PROVIDENCE – The Raspberry Pi Foundation, a national organization to promote the study of computer science in schools, has selected Johnson & Wales University to host the first Picademy USA training session for teachers in the regional Northeast.
Eighty K-12 educators from the United States and abroad will participate in two-day sessions held June 5-6 and June 8-9 at the John J. Bowen Center for Science and Innovation, where they will learn how to use the Raspberry Pi technology as an educational tool to teach computer science skills in their classrooms.
“Johnson & Wales University’s commitment to education and its enthusiastic support of our mission made them a natural partner to help upskill educators locally and from all over the country,” said Matt Richardson, executive director of Raspberry Pi Foundation North America. “The Picademy workshop is our premier educator training program and is an opportunity for the most enthusiastic and engaged educators to get hands-on with computers and digital making.”
The Raspberry Pi is a series of inexpensive, single-board computers designed by the Cambridge, U.K.-based Raspberry Pi Foundation. Each board is approximately the size of a credit card and priced between $5 and $35.
While the Raspberry Pi has become popular among electronics hobbyists, innovators and makers since its release, its original purpose was to serve as a teaching tool to help introduce basic programming and hardware skills to students at the pre-collegiate level. The Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Picademy program aims to instruct educators in how best to use the micro-sized computers to teach computer skills in the classroom, and is provided to teachers for free.
Of the 80 educators slated to attend the Picademy USA sessions at Johnson & Wales, 29 are from Rhode Island. The remaining 51 attendees will travel from states throughout the country, as well as internationally from Singapore, New Delhi and Quebec. All participants will earn the designation of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators at the end of the workshop, joining more than 1,000 other educators worldwide.
Faculty from the Johnson & Wales School of Engineering & Design will also participate in the event, the university said, and students will demonstrate how Johnson & Wales uses the Raspberry Pi software in its Innovation Lab.
“The John J. Bowen Center for Science and Innovation at Johnson & Wales University is an ideal venue for innovative training sessions, like Picademy USA, that help educators equip students with the computing and technology skills needed to compete in today’s workforce,” said Frank Tweedie, dean of the Johnson & Wales School of Engineering & Design. “JWU is contributing to the STEM workforce by providing a forum that presents educators with the skills and knowledge to prepare students for their postsecondary education.”
Kaylen Auer is a PBN contributing writer.
