Hack the Teacher - A lesson in physical computing using a Raspberry Pi Zero Christmas Jumper

Just before Christmas I had some fun with a Christmas Jumper and Physical computing based around the (then) new Raspberry Pi Zero. Here is the rather belated write up of the lesson.

I was not quick enough to get hold of a Magpi issue 40 when they were first in the shops so I subscribed and waited for it to be delivered to my door. Initially I didn't really know why I wanted the attached free Raspberry pi Zero, I just knew I wanted one.

The Jumper

However when it arrived inspiration arrived with it and I decided I needed to make a Christmas jumper and that it would be a really good tool to get some of my students interested in programming. I came up with a simple plan of a Christmas tree with some lights and set about creating the base for the project.

This was all going well apart from two factors; I now only had a weekend to complete the project to be able to use the jumper in lessons (before the end of term), and my inability to sew.

Not one to be daunted I found some felt and cut out the basic shapes then had a crash course from my wife on how to attache them using needle and thread. So I eventually (after a late night sewing) managed to attache the tree using a simple running stitch in the centre of the tree and then added blanket stitch around the edge to secure it in place (and add decoration). From a distance the effect was relatively respectable. (if you look closely you can see that the quality of my blanket stitch improves as it goes around)

The second evening I spent setting up the electronics. I played with a couple of different configurations but in the end decided on individually programmable LEDs. Each LED is connected to a separate pin on the Pi Zero and to Ground. This left maximum flexibility in what could be done with the lights.

I had initially thought about hiding all the connections inside the jumper but as I was putting it all together I quite liked the idea of it all being visible. To this end all of the wiring was attached to the front of the jumper and the Pi Zero itself was sewn onto the jumper. I also used a portable USB power supply to allow me to walk around without being tethered to a plug socket.

After getting it all wired up I connected the PiZero up to a monitor and set about creating a test program that would show the lights on the tree working. It could also be used as a starting point for the students to modify the existing code to create their own sequences. To make it a little easier I set up a few functions that set groups of light as on or off and the made a short sequence using the functions. I set this up to start on boot so I could just connect the power and the light sequence would start.

The video shows one of the LEDs had failed but this proved to be a loose wire that was hastily soldered up and everything was up and running.

The Lesson

The idea for a lesson using the jumper was inspired by last years code.org hour of code which had students programming a sequence of lights for Christmas trees outside the Whitehouse.

The plan was to explain how the GPIO library is used to turn the lights on and off and then let the students view the code for the existing sequence before coming up with their own code to control the jumpers LEDs.

Preparation

To allow students access to the PiZero I needed to connect it up to the school network. The plan was to do this over wireless with a USB wireless network adapter. (in reality I had problems getting onto the school WiFi network so I took off the jumper and used a wired adapter instead) The students could then login to the PiZero using SSH and use nano to create their programs.

The students downloaded putty to their workstations in order to do this.

Introduction
Demonstration of the jumper working

Explanation of GPIO Library commands to control the LEDs (including the functions I created earlier)

Main Activity
Students to design an algorithm for the light sequence

Students to use python and the GPIO library to program the sequence - this was done by logging in over SSH using putty and copying the basic file (including the functions and GPIO setup) giving it their own name.

Students test the code on the jumper - this required a bit of co-ordination to ensure we only ran one script at a time.

Extension
Able students create their own functions that they can reuse in their sequence.


Plenary
Demonstration of some of the best (aesthetically) sequences

Discussion about code efficiency and creation of functions to avoid duplication of code


Review

The lesson went well with a good deal of enthusiasm generated by the idea of 'hacking the teacher' the students were initially very overly excited by downloading putty and being able to log in remotely to the Raspberry Pi on my jumper.

The students were fairly quick to be able to get a short piece of code working (mostly just a single flashing LED) and then move on to experimenting with using the functions I had built.

At this stage there was a good deal of discussion about what they could do that would be amusing (fortunately I had thought of this at the design stage and I think I managed to avoid any embarrassing light combinations of a phallic nature, or at least they didn't find any during the lesson). Once they had discovered they could not create anything rude they settled for pretty and started to compete on who could create the best sequence.

There was lots of experimentation of how fast they could get lights to flash or change and with what sort of changes looked good. Some of this was a little held up by the fact that there was only one jumper so students occasionally had to wait for someone else to test their code before they could run theirs. It might have been good to have some breadboard prototypes for testing to reduce some of the waiting but i feel that that may have spoiled the interest provided by making the code run on my jumper. This would have been even better if we could have got on over wireless and I could have been walking around the room whilst they were testing their code on me but this was a small niggle.

Overall the lesson was a great success with students engaged in creating code and experimenting to see what they could do as they learnt more about how the Library worked. There were some great creative responses and some good use of functions with parameters for time that could be reused at different points in the code.

If i did this again with another class I would probably use the GPIO Zero library to reduce the code required to get things working but with students staring by using my example code they had a reasonable start anyway.


The rest of the day as I walked around school I did spend alot of time assuring students (and some staff) that "No it's not a bomb" (it was just after Ahmed's clock incident) and "No I won't catch fire". However I did get several question about how it was made and could they make one too, so hopefully some more students aware of the possibilities of computing.

BETT 2016 - Raspberry Pi physical computing workshop

Last year I was intending to run a workshop for Raspberry Pi at BETT but was recovering from an appendectomy instead. This year tempting fate I volunteered again and fortunately avoided any surgery in the run up to the show.

I had been working with ,my son Toby who had created his own robot using the CamJam EduKit 3 and I had used GPIO Zero to help to reduce the level of typing required to get his creation working. As I intended to talk about Physical computing Toby came along too with his robot. to show what could be done with a few simple lines of code.

