Part of Lesson Plan: The Itty Bitty Computer - Our Home Made Version of Raspberry Pi, a British micro mini computer.

Activity Overview / Details

There is a HUGE box up in the center of the room on a table situated so all students can watch what is happening on 'stage'. As students file into the classroom, have them quietly take a seat and when all are settled down, begin asking the students just how big are their computers at home while they are watching you with these boxes.

Go up to the box and lift it off the table. Whoops! Another box is there but just a tad smaller than the original box. Set the first box down. What type of computer could be under the smaller box? Go to the second box, walk around it, and take it off the table.

Do this repeatedly for at least 6 or 7 boxes. (Think little stacking Russian dolls, one inside the other.) More is good but not too many as students will lose interest. The last box should be the size of a matchbox. Inside that box should be a flash drive.

Oh. Nothing special about that flash drive, they think. No big deal. How could it be a computer?

On it, though, is a note that  says to watch the video about Raspberry Pi (think 'Drink Me' in Alice In Wonderland). The website is http://raspberrypi.org/ and the video is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ7N4rycsy4. The video is too large to download and reupload to these files so it is better to watch it on YouTube.

This will get students talking! That's great! Discuss the relationship between the Raspberry Pi module and the flash drive. Incidently, in America, we talk about the IT (Information Technologies) field and in England, they refer to it as the ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) field.