The 2021/22 competition – which is run by PA Consulting – is aimed at pupils aged eight to 18 and challenges them to design technology that will help make the world a more sustainable place.
The competition promotes STEM education by challenging students to invent products and processes that could benefit society, by using their technology and coding skills.
Teams compete across four categories based on their academic years: years 4 to 6, years 7 to 9, years 10 to 11 and years 12 to 13. Three finalists from each category are invited to present their inventions in front of a panel of expert judges at the PA Raspberry Pi Awards Day in April, where the winner from each category will be awarded £1,000 for their school or college.
There are free resources to support the competition’s delivery including a webinar for teachers with tips to guide their teams, a kick-off support session for each team with tech experts from one of PA’s partner organisations and Raspberry Pi starter kits for the first 100 teams to enter.
Last year’s awards were focused on the theme of “helping create a positive future” and the winners were:
- Years 4-6: St Mary's CE Primary School, who created an intelligent cane that communicates with other devices to inform blind, partially sighted or deaf-blind people of nearby hazards.
- Years 7-9: Priestnall School, who developed a gadget to monitor indoor air pollution and reduce the health risk.
- Years 10-11: Colchester County High School for Girls, who developed an AI-powered automatic feeder designed to support endangered species by providing food to specific animals.
- Years 12-13: Westminster School and Harris Westminster Sixth Form, who designed a new type of security – a dynamic ‘footprint’ – that prevents possession theft.
For more details, visit www.paconsulting.com/events/raspberry-pi-competiti...