In Workshop 1 you booted a Raspberry Pi, plugged things into it, and probably typed your first terminal command. This video zooms out: what is the Pi for, who builds them, and *why is a credit-card-sized computer running everything from weather stations to the International Space Station*?

The Foundation team gives you the official tour in about 4 minutes. After watching, you'll understand why a Pi is more than just "a small computer for kids" — and why hobbyists, researchers, and even NASA reach for one when they need a tiny computer that does real work.

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{{Video|src=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXUjwk2-qx4}}

About 4 minutes. The official Raspberry Pi Foundation overview — what the board is, what people build with it, and the educational mission behind the project.

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- **The variety of Pi models** — Pi 5, Pi 4, Pi Zero, Pi Pico. Same family, very different sizes and prices. The Zero is smaller than a stick of gum; the Pi 5 is a full Linux desktop machine.

- **What "$35" means** — the original Pi was built so a school could buy one for the price of a textbook. Even the latest Pi 5 (8 GB) is under $100 AUD. Cheap is the whole point.

- **Real projects** — weather stations, retro game consoles, robots, art installations, satellites. Look for the variety; a Pi isn't designed for one use case.

- **The Foundation as a charity** — the Pi exists to teach computing, not to make money. That's why the docs, code, and tutorials are free.

- **GPIO pins** — that 40-pin header at the top of the board is the difference between a Pi and a regular laptop. It's how the Pi connects to sensors, lights, motors, and the physical world.

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**<i class="fas fa-pencil-alt"></i> Your turn!** Grab a pen and have a crack at these.

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**<i class="fas fa-film"></i> Question** ① — Name three things people build with Raspberry Pis (from the video, or from your own knowledge after watching).

**<i class="fas fa-microchip"></i> Question** ② — A regular laptop and a Raspberry Pi 5 both have a CPU, RAM, and storage. What does the Pi have that a laptop *doesn't* — and what can you do because of that?

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⚡ **Hint:** Look at the top edge of the Pi board. There are 40 metal things sticking up.

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**<i class="fas fa-lightbulb"></i> Question** ③ — The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity. Their mission is to make computing accessible. Why do you think a tiny, cheap computer is a better way to teach kids about hardware than a full laptop?

**<i class="fas fa-rocket"></i> Question** ④ — Pis are on the International Space Station running real experiments. If *you* sent a Pi to the ISS, what experiment would you run? (Be specific — what sensor would you attach, what would the Pi log, what would you learn?)

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See also: [[Workshop 1 Hardware and Networks]] · [[Tom Scott - Fetch Execute Cycle]] · [[Crash Course - Binary]] · [[Vox - Undersea Cables]]