Developing support for the Pi to teach computer control

A visit to a Manchester CAS event made Mike Wilkinson, faculty technical manager at the University of Cumbria, think about how the Raspberry Pi can be effectively demonstrated in schools with real world applications. After seeing an inspiring demonstration of a Lego crocodile using Scratch at a Manchester CAS event my technical team began to look at the practical aspects of using the Pi to control everyday items such as lights, motors and sensors. We purchased a Piface which connects to the Pi allowing easy addition of external devices. Scratch was an obvious choice of programming tool. Using the two together on a Pi we quickly identified two main problems. First, the Piface/Scratch combination slowed things down so much it became unusable. We contacted the team behind the Piface, Dr Andrew Robinson and colleagues at the University of Manchester (www.piface.org.uk/about/). After some much appreciated work on the interface they solved the speed problem.