The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the charity behind the low cost, credit-card sized Raspberry Pi computer, has announced the launch of a £1 million education fund. This fund is to support innovative and exciting projects that enhance understanding of and education in computing for children aged between 5 and 18. The fund does not exclusively target computing as a subject, it will also support projects that promote the use of computing technology in other subjects, particularly STEM and the creative arts.
The aim is to support a range of projects: from those that increase participation, to those that target excellence with priority given to organisations that have a not-for-profit ethos. The fund will operate through match funding, so not only are we wanting to hear from people with potential projects ideas; we are also wanting to hear from industry and third-sector partners who’d be interested in co-funding some of the projects.
For further information, visit http://www.raspberrypi.org/education-fund/
About Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. The idea behind a tiny and affordable computer for kids came in 2006, when Eben Upton, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft, based at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, became concerned about the year-on-year decline in the numbers and skills levels of the A Level students applying to read Computer Science. From a situation in the 1990s where most of the kids applying were coming to interview as experienced hobbyist programmers, the landscape in the 2000s was very different; a typical applicant might only have done a little web design.
From 2006 to 2008, they designed several versions of what has now become the Raspberry Pi. Three years later, the Raspberry Pi Model B entered mass production through licensed manufacture deals with element 14/Premier Farnell and RS Electronics, and within two years it had sold over two million units.
Visit www.raspberrypi.org for further information