Last night two Raspberry Pi computers were launched into space on board the Cygnus spacecraft which will rendezvous with the International Space Station on 19th December.  These "Astro Pi's" are standard model B+ Raspberry Pi's but have been augmented with extra sensors and are each inside a special flight case.    

When British ESA astronaut Tim Peake arrives at the Space Station he'll be using the Astro Pi's and their sensors to run experiments.  But while all the other computers on board the ISS have been programmed by professional scientists and software engineers, most of the code on the Astro Pi's was written by UK school students (read more about the programs here).

Last week I got the chance to visit Raspberry Pi headquarters in Cambridge and meet some of the Astro Pi team.  The photo above shows the Astro Pi displaying the flag of the country the ISS was currently travelling above.  Here's a short video of it in action:  

The @astro_pi in action pic.twitter.com/cl0CiQEFsX — CoderDojo Scotland (@CoderScot) November 27, 2015

I also got to try out the "Crew Detector" program (working title: "How Sweaty is my Astronaut?").  This works by detecting changes in humidity in the environment – when the astronauts are exercising, for example.  It then scrolls a message across asking if anyone's there and, if the astronauts press a button to confirm, it will trigger the camera enabling them to take a "space-selfie". (Being more lazy than the average astronaut I just triggered it by breathing on it a couple of times).

The most surprising thing about the Astro Pi was that the back of the flight case looks like a giant heat-sink: this turned out to be because it is a giant heat-sink.  Because there's no gravity on the ISS heat won't be carried away by the heated air rising when cooler air sinks – as it is on Earth.  This means that even the tiny amount of heat the Pi produces could lead to the flight case heating up to over the maximum 45  degrees Celcius allowed on the ISS.

As well as the giant heat sink, the Astro Pi's circuitry has been coated in a protective layer of varnish.  This is because the solder joints may suffer from a phenomenon known as "tin whiskers" where fine strands of tin start to grow out of the surface of the metal.  If these break off – particularly on the ISS where they can then float about – they can cause short circuits.

Thanks to Helen and Dave at Raspberry Pi for letting me come in and see behind the scenes! You can follow the adventures of Tim Peake and the Astro Pi's over here.  Best wishes from CoderDojo Scotland for the mission!

Claire Quigley
CoderDojo Scotland

It's our CoderDojo Scotland Community Evening on Tuesday evening. There are a few tickets left.

The final line-up of speakers is as follows.

Welcome Craig Steele, CoderDojo Scotland

Introducing BBC micro:bit Howard Baker. BBC

In the 1980s, the BBC Micro introduced many children to computing for the first time and the BBC micro:bit, part of the BBC’s 2015 Make it Digital initiative, will build on the legacy of that project for the digital age. It aims to inspire young people to get creative with digital and develop core skills in science, technology and engineering.

Kids Behind Bars! Greg Huczynski, CoderDojo Stirling

CoderDojo has been running in Stirling for almost 2 years. Lead mentor Greg will talk about lessons learnt along the way.

Can Creative Coding Improve Gender Balance? Claire Quigley, CoderDojo Scotland

Claire will explore the idea that girls are more likely to become involved with programming if they view it as another tool that enables them to do things they’re already interested in and confident with.

Singing in the Rain: Building a Community Dojo John Bell, CoderDojo Castlemilk

John will share his experiences of starting up Dojos in the communities of Castlemilk and Bridgeton and offering practical advice on building Dojos for young people who are often hard to reach.

import library; Martin Goodfellow, Glasgow Life

One of the most important mandates for public libraries has been to provide equal access to information and knowledge.  How can we offer this in an increasingly digital world?

Learn Faster, Share More Ben Chapman, CoderDojo Dublin

Getting kids to work on their own projects gets them learning quicker, it's even better when there's a deadline. Coolest Projects is a great way to get kids thinking up and working on their own ideas. We'll explore the reasons your Dojo should get involved and ways to make it happen!

Timings

– 18:45 – Arrival
– 19:00 – canapes and drinks served on Floor 1
– 19:30 – presentations start in Science Show Theatre
– 21:00 – end of presentations, Glasgow Science Centre remains open for networking/chatting
– 21:30 – Close

CoderDojo Scotland Community Evening

Tickets are going quickly for our event at Glasgow Science Centre on 17th November.

Join us for an evening of sharing and inspiration with our volunteers from CoderDojo coding clubs across Scotland. Find out what’s going on in our clubs, and get top tips and advice from our volunteers and industry experts.

This free event is open to all CoderDojo volunteers, or anyone with an interest in digital making in Scotland. Book a ticket now.

There will be inspirational and educational talks, food and drink, and the chance to talk and network with our volunteers.

Previously we announced our first speaker as Howard Baker of BBC Learning, showcasing the BBC micro:bit.

We can now confirm our second speaker is…

.

CoderDojo Coolest Projects Awards
Ben Chapman, CoderDojo DCU and CoderDojo Dublin

The annual CoderDojo Coolest Projects Awards is all about recognising, encouraging and nurturing the creativity of the CoderDojo community of young coders attending Dojo’s across Ireland and Europe.

Ben has been involved with CoderDojo since the early days. Having opened the first Dojo in Dublin in August 2011, he has continued to be part of the community. He’s also involved in running CoderDojo Coolest Projects, which has grown massively each year since it started 4 years ago.