He was very pleased to be able to show off his creation and say a little about how he had made it. he was also very excited to have his own badge with his newly created job title.

We then got hands on and had the attendees making their own simple circuits and writing the code to make things happen in the real world. Having some hands on time was a really powerful tool to demonstrate how quickly results could be seen using simple components and GPIO Zero. I did promise at the show that I would add the presentation here with the information links so here it is on Prezi - Lets get physical -  an introduction to Physical computing with GPIO Zero.


The show was challenging environment to deliver training in with all of the competing noise and activities occurring around the stand. It was an interesting cross between market trader and teacher. Attracting people into the stand and then guiding them through creating a circuit and controlling it with code It was also a challenge with people arriving to the stand (attracted by what was happening) part way through the session and wanting to join in.

The sessions both ran slightly different to the plan (and  to each other) but I think we were able share the power of being able to make things happen in the physical world.  I think especially with the late arrivals it was a great demonstration of how results can be achieved really quickly using GPIO Zero due to the less onerous volume of code required.

If i was going to do this again i would probably take some pre-prepared  kits with the components for the circuits or even use a HAT to simplify the process. I would also think about printing some copies of the code / circuit diagrams to make it easier to manage with late arrivals and swapping the screen around from basic to advanced tasks. Having both on a laminated card (or just a bit of paper would do) would have made it easier for those who arrived late to have a play with the basic example without me having to switch the screen back and forward.

GPIO Zero - making coding less language intensive.

In a previous post Getting Physical with Python I wrote about the difficulty some of the younger children in my computing group had with the volume of typing required to get started with physical computing. They did not struggle with understanding but it took too much time and help to enter the volume of text required. This took away some of the excitement and slowed things down.

At the time I thought to speed this up it would be good to write a python library to reduce the amount of text needed to get things to happen. Unfortunately I had lots of other things to do and this never went anywhere. However someone else also thought it would be good to make it easy to get started with physical computing and was able to do something about it.

That person was Ben Nuttall of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Along with Martin O'Hanlon and Dave Jones he has created GPIO Zero. You can read his account of how it happened on his blog.

This python library can be used to very simply control components using the GPIO pins. The initial function set is based around the popular CamJam EduKits  (Kit 1- Starter, Kit 2 - Sensors) and makes a great starting point for physical computing using python.

A simple light and button combination can be controlled with the below example:

from gpiozero import LED, Button led = LED(15) button = Button(14) button.when_pressed = led.on button.when_released = led.off

instead of something like this:

import os 
import time  
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) 
GPIO.setwarnings(False) 


GPIO.setup(14, GPIO.IN)
GPIO.setup(15, GPIO.OUT) 

while True: 
        if GPIO.input(14) == False: 
              GPIO.output(15, HIGH)   
        else: 
               GPIO.output(15, LOW)  

 time.sleep(0.5) 

The reduction in volume of code and setup required is brilliant. GPIO Zero is an amazing tool for education. This is especially true where the volume of text entry is a barrier (either with younger or SEN children).

The tool allows the focus to be on the programming concepts and not on the entry of text. When i worked with my HomeEd computing group there was a difficulty fro a number of the students (aged between 5 and 15) in using the GPIO library as there was a lot of code to enter. They were generally happy with what they were trying to achieve but found that it took a long time to enter the lines of code required just to light up the LEDs.

This meant that in the one hour session that is what we achieved, lighting up the LEDs. Whilst this was a success and the children were happy with getting there it would have been much better to spend more of the time in the session exploring what could be done rather than entering lots of text.

GPIO Zero takes away some of the burden allowing children to focus on what they are trying to achieve rather than on copying out lots of lines of code (especially the set up parts that are conceptually more difficult to grasp and result in questions about what is BCM etc).

I have found that where I have used this it has meant I can more on more quickly and cover more of the computational thinking ideas where previously there would have been more time waiting for the students to catch up with the typing required. It also works well to satiate the desire for instant gratification that appears to be fairly common among my pupils. They only have to spend a short time entering code before they can see a result.

It is also much easier in a classroom to debug the code they have written if there are errors. The reduced volume of code makes for less searching to find the capitol that should't be there. This make students more able to do it themselves or makes it quicker for me when they can't see what is wrong. The reduction in time taken here give me the opportunity to get to more pupils and help them to progress.



I have also used this at home with my son (8) whilst he has been creating a robot using the CamJam EduKit 3 - Robots. This was really powerful because it allowed him to achieve results in short pockets of time before he lost focus and wanted to move on. He used the provided worksheets to set up the robot and connect the components and I translated the code parts into GPIO Zero for him to get the robot working.

So in summary the feedback is - Thanks Ben this is an awesome tool to help me teach computing.

If you are interested in using GPIO Zero there is a great getting started guide on the Raspberry Pi website in the resources 'Learn' Section.

More information can be found on pythonhosted.org or on GitHub. There is also a Google Doc with information and a place to add comments / requests.

Shifting the Smile - Freeing up some ports on AgoBo

This week I finally got around to setting up the code for the shift register I soldered onto AgoBo's 
prototyping board several months ago.

I used one of the preset positions for chips so it was relatively easy to add the board and some resistors to keep everything safe.

The seven segment display was then reconnected to the outputs and the head scratching began. I had a good look at the data sheet to get everything connected up then tried to sort out some test code to get the smile back on AgoBo's face.

I put some quick code making a short library so that i could call on mouth.smile in my code for AgoBo. I could probably make the code more efficient but this was a quick first attempt. I will try and get the code uploaded to my Git Hub repository when I have a chance to connect up AgoBo to the network

I have also added a talking mouth pattern to the different expressions that I may use if add some sound later on.

