Kitronik, the microbit, And The All London Raspberry Pi Jam:
The Flatiron School were one of the sponsors of the event, donating the several drones for the raffle, use of their impressive offices, and use of their even more impressive coffee machine. I'm ashamed to say that I did not get a picture of the coffee machine. Flatiron offer courses in software engineering and are partners in the #KodeWithKarlie scholarship, which awards two-week scholarships to young women who want to learn more about coding. The Pi Jam was on the 7th floor and the whole place was filled with PiTop workstations. The Pi Jam started at midday when a steady stream of interested children with parents in tow descended on the venue. We were set up with our own table, where we had several examples of the MOVE:mini, our Zip Halo, a :GAME ZIP 64 and some of our new micro:bit STOP: bit traffic lights. All of the products we brought along had a strong microbit connection, which might appear strange for a Raspberry Pi Jam. However, they were very well received by children and parents alike, who appreciated the relative simplicity of the micro:bit and how easy it is to make interconnected products. During the day we decided to create a controller for the MOVE:mini, using the ZIP Halo board, to underline that last point. There were a number of talks and workshops throughout the day, some given by young speakers (I think the youngest was just eight years old!). These covered subjects such as game creation and machine learning and AI - for kids! We were in great company on the day, there were, of course, the organisers, Brian (https://twitter.com/BrianLinuxing) and the Nic (https://twitter.com/duck_star). Other tables included Thomas Stratford @MrTomsWorld , Oohbot Robot, Sonic Pi, Goobric and RedRobotics https://twitter.com/NeilRedRobotics All of whom made a great day even better. The day finished off with a raffle, where we donated a microbit starter kit, five of our fantastic new traffic lights, five extremely limited edition coffee mugs (we know how much children like coffee!) and a whole bag full of our super PCB key rings. It was fantastic to see the joy in how these were received. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of such a fantastic day.©Kitronik Ltd – You may print this page & link to it, but must not copy the page or part thereof without Kitronik's prior written consent.