Tech Tuesdays: Build A Computer with Piper

This is part of a series on Tech Tuesdays where educators can try technology to incorporate into their lessons. For more information on Tech Tuesdays, see the first Tech Tuesday post.

What parts are needed to make a computer? This is a question students explore when they build a Piper computer.  The kit includes a Raspberry Pi, a display, a sound card and other computer components, and a wooden box to hold them as well as additional electronic components (used in their lessons, more on that later).

This Tech Tuesday, the challenge was just to build the computer. For educators using the SMCOE's kits, you will want to cross-check the kit contents against Piper's page (see "What's Inside").  . This took up the full 2 hours, not because the instructions were difficult to follow - the blue-prints were large and clear, but there were many components and we didn't want to lose any of the tiny pieces. Piper recommends an age range of 8-13, but I'd suggest letting maturity/patience be the deciding factor.

 We checked out the Piper kit to take home so we could continue exploring it. We first had to connect to a network to update the OS. After starting it, we ran the lessons which used Minecraft:Story Mode to introduce a mission. Students would then follow along to learn how to connect and use the electronic components included. This section was more interesting for my 3rd grader, not as much for the 7th grader who had tried Arduino.

After a week of trying the lessons, we disassembled the kit to return to SMCOE. This is where the picture of contents came in handy! It took another 2 hours to fully disassemble the kit, and even then there was a component which could not be taken apart (this is a known issue, and the SMCOE's STEAM Center will accept it).

For educators/homeschoolers: You can check out the Piper kit at the STEAM Center. Some suggestions:

• Keep a dedicated space for just Piper, so the components remain in one place. A
• Check it out for as long a loan period is permitted, to allow time to explore the electronic components. The Piper YouTube channel has a playlist of tutorials.
• Assembly requires more patience than the typical 8 year old has (minimum age recommended by Piper), but the electronics lessons are accessible to all. 
• Don't forget to allocate time to disassemble before return!