My next plan is to use some of the now free GPIO pins to light up some fibre optics I was given by my wife to make some hair. The current plan is to have the hair change colour to suit AgoBo's current emotions but some cycling also seems an appealing idea.

Acting the Part - A lesson in processor architecture

Part of the syllabus for my A-level computing group (OCR A Level) is to learn about and understand the make up of a CPU. This goes beyond the basic "this is the brains of a computer" and starts to look at how the CPU does it's job and which parts of the CPU do each part of the job.

To do this I could have done a 'chalk and talk' lesson telling the students all about the functions but I felt they would learn better if i could get them more involved. I also wanted to get them interacting and working together.

I did a lesson before with my Home Education group based on a CS unplugged activity - class simulation of a computer. I had adapted the ideas on the page to make a human calculator program using children to move the information around the parts of the computer. this was a little basic but it seemed like a good basis to expand on for my lesson.

As this was an A-Level group I wanted to get the students to do the thinking. So i came up with a plan based on a simple introduction to the parts and functions then set the students the task of designing activities to explain the working of the CPU to their classmates.

For the introduction we did a revision of the fetch-execute cycle and then went smaller to look at the parts of the CPU and what part they play in the process. The students were also given access to a YouTube playlist of videos about processor architecture to help them research the topic.

The students were split into small groups then set the task to design an activity to explain the process to their peers.

The Groups came up with a variety of ways of delivering the idea. All of the groups had an activity which showed they understood the process. The best group came up with an activity that involved the other students to take the role of each of the components and memory.

Their activity is detailed below (with a little editing):

Equipment:
Pens
Plain paper
Whiteboard pens
Mini Whiteboards
Labels for each of the components (can be written on the boards)

Set up:
1) Write a simple program to be used by the simulated computer the students used the following program:

     1 Load 70
     2 Add 71
     3 Store 72
     (at location 70 they had 712, at location 71 they had 73)

2) Select students to take the following roles -

     Registers:
     Program control - PC
     Memory Address Register - MAR
     Memory Data Register - MDR
     Current Instruction Register - CIR

     Arithmetic Logic Unit - ALU
     Control Unit - CU
     Accumulator - AC

     Cache Memory

     Address Bus
     Data Bus
     Control Bus

3) Hand each student the correct label, a whiteboard whiteboard pen, paper, and pen then position them around the classroom. Ensure the registers are together and the other components are spaced out around the room.

4) Hand Memory the Program and data loaded into memory


Activity

The students then act the parts of the CPU to carry out the program. To pass data / instructions / control around they write the information on to paper screw it into a ball and throw it to the next part in the process.

So for this example program the following happens:

1) PC is set at 1. This is transferred to the MAR (by throwing paper).
2) CU requests contents of address 1 from memory. (throwing paper via the address bus)
3) The data in the memory (LOAD 71) at address 1 is transferred to the MDR (via the data bus)
4) Contents of MDR loaded into the CIR
5) Contents of CIR sent to CU to be decoded (Data bus)
6) CU decodes the instruction and sends the required address to the MDR and increments the PC. (control bus)
7) Control signal sent (control bus) to fetch the data at the new address (70) (address bus)
8) Data from memory address 70  (712 ) loaded into the MDR (via the data bus)
9) Data from MDR (712) sent to the AC as required by the Load command


10......

this continues carrying out each instruction from the program so for this program PC 2 loads the Add 72 command which fetches the data from location 72 (73) and adds it to the AC. To add the two numbers the ALU is used. The total is added to the AC then the next instruction followed which in this case stores the result at memory location 72.



This could also be extended to show the extra time required to fetch data / instruction from RAM if they are not in cache memory. To do this the RAM should be positioned further away than cache memory. The cache is checked first then the RAM queried if it is not there.

The PiCycle an amazing student project

I have had the pleasure this year to have been a supervisor for one of our sixth form students doing an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).

The EPQ is a level 3 qualification (similar to A-level) for students to do something that they are interested in. This can be an essay or an artifact and can take a myriad of forms. In this case my student chose to do a Raspberry Pi based project which was how I became involved.

Dan had no previous experience of the Raspberry Pi or Python before starting the project. He had done some web development but wanted to try something new. He spent a large portion of the project time mastering the basics of Python and the basic hardware before moving on to getting the project up and running.

The result is the PiCycle a Raspberry Pi based cycle computer that takes the position of the rider an plots it on a map on a website. The idea was to use the device to prove the designer had completed a planned charity cycle ride across France but could be used for all sorts of tracking applications. As well as getting the device working he spent some time getting it to look good too with branded interfaces on the device and the web tracking page.

The student developed the program to collect the GPS position and store this in a file on the Raspberry Pi and then upload the data to the web to display the position(s). The design means that whilst the cyclist is in areas of poor phone reception they can still log the GPS position (assuming GPS signal) and then upload the data when the phone signal is regained.

This project was a great achievement especially considering that Dan had no prior knowledge of the Raspberry Pi or Python before he started the EPQ.

Some more information about the project can be found in his project presentation. He can be found on twitter: @DJWOOLFALL.

Sci Fi Your Pi a design Challenge from Element14

After my success in the Raspberry Pi Educators Roadtest winning the prize for the UK (an Up mini 3D printer) I thought I would put in a proposal for their latest design challenge.

The title of the design challenge is "Sci Fi Your Pi" and centres around the idea of creating objects from or inspired by Science Fiction. This video explains what it is all about

I struggled initially to think of anything interesting being stuck on the suggestions made in the introduction to the challenge. However it was my search for difference that gave me the idea of looking at creating a Steampunk inspired device.

