In 2003, Eliana Otrera rented time on a computer at an internet café because she did not own one. Today she runs Raspberry Jams for kids in Santiago del Estero, Argentina, a province where a classroom may have no spare laptop at all. Raspberry Pi profiled her story in its Maker Monday feature.
From Pi-Top classrooms to community Jams
Her path started in 2017 with Conectar Igualdad, a national programme that handed schools Pi-Top portable computers running Raspberry Pi hardware. She used them to bring coding and robotics into rural schools, then in 2019 began pitching the Pi to colleagues as a teaching tool. With two co-organisers she ran the first open community workshop on 6 March 2020 in Forres, and the Jams have since moved through schools, cultural centres and academies across the province.
What the kids actually build
Beginner sessions produce electronic trivia games and simple robots, and Eliana says the decoration matters more to the kids than any automation. Advanced groups write Python to build structures in Minecraft, which doubles as a gentle first look at loops, coordinates and functions. The hardware stays modest: a Pi, a keyboard, a monitor, and a few jumper wires for the robot projects. No fancy lab required.
Run your own Jam
The setup travels well to Philippine classrooms. Flash a 16 GB microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS, enable the Python Minecraft API, and give each pair of students one board. For a hardware round, wire an LED to GPIO17 through a 330 ohm resistor and blink it with the gpiozero library before moving to buttons and a buzzer. Raspberry Pi boards and starter parts are stocked at circuit.rocks, and the full interview, including Eliana’s teaching resources, is at the original article.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Raspberry Jam?
A Raspberry Jam is a community workshop where students, teachers and families learn Raspberry Pi projects together. Eliana Otrera’s first one in Forres, Argentina ran on 6 March 2020.
What hardware does a school Jam need?
One Raspberry Pi per pair of students, a microSD card, keyboard, monitor, and for robot projects some jumper wires, LEDs and resistors. Beginner games and Minecraft coding need no extra parts.
What will I learn if I build this?
You learn Python basics through the Minecraft API, GPIO wiring with gpiozero, and how to run a small workshop, skills that suit student teaching assistants and robotics club leads.
