Code Club are Out of This World
In a ‘giant leap’ beyond displaying their talents here at school, code club pupils also took part in the European Astro Pi Challenge this week.
The project is curated by ESA Education and is run in partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It aims to give children and young people the opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space, by writing computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
This year the competition was split into two categories with differing aims. The Mount School Junior pupils took on ‘Mission Zero’ which involved a short Python program that will show their chosen message to the ISS astronauts.
Participants were able to work individually or in small groups to follow the brief information sheet given to them before setting to work with their mission. To be completed within a 60-minute session and on any PC or laptop, successful completion of the challenge ensured that each message would feature in space. The girls were rewarded with a certificate or participation which highlighted the exact time that their message was delivered to the astronauts and where they were located when it ran.
Other projects completed by the club include:
Coolest project submissions:
India and Margarita – Pop the Balloon
“We don’t think that we would change anything because we put a lot of thought and time and hard work into this project, and we are very very proud of it and we don’t regret any of the decisions that we made.”
“I would like to include more lions”
“I knew I wanted to create an animation, next time I would add more levels and make them get harder each time.”