The kit for the challenge comes with a GPS model so this along with the strong adventurer spirit in Steampunk fiction I ended up with the idea of a Navigation device.

My idea has been selected from a large number of applicants among a very interesting group of projects. So far I have outlined my initial inspiration and described what I am hoping to produce for the challenge.  I have received the kit and I am putting together a plan of how I am going to make it work.

For anyone not familiar with Steampunk this video gives a fairly good introduction through a number of film clips. 

The spirit of adventure and exploration (as exemplified by the work of HG Wells and Joules Verne) felt like a great basis for a project where I will be trying new things and creating something a bit different to some of my other projects.

You can follow my progress on the Element 14 community with the tag steampunk_navigation. 

The Sound of Music - Sonic Pi with The Home Ed Computing Group

With the last session I had discovered the difficulty of the volume of text required when using python and the CamJam Edukits for some of the younger children. I have been working on a python library to help with this but this week i decided to use a different tool to look at coding concepts.

Sonic Pi is a great tool because it allows you to teach coding and make music at the same time. It was also a good way of being able to progress in complexity with computing concepts (introducing iteration) but keeping the level of text entry required to a minimum.

Sonic Pi is freely available software as part of the standard Raspian build and is also available for other platforms (more information here on the Sonic Pi Website)

The simple nature of the commands required for the children to be able to make music means it is a really good tool for younger (or children less able to read / type).

Some of the barriers I had found in the Python session had been easily overcome by the simple nature of the commands. I think would have struggled with getting some of the children to start looping blocks of code in Python yet they were all happily making repeating tunes with Sonic Pi. I really wanted to avoid simplifying things too much and this has provided a great bridge between the simple block programming that some of the children have done before and text based languages.

Sonic Pi itself is based on Ruby so it teaching a specific code structure and language that will continue to be useful. O so it is simplified in that the tasks it is performing are much more complex than the Play and sleep combinations, but it is a really engaging and relevant way to work with code.

I have written lots before about Sonic Pi so i will try and avoid this becoming the Sonic Pi fan page. However in reducing the volume of typing required I have found another way in which Sonic Pi makes coding accessible to a wider audience.

The group seemed to really enjoy this session and it was one of the most requested areas to do more with.

I am starting to look to move away from just leading the sessions and i already have several children with ideas for their own projects. This is an idea I am really keen to explore as i feel the best way to learn about computing is by finding challenges and solving them using computing. If children can find something that interests them they are much more motivated to explore than if they are being directed by someone else.

Getting Physical with Python

This session with my HomeEd group I introduced some physical computing using the CamJam Edu kit .

Last time I blogged about the challenge of teaching a group with my own children (who are not used to a classroom environment). This week I had the additional challenge of my normal child swap falling through so I ended up with 3 of my own children to contend with.

With this in mind my plan was for more independent work with some supporting materials to make it easier for the children to work without my direction all of the time.

I also planned to manage the situation by placing my offspring carefully either side of me in the room so I could switch between the instruction and paying them attention. This worked much better for me to be able to manage the session. Although at one stage it did mean carrying 2 of my children whilst trying to explain things on the board (using my daughter to point out the relevant bits whilst I talked).

I had decided that I did not want to over simplify things for the children by using scratch. We had also been mainly working at the command line so it made sense to progress with this and use nano to create python files to control the components. This also followed the CamJam worksheets so I could use those to provide additional guidance so the children could refer back to the instructions.

As the group is very mixed (5-15) there was a range of experience in the group but most had not used electrical components in a breadboard before. After a quick introduction they were all setting up the simple LED and resistor circuits.

Most of the group managed to get as far as getting the lights lit but it did take some time to get there. The real limiting factor I found with using python with the younger children was the speed they were able to type the code was very slow compared to the older students (as they are still working on their reading skills this is actually quite a hard task).

There was no apparent problem understanding the concepts and adding text to control things, but the amount of text that needed reading and adding to the code was a problem. To make it easier for these younger students (and any students who find reading / typing difficult) it would be useful to reduce the volume of typing that is required to produce a result.

That said nearly all of the children had at least lit the LEDs by the end of the session even if this had involved a bit of help with typing from the adults in the room.

Sheffield Raspberry Jam hosted by BCS South Yorkshire Branch

Last year the BCS South Yorkshire Branch decided it would be good to host some more interactive events. We normally host speakers and have a very similar audience for our talks. The idea was to bring some more people to the BCS and do something a bit different.

There had not been a Raspberry Jam in Sheffield for sometime and this looked like a good way to engage with a different community of computing enthusiasts. We set the event up for our march event which would also fall in science week.

A call out on twitter and contacting some of our contacts in the Raspberry Pi community gathered a few projects together to get things rolling. The crowd favorite was the Scalectrix set up that could be controlled by an attached variable resistor, code on the Raspberry Pi, or over the internet.

Paul from Pimoroni also came along to show of some of their products and talk about what can be done with hardware projects.

The event drew in a fair number of new faces and there was a great deal of questions for the showcase projects and this led to discussions and questions between the attendees about what they had seen and about interesting ways to use the Raspberry Pi and to teach people about computing.

There is also a renewed enthusiasm for Raspberry Jam in Sheffield and there is now a team keen to run regular events (the next is on the 28th of march at the access space and can be booked here) the twitter account is back up and running @PiJamSheffield  where you can find information about future events.

You can find out more about future BCS events in South Yorkshire on the Branch Website.

