Raspberry Pi Foundation — What is a Raspberry Pi?

A companion page to Workshop 1 Hardware and Networks. Inspiration video referenced in the Workshop 1 booklet as way2.cc/caa.

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.

The Video

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.

What to Watch For

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.

Have a Go

Your turn! Grab a pen and have a crack at these.

Question ① — Name three things people build with Raspberry Pis (from the video, or from your own knowledge after watching).

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?

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

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?

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?)

Last updated: April 2026.

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