We have a brand new private school. This will only be our second year. Where would you recommend that we get student Raspberry Pi kits? Is there a place with educational discounts? Thank you in advance!
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The price of the Raspberry Pi itself is already discounted; the price is set by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. I suggest you don’t try to save money on power supplies; an inadequate power supply can cause spontaneous reboots, losing any unsaved student work. For the Pi 3, I recommend the one in the shopping list: https://ccse.kennesaw.edu/outreach/raspberrypi/shopping_list.php
Places where you might save money are on the case and the kit of parts. You can go case-less, but if you have 3D printing capability, it might be fun for the students to print their own cases. There’s an article here that might help: https://all3dp.com/1/best-3d-printed-raspberry-pi-case-3d-print-3d-model/ Be sure the case you select matches the model of the Pi you buy. I still recommend the Pi 3 Model B+ for teaching and learning.
You might also save money on the parts kit. This is the one from the workshop: https://www.newark.com/mcm/83-17965/pi-education-parts-kit/dp/33AC0240 There are several on Amazon that are slightly less expensive, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SGPMHTS It’s a dollar cheaper, but omits the temperature and motion sensors.
Some teachers have bought parts like LEDs separately. Perhaps one of them will chime in and tell about the experience.
Hello, again, Marielle! Someone else asked me to put together a shopping list for one Raspberry Pi kit. Here’s what I came up with.
Assuming you already have access to HDMI monitors and cables, USB keyboards, and USB mice, here’s a budget for one kit. Shipping charges are not included as they’ll depend upon quantity. If you include the case, it comes to just over $80.00. Depending on your allocation of funds, you could use one kit per student, or one kit for each pair of students. You should consider the parts kits expendable and plan on replacing them every few years. Be sure to have a few extra microSD cards on hand.
| Item | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi Model 3 B+ | 35.00 | https://www.arrow.com/en/products/raspberrypi3b/raspberry-pi-foundation |
| Power Supply | 7.50 | https://www.adafruit.com/product/1995 |
| microSD card | 4.45 | https://bulkmemorycards.com/shop/micro-sd-cards/16gb-microsd-ultra-sandisk-memory-card/ |
| Parts kit | 22.22 | https://www.newark.com/mcm/83-17965/pi-education-parts-kit/dp/33AC0240 |
| Storage box | 2.00 | https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FZVPWTI/ |
| Total | 71.17 | |
| Optional case | 9.23 | https://www.newark.com/pimoroni/pim341/case-raspberry-pi-3-b-3-2/dp/60AC6709 |
As always, beware that links may become outdated. Those are the best prices I could find as of today.
There is more info in my Raspberry Pi Shopping List.
Thank you for the information. This is very helpful!
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