Over 150 family members, students, staff and friends of Kennedy-Longfellow School and Lesley joined us on Thursday, December 6th in the school cafeteria to celebrate the launching of the Raspberry Pi program. The energy was buzzing and the pizza flying as the evening launched with welcoming remarks from Mrs. Gerber, KLO Principal. Mrs. Gerber recognized the partnership donor, Al and his wife, Anne Merck, in addition to the Lesley President Joe Moore, Dean Jack Gillette, Chief of Staff MaryPat Lohse, CPS Superintendent Jeffrey Young, and of course, KLO student and staff volunteers. Pi logo and name contestants were jittery with excitement as the winning entries were called. The winning logo and name are proudly displayed on each of the finished Pi Packs (now called the “3P K-LO” with the 3Ps standing for “portable pi pack.”

The evening capped off with the afterschool Scratch Club sharing their projects that they have been working on for the past several weeks. Scratch is a kid-friendly programming software developed by the wonderful folks at the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten department. The KLO nine Scratchers, grades 2-5, meet weekly in the computer lab to develop and share game and animations. Special thanks to John Maloney, Research Specialist at Lifelong Kindergarten and senior Scratch developer, for attending the Pi Launch party and sharing in the excitement.

Some of the logo entries from the Raspberry Pi contest

For more information about the evening, see Partnership with Cambridge School Integrates Technology in Classrooms