Python and Raspberry Pi

To continue our Lower 5th (year 9) exploration of programming we moved onto linking up Python to Minecraft. This is such as simple way of engaging students in a different way and it helps us spot the real ‘programmers’ from the ‘consumers’ of computing. Whilst some are happy to just follow the worksheets others really catch on and alter the code and explore – whilst this is not working with robots, I do feel it gives a nice concrete experience and, just like Papert and his logo, allows students to situate their learning.

One pair of students wanted to ‘replace blocks in front with air’ and with this working they were really pleased that they could run through mountains. When they suddenly started running through the sea we had a Moses moment as the sea parted in front of them.

LED matrix boards

There is always something satisfying with lighting up LEDs and the use of 32×32 matrix boards allows for a variety of effects. We have been exploring how 4 can be linked up and will be looking to implement the ‘pixel pusher’ code that is available on GitHub. We should then be able to push images and other files to the matrix board from other computers – which should be fun for the students to have a go at.

Philips Hue

To add to the interactive side of Q4 we are investigating the use of Philips Hue lights and have setup a LED strip and a normal bulb (inside a robotic face). With the use of a Python library from GitHub it is quite easy to interact with the lights and now need to take these experiments a bit further and consider how we can use the colours to represent some sort of school activity.