Update 7th August:
Hi everyone! Check out these articles talking about our project.
Engineers Without Borders
Brightest Young MindsOne of the biggest problems facing young South Africans today is getting a decent education. Pupils in overcrowded classrooms have to share desks and chairs, and if they even get textbooks, they must share those as well.
It is common to see a class with 40 to 50 pupils with only one teacher. In a class like this individual attention for struggling students becomes almost impossible.
We hope to change all that.
Our IdeaWe want to build a low-cost, energy efficient Raspberry Pi computer Lab for a school in Cosmo City. We also know that helping just one school isn't going to change the country, so the most important feature of our design is
Scalability. This means that anyone, anywhere will be able to build the same computer lab for the same cost.
This means a standard model, and while there are many cheap computers out there, we've chosen the
Raspberry Pi.
What We've GotThanks to the many generous people we have met along the way, we have a great deal lined up and ready to go. These include:
- A Prefabricated classroom suitable to build this lab in
- Training for Two Teachers
- Free and Open Source learning software
- A complete design for the lab and the solar fittings
What's Inside
More important than the hardware however is the content available on the computers. We will load various programs that are specifically designed to enhance the learners' education through multimedia, tutorials and tests. This includes programs such as:
Where we need Your Help
All we need to build our first LAN is $10,500.
This will get us all the Raspberry Pi computers, monitors, keyboards, mouses and all the rest of the hardware.
(Update: If you choose any of the perks, please send us your Twitter or Facebook details to info
info@solarpoweredlearning.com so we can send you a message)
Powered by The SunSolar Power is one of the leading forms of sustainable energy solutions. For this reason, we would love to power every lab this way.
Unfortunately, it is expensive.
If we are able to raise an additional $12,000, we will be able to power the computer lab using solar power, making it a sustainable solution for the school.
Collaborators
This project has been made possible thanks to the generous input of:
About United Twenty-13The Solar Powered Raspberry Pi School project is being run under the auspices of the local Non Profit Company,
United Twenty-13.
As a collective, our mission is to harness sustainable
developmental change through youth driven initiatives. Our vision is to
achieve long-term sustainable change in the City of Johannesburg and
beyond.
United Twenty-13 is formed by 10 ambassadors
from the
One Young World 2013 Summit. The 10 young leaders were selected
to be part of the City of Johannesburg Mayoral Delegation to the summit and
decided to form the NPC thereafter.
Registration number: 2014/044519/07