Raspberry PI Set up and Hello World

Having introduced the basics of computing this week the plan was to get the children setting up the Raspberry Pi and starting to program.

There was a little setup confusion with the venue meaning that there was a delay getting everything out and a much less ordered start to the session as kit was quickly located and brought out to us. We also discovered that the table arrangement we were using did not allow for enough power outlets to be available. A swift rearrangement of table and we had everyone near enough to a plug or extension to get running.

This was a completely new experience for me as I am used to arriving in my classroom that has all of the kit stuck on tables ready for me when I arrive and just moving cables around between the desktop and the Raspberry Pi. With the help of Jeremy (one of the other parents with an IT background) and Hamish from the University of Sheffield (who had come to see the Pi Bank kits in action) the children were all eventually up and running.

After the kit arrived we had to tackle the normal issue of setup with failed memory cards and trying to sort out which display option would work best. This was where the Pi Bank kits really helped. The range of connection options included meant that even with a collection of different monitors of differing ages we were able to get all the children connected and logging in.

It was at some point during the effort to help all of the children that I was shown the possible horror of teaching my own children. As a Home Educator I spend a large amount of time teaching my own children but not normally in a large room with other children to share the attention.

I think the sharing of my attention is something that will remain a challenge for my children to get used to and for me to work around, I need to find a way to channel my children's natural desire for my attention in a way that does not affect the groups progress.

Despite these distractions and the issues with the equipment we did manage to get everyone logged in to the Raspberry Pi. In fact we managed to move on and get the children started with looking at the file system and starting to create basic programs. The children used `ls` to look at the files and folders then `mkdir` to make their own folders. We then had a go at the traditional "Hello World" program in python using nano. Some even managed get the program prompting for user input.

Overall we managed to achieve the objectives even if it was not as calm and organised as I would have liked. However comparing this with the setup lessons I have taught in school is a favorable comparison,  We normally teach this in Y8 (12/13 year olds) and I find that normally I can expect to only get the class as far as making their own folders then needing to pack up the kit. This is with all the extra parts all setup on desks. With our mixed ability and age group we have been able to progress to making a simple program. With some tweaks to the organisation and a reduction in distractions i am expecting the group to progress fairly quickly.

To this end I have changed the setup plan for next week and the tables should be arranged near to the power outlet and the venue have promised to have the monitors, keyboards and mice setup and waiting for us. This should allow us to get started more quickly and move on to the physical computing experiments I have planned. I have also purchased and burned a fresh set of SD cards that I will be assigning to the children to use and save their work on each week.

Basic Computing for Sheffield Home Educators

I have been talking for some time about starting a Computing / STEM group for home educated children in Sheffield.

We home educate our 7 year old son and there is a large community of home educators around Sheffield. As computing can be quite equipment heavy it is not something that is easy to do at home and until now there hasn't been an alternative.

The difficulty was finding a venue and some equipment that I could use to run the sessions. Fortunately I had seen a post about a lending library of Raspberry Pi equipment that had been set up at Sheffield University - The Pi bank. Fortune was smiling on me as this also led to the rediscovery of the Access Space. They charge for the space but they have an ideal flexible teaching space ideal for this sort of group. A few phone calls, Facebook posts and  emails later and the group was all set

The group is a very mixed group with children raging from 5 to 15 with a different levels of prior knowledge of computers and programming. This presented a different challenge to my normal classes but makes for interesting class dynamic. I say class but the plan is to try and not be too school like and see how we can follow the children's interests as we progress. We have a few structured 'lesson' type activities planned but after that I am hoping to split the group down and work on projects that they are interested in.

Today I ran the first ever session with a focus on how computers work and an introduction to algorithms.

First we made a human computer with the children forming the components and passing information around the computer to first perform simple sums.

The children took on roles with one student acting out each part of the computer and several (the more active and excitable younger boy mainly) passing the information between the components.

The user, although not too keen to hold on to the human mouse moved the mouse around our ( A4 paper calculator display) and the mouse driver reported the position. This was passed to the processor stored in memory and also displayed on the monitor (children with with pencil and paper and whiteboard and maker respectively).

This was repeated for each of the movements of the mouse to complete the sum. I had planned on simple single digit arithmetic for our volunteer processor but the user had other plans (I did managed to keep it to 2 digits, but I think she would have gone for more if left to her own devices). The processor then calculated the answer and passed that to the monitor and memory. In this case the user forgot to save (or i forgot to ask her to) so we talked about what would happen to the information and then pretended we had saved to pass the information to the hard drive (child with paper and a pen).

After that we simplified our computer, using just a camera/computer combination, lots of willing active information conduits and a rather excitable printer (my Son Toby) we experimented with how computers see and describe images using binary. To keep things simple we used a simple 1 bit black and white image which was only shown t the camera. The camera passed the appropriate 1 or 0 (each an A4 sheet with 1 on the front and black on the back or 0 with white on the back) to the information carriers and the printer started to put the image together on the floor.

This was really great as the first stages were rendered accurately but as the information carriers gained confidence and enthusiasm we started to see some arriving out of order which corrupted our image slightly. This gave us an opportunity to talk about the importance of the data arriving in the correct order.

After getting everyone sat down again I introduced our next activity which was the Sandwich making robot by Philip Bagge. I explained the activity and handed out the sheets to allow the children to plan their Sandwich making algorithms.

After donning the special robot uniform (pink pinny borrowed from home) i took on the role of robot and we tested some algorithms. We didn't get as far as a full sandwich but we learnt some good lessons about how to think through a problem. We also took the opportunity to talk about debugging.

