The ESA European Astro Pi Project – “Mission Zero”, involved school children creating code that actually ran on the International Space Station (ISS). My son joined with a friend (both aged 9 at the time it was submitted) to create a Python program that ran on the International Space station during February 2018. Here’s his […]

This Christmas we visited the Gloucestershare and Warwickshire Railway for the Santa Special steam train. The train was from Cheltenham Racecourse railway station. The train was fully booked, but there were enough tables for everyone to find a comfortable seat. We started with a train journey to the “North Pole” station. The carriage was decorated […]

Video and photos from our visit to the Birmingham Christmas Market in 2016.

These are some of the Halloween Projects I’ve created. Haunted House A scary haunted house, using a Raspberry Pi, home automation, electronics and scary music. Raspberry Pi Haunted House Raspberry Pi MotionSensor Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin My son’s Motion Sensor based Light Up Pumpkin project Halloween Motion Sensor Pumpkin Wizard of Oz Costume A Wizard of Oz […]

My 8 year old son has now completed another Raspberry Pi project. This project is a Halloween Pumpkin, or jack-o’-lantern, which is triggered whenever someone comes near. It uses a PIR motion sensor to detect someone entering the room and then lights up a sequence of NeoPixels. In this case these are static green and […]

Another year and another Pycon UK. For 2016 the UK’s community Python Conference was held in Cardiff, Wales. It’s also the fourth year that they’ve included a special Children’s day on the Saturday. This included a day of kids coding on Raspberry Pi computers (Pi-Top CEED) and this year each child received a micro:bit to […]

Another great Bonfire Night and Firework Display at Redditch Fire Station. Although it was originally expected that 2014 would have been the last display the Fire Service have now confirmed that they do plan to continue with the regular tradition for 2016 and beyond. There is a reasonable admission fee (£4 adults, £2 children in […]

Introduction This is a review of the Meccanoid G15K personal robot from Meccano. It’s a programmable robot that’s about 4 feet tall (about the same size as a 6 year old child). The recommended minimum age is 10 which I believe is the age for making it; I’m hoping to use it to teach programming […]

The Big Bang fair is a free STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) event aimed at children aged from 7 to 19. It’s an annual event and I first attended the Big Bang Science Fair last year – Big Bang Fair 2014. I took my 8 year old daughter (now 9 year old) along and […]

The Raspberry Pi is a $35 computer designed to provide a platform for children to learn computer programming. The Raspberry Pi was launched in 2012 and became and immediate success, with the only problem being how to satisfy demand when initial orders exceeded everyone’s wildest dreams. Initially many were bought by adult makers rather than […]