A Digital Laboratory with the Raspberry Pi Microcomputer

My Students

Many children come to Clarkston High School from places of political and social conflict around the world as refugees. Other students come from places of poverty in the Atlanta area. As a student teacher in the school my goal is to bring cutting edge STEM tools into our high need classrooms.

Students in Clarkston High School, a Title I urban/suburban school east of Atlanta, are hard working, diligent students from working class backgrounds.

Many of our students come from places of social and political conflict around the world to the United States as refugees. Another significant demographic of the school's students are Americans who come from humble socioeconomic backgrounds. Together, our student population is extremely diverse with a myriad of languages spoken in our halls. We seek to unify our students with the universal language of science and mathematics. To thrive in the 21st century world of high technology, our students are in dire need of tools that will enable them to become truly computer literate. Many of our students dream of becoming capable of programming computers and developing digital measurement devices for their own science experiments in the science laboratory. This project aims to grant our students a viable path to the these tools.

My Project

The Raspberry Pi is a $38 microcomputer that is programmable with traditional programming languages used on larger computers such as C, Java, and Python. The devices that we are requesting will be used in the science laboratory to enhance students' ability to create digital interfaces to measurement devices. The microcomputers will first be used to collect data. For example, we plan to connect the Raspberry Pi module to a digital thermometer and measure temperature buildup curves. The microcomputers will then be used for data processing and mathematical modeling. Through the writing of simple data processing programs, data will be interpreted with full mathematical rigor and fidelity. To extend on the thermometer laboratory, the Raspberry Pi will be used to fit temperature buildup curves to mathematical thermodynamics models. Altogether, the affordable Raspberry Pi is a 21st century computer perfectly suited for use in the high need Title I classroom.

Students in our high need Title I high school are faced with a dilemma, how to develop technology skills for the 21st century if they cannot afford the necessary training tools?

This project seeks to bridge the gap between desire and reality by enabling students the ability to learn computer programming and digital device construction with an affordable, powerful Raspberry Pi. With this grant, our students will be given the ability to actualize their technology dreams in the laboratory.