I was surprised by how many children though that cutting the bread bag was the way to open bread until at the end someone mentioned there was no open on the instruction set. I thought this was an error until I watched the videos again and noticed that Phil starts with his bread bag open.

Overall I am quite happy with how the session went and the children seemed for the most part engaged in the activities. I now need to go off and plan for next weeks introduction to Raspberry Pi and programming in python.




Thank you to Computer Science Unplugged and Philip Bagge for the inspiration for the activities for the session.

This is Phil in action -

Outtakes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leBEFaVHllE - very good lessons on how important it is to get the algorithm correct.

Agobo The Hackable Raspberry Pi Robot - now with emotions

My wife gave me a 4Tronix AgoBo robot kit for Christmas (at my request). I built it a few weeks ago but didn't really have time to do anything with it.

The AgoBo is a Raspberry Pi A+ based robot kit. I also ordered the Plus plate that adds a Neopixel and lots of prototyping space on a board that mounts above the RPi. The kit is a really good affordable robot kit that can be customised very easily, especially with the PlusPlate. It is this customisation that really attracted me to the AgoBo in the first place.

When the robot arrived I thought that the Ultrasonic sensor looked like a pair of eyes but AgoBo was lacking a mouth. On another evening I was rooting through a box of electronic bits I bought for RPi projects and found an 8x8  LED matrix. 

I had seen plenty of robot that used these as eyes and thought that this could work. However with the robot being so small the matrix was far too large. I had another dig in the box and found a more suitably sized replacement.

The 5011AS display fitted just below the ultra sonic sensor with the pins above and below the main board. Aligned horizontally the segments could be used to make a smile or sad face by lighting the correct segments.

This idea was put on the back burner for a couple of weeks whilst normal life got in the way. and I kept thinking about how to mount the module effectively under the board. When I was able to experiment with the robot again (finally loaded the example software and tried out the supplied python scripts) I couldn't resist having a try with the mouth idea.

I haven't found time to solder the header on to the plus plate yet and wanted to get the mouth working so I grabbed a breadboard and some cables to try it out before I sorted it all out properly.

I had a ten cable female to female ribbon so I divided that into two (5 cables in each) to connect the ten pins of the display. With the ends of the cable connected there was very little room between the pins but with a little blue tack the display mounted nicely with two pins each side below the board and three above. To keep things tidy I separated the first part of the cable for a short length and then wrapped the cable up over RPi and under the PlusPlate (with a little Blue Tack of course).

I then grabbed a few resistors and connected the cables to the breadboard and then connected the other side to the header I fitted to the main board (in preparation for connecting the plus plate).

This is where I ran into my first problem.limited time and a failure to read instructions lead to an error in the connections. Instead of looking at the instructions I looked at the numbers on the top of the PlusPlate and reading down from the top started used the first available pins. Unfortunately these pins are already in use by AgoBo so there was a bit of a conflict when I tried to use these to run the mouth.

So looking back at the instructions I made a list of the pins that were in use and looked again at the PlusPlate for available pins and moved the connections to pins that were not already in use by AgoBo.

Once I had the connections all set up (correctly this time) I needed to set up- the code to run the mouth and control the facial expressions. I decided i wanted a smile (obviously, what's cuter than a smiling robot?) a sad face, a confused face and an open mouth, After this time consulting the instructions (the data sheet from Jameco) I drew a little diagram of which pin controlled which segments of the display and worked out a little table of which should be displayed for each facial expression.

With this organised I set up a Python library (mouth.py) to set up the facial expression and then a quick script to test the expressions. The test script (mouthtest.py) shows each expression I have set up so far. the smile, sad face and 'oh' i am really pleased with. I am not to sure about the confused face so I may not use that very much. These scripts will be available from my AgoBo Github fork here.

.

With the mouth working I wanted to work the expressions in to the normal running program for Agobo. I had written a quick script previously for him to avoid objects using the ultra sonic sensor so I used this as a starting point.

I ran into a small issue here as I had set up the mouth library using GPIO numbers and the AgoBo library is set up using board numbers. after a little head scratching (I am still unsure why in an error state the face always seems to display 'oh') I spotted the error and changed the mouth library to match the python library and now Agobo will avoid objects whilst displaying his emotions.

Currently he is happy moving forward until he finds an object. This makes him sad and he turns 90 degrees. If he can move forward he is happy again. If instead there is another object in his path he is shocked / cross ('oh') and turns 180 degrees. Again if the way he clear he is happy again and proceeds. However if there is another object he becomes confused (or his face does) and then turns 90 degrees (away from the initial object and proceeds on his way happy again.

The Visual-Pi-ser a low cost classroom visualiser

In may last post I described my idea for a low cost visualiser based on the Raspberry Pi kit I was sent as part of the Element 14 Raspberry Pi Educators Road Test. I promised i would add more detail so here it is.

The box for the kit is used as a stand to hold the RPi case. The case in the kit has a mounting point for the camera and the arrangement holds the camera steady over the items to be shown. The main issue for this set up using the box is that the camera has a relatively large minimum focal distance so items at the range as out of focus until the camera is modified.

To modify the camera is a fixed focus unit and the lens is held in place with blobs of glue that can be removed with a craft knife to free up the lens (N.B. the lens can be sensitive to static and can be easily damaged so this needs to be done with care).

This modification allows the lens to be rotated and the items brought into focus. It also has the added advantage of slightly magnifying the subject.

The size of the box supplied is ideal for small physical computing projects but a larger box would give a larger field of view for bigger projects. The camera itself is controlled by using the Raspivid command:

raspivid -t 300000 -rot 90

This rotates the video by 90 degrees (as the camera mount is at 90 degrees to the box) and runs the video for 30000 miliseconds (30 seconds). If a longer or shorter time period is required then the number of milisecond can be changed. If you want to terminate the video session you can do so by using ctrl+c

I have created a guide on how to crate you own Visual-Pi-ser on github.

