HAT, controlled a motor.  We used both Python and Scratch for the programming. 

Programming in Python to build a tower in Minecraft.

Trying out the Pi Camera.

We then got to play with Minecraft on the Pis, which I had never done before.  I found moving around in the space a little challenging (as I did not grow up playing any sort of video games), but with a little guidance from my classmates I was able to follow along.  When I see students playing, I don't really see them coding with Python to build stuff, but I think it might be a way to reach the 9th graders that are still into Minecraft.  Unfortunately, our older students have informed me that Minecraft is too young for them.

We next got to try out the Pi Camera, which I had heard about, but never used before.  Just writing a few lines of code we were able to get it to take pictures.  I could see a lot of applications for using the Pi Camera within our library to both promote library services and the Raspberry Pi itself.  I also saw using it myself, and even bought one as soon as I got back from Picademy the next day ;-)
  
 We then starting brainstorming for our hackathon on the final day, which is how we would get our certification.  I sometimes

All of our ideas!

have trouble coming up with projects like this that quickly, but I was able to write down a few possible ideas, including using the Sense Hat for an art project and making a security camera.  

The next day we started out with some presentations by people using Pi in interesting ways.  I was particularly impressed by the Pi a la Mode speaker, who was only a senior in high school, but spoke so eloquently about her efforts to bring computer science education to rural India, using Raspberry Pis.  We then went on another tour of the Computer History Museum that was focused on making connections between computers in the past with the present and bringing that into the curriculum.  

Our project Browse Bot

We then started our hackathon.  My original ideas was to make a device that would take pictures of the students holding books as they come up to the desk to check out books and then tweet it out.  But another librarian had an idea to use the Sense Hat to make a visual display of ebooks, which when shaken would display another book.  Advertising ebooks in the library (beyond online) is a big issue, because they aren't physical.  She thought and I agreed that this would be a fun way to browse through an ebook collection.  Our biggest struggle was not having the skills at coding to even know how to start writing it, but with some significant help from one of our instructors, we were able to make it work.

Holding my certificate!

Before we knew it Picademy was over and it was time to receive our certificates. I didn't really want it to end: all that time to play around with the Raspberry Pi and learn about all the possibilities of what you can do with it, I just wanted to keep going.  Someone mentioned they wished this course was a week long, and I completely agree.  With more time, we could have gotten farther along on our projects (although I intend to keep working on it) and learned about even more things you do with a Raspberry Pi.  

Now that I'm back at work, I'm focusing on how I can take what I learned and get it to the students.  I'm going to incorporate into our Maker Lab summer camp program and am talking with our computer science teacher about ways we can introduce it either into classroom or to some of our coding clubs on campus.  I'm also looking forward to staying in touch through the forum and Google+ group with my fellow Picademy attendees to see what everyone is doing and get even more new ideas.

Happy Making!