Week of Dec. 15

This week, students took on a challenging and exciting technical project: soldering Raspberry Pi Zero W computers. Each student worked carefully to attach a 40-pin GPIO header, a delicate task requiring steady hands and patience. The Pi Zero W may be small—about the size of a stick of gum—but it’s a powerful little computer, capable of running Linux, connecting to Wi-Fi, and controlling hardware projects. Setting up six of these machines from the ground up gave students real hands-on experience with electronics and computing. This will set us up for many projects next semester.

It's interesting to observe the generational gap between me and the kids: despite being 'digital natives', technology for this generation is pretty flat and so easy that it somewhat discourages investigation. This is very unlike the world of dial-up modems and configuring e-mail servers that we grew up in. So, I think this process of setting up the Pi computers is quite a valuable experience that lets the kids peel back the curtain on the digital world they live in.