Low cost Raspberry Pi Visualiser

The kit I revived from takeing part in the Element 14 Raspberry Pi Educators Roadtest gave me another project idea.

After delivering CPD at Sheffield Hallam University i was very envious of their AV set up with a visulaiser and PC and RPi all connected to the screen. I can't make all this happen but with the RPi and camera I can make my own.

For work with the Raspberry Pi the box was even the right size to make a stand so i added a lighting solution (cheap torch from the garage and/or a clip on e reader light. Now for under £40 I had a visulaiser set up that i could use in the classroom.

A quick mock up above shows the basic idea but I'll post the full details here once it has been completed along with the python code to control the camera.

Element 14 Educators Road test

Over the holidays I have been experimenting with timelapse photography of crystal formation with the Raspberry Pi. i have been doing this as I have been selected as on of the participants in the Element 14 Raspberry Pi Educators Roadtest. If you haven't come across the Element 14 Roadtests before they are a scheme where kit is sent out to a selected group of volunteers to test and write about. They runs the tests fairly regularly and all you need to do to enter is to write a proposal of what you will do with the kit.

This particular roadtest is of the Raspberry Pi B+ Camera Kit and i wanted to come up with a proposal using the camera functionality in a way I could use the kit with students to teach Computing and Science. My proposal was to work with KS£ and Home educated students on two slightly different projects both based around taking timelapse photography of crystals forming.

We have been playing with crystals at home for a bit with my Home Educated son and this looked like a great project to try with the Raspberry Pi and Pi Camera Module. The Addition of the Wi-Pi adapter and the case with camera mount made it ideal for applications like this where connection to monitor and keyboard would be difficult and a secure mount for the camera essential.

Part of the deal is that you write at least three blog posts and a review of the kit on the Element 14 community website . I am still working on the review and the third blog post but the first two are up already:

Part 1: Introduction to the project

Part 2: Testing



EDIT: (09/03/15)

The Road test is now complete and I have some more blog entries and a review of the kit. I also ended up doing a couple of side projects and wrote a scheme of work for the Time Lapse Crystals project.

Part 3: Home Education Project

Part 4: Summary

Review

Scheme of Work

Side Project 1: Visual-Pi-ser

Side Project 2: Snow Timelapse


The Roadtest was a good opportunity to experiment with the RPi camera module and I enjoyed the chance to try something different. The time lapse photography was a good way to combine science and computing and also produce some beautiful results. I have included one of the example videos here. This one is probably my favourite, It was taken from below the crystals with lighting above as part of the home education project.

The first rule of computing club........

....................don't talk about computing club


It struck me today that my computing club is made up almost entirely of girls. It also occurred to me that I hadn't ever publicly called it computing club.

I started the group to work up some entries for the Sonic Pi space music competition. A small group of students (10) arrived the first week and I showed them how to set up the Raspberry Pi and gave them a quick introduction to the Sonic Pi interface. Before long they were producing basic tunes and adding loops.

The group has since grown to around 15 regularly attending students and they are all engaging in coding pieces of music for the competition. It was not until I was looking through the list that I realised quite how many girls I had ended up with. out of the 15 I only have 3 boys who regularly attend (compared with our scratch games club that is entirely boys).

I have worked before with groups of students using Sonic Pi and found that it is great for engaging all students (not mainly the boys like a lot of the robotics work I have done) but this was something different as none of the students had used Sonic Pi before.

This was a marketing issue!

I sent round the poster along with a note to all of the Y7-9 classes asking for anyone who wanted to try making music with the Raspberry Pi, no previous experience necessary. There was no mention of computing, coding, or programming.

The response was all from students who were interested in making music rather than those interested in programming. They now all know (not that it was a big secret really) that to make the music they are coding, but they are making music. This appears to be a difference in the approach to what they are doing and has affected how they are engaged with something new. They are not intrinsically interested in the method of making the computer do something, they are interested in the end result (in this case music).

I now have a predominantly female group of programmers all engaged in coding. Once we have finished working on the music competition I am going to be looking for ways to maintain this engagement using the output as the motivator and the coding as the 'what you have to do to get there' bit.

Raspberry Pi CPD in Sheffield

Part of the idea of Picademy was that delegates would go out and spread the word. So as part of my effort I spent this evening delivering Raspberry Pi CPD to the Sheffield CAS hub at Sheffield Hallam University.

The session was mainly made up of Computing ITT students from Sheffield Hallam University so it was really interesting to see a different approach to new information (from my secondary pupils). Most of the delegates had little or no exposure but there were two who had used the Pi for their own projects (a security camera and a remote media center).

After a quick introduction to the Pi we spent time describing how the Pi could be set up in classrooms and introduced the Raspberry Pi foundation's resources. Preparing for this event gave me the chance to look again at what is provided and the resources there really do give all the information that you need to get started using the Raspberry Pi and moving on to using it productively in the classroom.

After the set up and a brief summary of some of activities available for using the Pi in the classroom I spent some time focusing on some of my favorite schemes. as a parent of a 7 year old I can't avoid minecraft at home and have found that it is equally as engaging for secondary pupils. I shared some of Craig Richardson's resources from his blog on Minecraft Pi - Arghbox. the delegates were also given a chance to try out some of the scripts on the Pi's they had set up. This may have been a mistake with some of the more game obsessed ITT students (mainly male). This was hastily used to point out the importance of choosing classes and classroom management strategy carefully when using a game students are already familiar with.

