Python in Education

22  |  Chapter 3: Why Python in Education?

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More recently, the BBC announced the 

MicroBit project

, a small

battery-powered programmable device for children. One million of

the devices will be given away to 11-year-olds in the UK at the start

of the new academic year in September 2015. It will also be on sale

to the public.

The MicroBit fastens to clothing and has a couple of buttons and an

LED matrix that displays scrolling text and images. Just like the

Raspberry Pi and Micro Python board, it has the ability to interact

with other devices via I/O connections.

Python is one of three supported languages for programming the

MicroBit.

Figure 3-2. A prototype of the BBC’s MicroBit programmable device

for children

The important educational advantage is continuity.

By learning Python, a student has access to all sorts of fun and inter‐

esting platforms that can be explored using tools and code they’re

familiar with. Because Python runs on so many platforms, it is feasi‐

ble to write code for one device and, assuming it doesn’t use device-

specific code and run within hardware constraints, it should run on

many others.