Using additional hardware in your club
Using additional hardware in your club
Once you have the basics up and running, one way in which you could extend and grow your club is by introducing hardware in addition to laptops or desktop computers, so your club members can get hands-on with some physical computing.
Tracy Gardner, Content and Curriculum Manager for Raspberry Pi and Code Club leader, summarises some of the options for additional hardware and explains how her club makes the most of the hardware they have.
Raspberry Pis
The Raspberry Pi is a low-cost, credit card–sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing and learn programming.
If you have access to Raspberry Pis, you can use them as an additional resource in order to work on Raspberry Pi–specific projects. These will allow children to get a deeper understanding of how computers work.
There are Code Club projects available for getting started with Raspberry Pi. Moreover, you can also work through the regular Code Club projects on a Raspberry Pi.
micro:bit
The micro:bit, measuring just 4cm by 5cm, is a stripped-down computer (or microcontroller) which children can use to code.
Code Club provides projects for this microcontroller. Some of these can be completed using the online simulator, but it’s great to have actual micro:bits.
Many schools are using micro:bits in their lessons, so if your club is at a school, you may already have access to them.
The Code Club micro:bit projects make use of a few additional (but readily available) items, so check the individual guides to see what you’ll need.
Sense HAT
The Sense HAT is an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi which provides sensors, 64 coloured LEDs, and a mini joystick.
There are Code Club projects for the Sense HAT. They have been designed so that they can be completed using either a physical Sense HAT plus a Raspberry Pi or an online simulator — for the second option, no special hardware is needed.
Makey Makey
Makey Makey boards allow you to use everyday conductive objects (e.g. fruit, playdough, kitchen foil) as computer inputs.
There are no Code Club projects that require a Makey Makey, but many of the Scratch projects can easily be adapted, so these boards could work well in an extension activity.
Making the most of limited hardware
If you want to introduce more physical computing into your club using additional hardware like micro:bits or Raspberry Pis, you can do so over time, and you don’t need lots of everything.
I use a carousel system where children rotate through different activities using different hardware over half a term. This helps us make the most of the additional hardware we have. For example, if you have 15 children in your club, then each week you might have 5 working with micro:bits, 2 to 3 working with a Raspberry Pi, and the rest working on Scratch projects that don’t need extra hardware. By the end of the half-term, all of the children will have had the same opportunities.
While you might feel a bit nervous about having different activities running at the same time, in practice this is offset by children being able to help each other in subsequent weeks and by any teething problems with a new technology only affecting a small group.
In case you'd like to find out more about physical computing in an educational context, the Raspberry Pi Foundation offers a free FutureLearn course called Teaching Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi and Python.