We then looked at some of the other ideas I have used in the classroom. The use of Sonic Pi (paticularly as an application that appears to appeal more equally to both genders) to engage students creativity and teach programming in a fun way. We also looked at the possibilities using the GPIO pins for physical computing. I am very interested in 'Personally Meaningful Projects' as a key motivator for students to get involved in programming and the GPIO pins provide this possibility. I shared some example of projects my students and students from further afield have created using the Pi. We also discussed the support available from the community.

The great thing about the ITT students is that once they had a spark of an idea they appeared very enthusiastic to take this on and try using this in their teaching practices. Several were keen to borrow the university Raspberry Pi set and some were talking about purchasing their own and projects they could work on. Hopefully this talk will be converted to action and there will be a few more computing teachers in Sheffield schools enthused about the benefits of using Raspberry Pi in the classroom. If nothing else I did a little Picademy product placement and did my best (if not quite 'The Apprentice' level) pitch for the resources available on the Raspberry Pi site. I left the event feeling buzzy and motivated to do it again so it can't be all bad.

The Prezi I used to as a place holder for the introductory videos and some links for the resources we discussed is here.



As a side / end note this was a chance to play with some presentation tech I can only dream of in my classroom. I had a Pi on one button, the Prezi on another and a visualiser showing the actual Pi on a third. This was the first time I had used the set up at the university and I was very pleased with the possibilities. At the press of a swanky touch screen I could switch between the projected picture of my hands doing magic with the Pi and the actual out put of the Pi, then switch to the diagram on the Prezi showing the possible connections. This made the screen work hard for me and really helped to show what was going on. The only downside was managing multiple mice and a second keyboard a few paces away (due to the university padlocked setup) and talking at the same time. I don't imagine I will be getting this sort of system in my classroom anytime soon but it was good to try it out for an evening.

Conversations with computers using python

I had the idea of making the standard 'Hello World' introduction to programming a new language a little bit more interesting for my Y7 class.

The idea of the computer conversations and the recent Turing test success or (near success) by Eugene gave me the idea of getting the students to make a (vastly simplified) version of Eugene using Python. The plan would be to teach them some basic Python concepts like displaying information and filling variables based on user input and then maybe progress onto selection.

This would initially start as a very simple program with them entering their name and then including the name in the response. The students could then work up some complexity from there using more questions. The next step would be to switch things round and have the computer answer user question based on a list of pre-programmed responses.

The Plan

Introduction

Show the class a video by way of introduction to the test. Something like - Jeremy Clarkson Explains the Turing test or The Turing test, as described by Expect Labs CEO, Timothy Tuttle.

Explain the plan to create a basic chat bot that can have a basic conversation with the user.

Task 1- Hello World

Students to open IDLE and the a new window. They then create a basic 'Hello World' program and save and run.

e.g. 

print ('hello world!') 

Students to experiment changing hello world for whatever greeting they choose. (Yes they will probably make it say rude words!)

Task 2 - Talk to me

Obviously this is a pretty one boring conversation so we need to add in the ability for the user to input information.

e.g.

myName == input('What is your name?')

print ('hello ' + myName)

Students to experiment with this and then try adding more questions.

e.g.

myName == input('What is your name?')

print ('hello ' + myName)
myColour == input('What is your favourite colour?')

print ('That is amazing ' + myName + ', ' + myColour + ' is my favourite colour too')

Task 3 - Selection

To try and make the computer's responses a little more realistic it would be good if the response wasn't the same what ever you type so we can add add selection to change the response based on what is input.

This can start with a simple if else:

e.g.
myColour == input('What is your favourite colour?')
if myColour == 'orange':

    print ('That is amazing ' + myName + ', ' + myColour + ' is my favourite colour too')
else:
    print ('It is nice that you like ' + myColour + myName + ' I prefer orange')

This can then be moved on to add more choice using else if (elif):

e.g.
myColour == input('What is your favourite colour?')
if myColour == 'orange':

    print ('That is amazing ' + myName + ', ' + myColour + ' is my favourite colour too')
elif myColour == 'black':
    print (myName + ' your are strange ' + myColour + ' is not even a real colour, how can it be your favourite?')
else:
    print ('It is nice that you like ' + myColour + myName + ' I prefer orange')

Task 4 - Ask me a question

This basic idea can then be used to switch things around and let the students ask questions. This will only handle a pre-programmed list of questions and answers but completes the very basic conversation idea.

This can be added to the first code or used to start a new program. if in the same program some of the old variables can be used to add more interest.

First the computer needs to prompt the user to ask a question:

myQuestion == input('Ask me a Question?')
if myQuestion == 'how old are you':
    print ('I am 12, how old are you ' + myName + ' ?')
elif myQuestion == 'What is your name?':
    print ('My name is Simon')
else:
    print ('Sorry i didn't understand that question')

Students experiment with their own versions.

This is a fairly simple program so it only has one question opportunity and only a couple of possible questions. If students still have time then they could be challenged to find a way to give more than one question opportunity or add further questions and answers. Another idea is for the students to program a combination of questions for the student and opportunities to answer questions like in a conversation, they could also look at getting the answers from a text file and possibly they could use the text file to allow the program to 'learn' by storing answers given by students to questions and then use those to respond when it is asked that question later!


Plenary

Show some examples of students programs to the class and use them to highlight the key parts of the program.

Further Resources

Since writing this I have found a short scheme of work based on the turning test on the Rapspberry Pi website http://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/turing-test-lessons/. This 3 lesson scheme explains the idea of the Turing test and uses a speech module to have the robot speak to you.