Ben will talk about the “Heroes” of Coolest Projects in the past, and what makes the event so exciting and inspiring.

CoderDojo Scotland Community Evening

Join us at Glasgow Science Centre on 17th November for an evening of sharing and inspiration with our volunteers from CoderDojo coding clubs across Scotland. Find out what’s going on in our clubs, and get top tips and advice from our volunteers and industry experts.

This free event is open to all CoderDojo volunteers, or anyone with an interest in digital making in Scotland. Book a ticket now.

There will be inspirational and educational talks, food and drink, and the chance to talk and network with our volunteers.

Our first confirmed speaker is…

.

Introducing the BBC micro:bit
Howard Baker, BBC Learning

The BBC has unveiled the BBC micro:bit, a pocket-sized programmable computer with motion detection, a built-in compass and Bluetooth technology, which is to be given free to every child in year 7 or equivalent across the UK.

A collaboration between 29 partners, the micro:bit is the BBC’s most ambitious education initiative in 30 years, with an ambition to inspire digital creativity and develop a new generation of tech pioneers.

CoderDojo are amongst the national partners for the project and in this session we’ll hear from Howard Baker, Innovations Editor at BBC Learning about the vision for the micro:bit

Book a ticket now and be one of the first people in the country to see the micro:bit in action before it’s launch next year.

CoderDojo Moray met in early October with a theme of “Virtual Worlds”. Seventeen young people (9-17 yrs) attended the event bringing along their own coding creations.

Apart from sharing their own coding work part of coming to a Coderdojo is sharing knowledge and skills. In one of the event photos a new member can be seen explaining with great confidence how Kodu worked.

He expertly answered questions from the group and then helped one of his ‘class’ create their first Kodu World.

The next planned event is a Coding for Girls Event on Saturday 31st October.

At yesterday’s session at Castlemilk we had lots of fun exploring Sonic Pi and the weird and wonderful music we can make with it. We ended up with a selection of

• post-industrial, Berlin-style heavy grunge
• break-neck, break-beat techno trance, and
• chirpy-chirpy, tweet-tweet sweet beats

Quite a mix.

Here’s what some of the young digital makers who were trying Sonic Pi for the first time thought about it –

We love it when a plan comes together. That’s why we’re really pleased to announce that a new Dojo for young people living in the east end of Glasgow will be starting soon. It will be hosted by Bridgeton Community Learning Campus with the assistance of Thenue Housing Association’s Smart Communities project.

If you’re a secondary school pupil who’d like to try coding, a leader of a youth group or a teacher keen to provide your students with the opportunity to become digital makers, we’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch at bridgeton@coderdojoscotland.com or @coderbridgeton.

There’s been a lot going on at the Glasgow Science Centre Dojo this year so far! Here’s a roundup of some of the highlights.

Coolest Projects

Joseph and Andrew headed over to Dublin to represent Scotland at CoderDojo’s Coolest Projects with an augmented map website.

Coolest projects was bigger than ever this year, with over 500 projects being presented and 5000 people attending.

Sonic Pi Dojo and BBC at the Quay

Sonic Pi is a digital tool for creating music by writing code. You can use it to compose and perform in classical and contemporary styles ranging form Canons to Dubstep. We ran a Sonic Pi Dojo where our coders were able to hone their DJ skills…

The following weekend, as part of the BBC Music at the Quay festival, we ran some public taster-workshops on Sonic Pi in the Atrium at Glasgow Science Centre. We were lucky enough to be joined for these by Sam Aaron, creator of Sonic Pi, who demonstrated some live-coding.

BAFTA Young Games Designer Dojo

After the success of last year’s Young Games Designer Dojo we joined forces again with BAFTA and some visiting mentors who work in the games industry to work with 50 young people on their ideas for entering the YGD Competition.

Starting with a session where the young people worked out their ideas on paper – and in plasticine – we followed with a coding session where they could find out more about actually programming games.

Book Dojo

As part of the “Wee Write” festival we ran a Book Dojo at the Mitchell Library where young coders created interactive fiction in the style of “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories using Twine. You can read the stories produced here.

Design your own Exhibit Dojo

GSC’s Director of Science, Robin Hoyle, challenged the young coders to think of an idea for a fun, interactive exhibit in the style of some of the ideas from thefuntheory.com

Two very busy sessions were held producing lots of good ideas. Watch this space for further news on the outcome!

On Saturday, the young people at Castlemilk used maKey maKeys to change the way they interacted with software. There was lots of inventiveness and creativity to be seen, from playing a piano using fruit/vegetables rather than the boring old keys of a keyboard; changing the way a two-player platform game is played to make it more active; and creating a working keyboard from a piece of cardboard (using electrically conductive paint) which interacted with a Scratch programme written by one of our young people.

At yesterday’s Dojo we learned how to develop web pages using HTML (for the content) and CSS (for the styling). We had fun creating our own memes with Mozilla Webmaker (see a wee selection of them below and have a chuckle). We then went on to learn more about HTML and CSS using Code Academy. Finally, we applied the skills we had learned by writing our own web pages from scratch by simply using Notepad (referring to W3schools when we needed to).