What is the Astro Pi Challenge?

The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education project run in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It offers young people the amazing opportunity to learn how to code and conduct scientific investigations in space, by writing computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers on board the International Space Station (ISS). The annual Astro Pi Challenge is open to young people up to age 19 in ESA member and associate countries.

Each year, there are two missions: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

Five reasons to take part in the Astro Pi Challenge

Based on the findings in this report, we wanted to highlight five great reasons to take part in the Astro Pi Challenge, and direct you to some resources to help you get started — there is still plenty of time to enter the 2024/25 challenge!

1. Young people get to run their code in space

Mentors told us how excited young people were to be working on something that connected with the real world, and how proud they were that their code ran on the International Space Station.

“Participating in Mission Space Labs offers students a great opportunity to work with the International Space Station, to see the Earth from above, to challenge them to overcome the terrestrial limits.” – Mission Space Lab mentor

2. Young people are inspired to continue to learn

91% of mentors told us that young people who successfully wrote code for Mission Space Lab were likely or very likely to participate in computing and digital making challenges in the future.

Mission Zero mentors shared that young people who saw others take part in the mission were inspired to get involved.

3. Young people learn new skills

Mission Space Lab mentors told us that young people who successfully wrote code for Mission Space Lab had a greater understanding of STEM concepts, and increased their skills and confidence in computing and digital making.

Mentors also said that Mission Zero provides a great first step into using Python.

“I think it was very good at setting up the first bit of Python and just having a very limited command set and a very quick result…” – Mission Zero mentor

4. Astro Pi mentors have fun

It’s not just the young people that enjoy Astro Pi — 95% of Mission Space Lab mentors and 99% of Mission Zero mentors said they somewhat or very much enjoyed taking part.

5. We provide the resources and support Astro Pi mentors need

Mentors gave us positive feedback on the guidance we provided to help them support young people. This year, we have produced even more resources and ways to support mentors to lead missions.

“The Mission [Space] Lab guide was fantastic for my students; step by step” – Mission Space Lab mentor

How to get involved

Astro Pi opened for registration on 16 September this year, and there is still plenty of time for you to sign up and run the missions with your young people. You can find all the information you need to take part on astro-pi.org, including the mentor guides, which help you prepare to run the activities.

Mission Zero mentor guide
Mission Space Lab mentor guide

We also provide project guides for Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab that walk young people through the steps they need to follow to get a working program ready for submission.

If you would like some help getting started, you can:

• Watch a recording of our ‘Getting started with Mission Space Lab’ livestream
• Sign up for our next Mission Zero codealong in January 2025
• Get in touch at contact@astro-pi.org

Key dates

17:30 – 18:30 CET, 16 January – Mission Space Lab livestream and technical Q&A
17:30 – 18:30 CET, 28 January – Mission Zero codealong
09:00 CET, 24 February – Mission Space Lab closes
09:00 CET, 24 March – Mission Zero closes

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Coolest Projects in 2024

This year, 7197 young people across 4678 projects took part in our global Coolest Projects online showcase, with participants from 43 countries. All of these projects were shared in our online showcase gallery, and we hosted a live-streamed event celebrating the judges’ favourites watched by over 1000 people.

At the 2024 in-person Coolest Projects events in Ireland and the UK, 171 young people shared projects. At these events, the young creators presented their projects to other attendees and our team of judges. They also took part in other activities, including a digital escape room.

We wanted to understand how Coolest Projects impacts young people, and so we collected the following data:

• For the online showcase, mentors and tech creators filled in a survey when they completed their project registration, and we ran focus groups with mentors, who are adults that support the tech creators
• At the UK and Ireland in-person events, creators completed a survey, other event attendees completed feedback cards, and we also interviewed creators. 

Online showcase: Impact on skills and confidence

In the survey, mentors and young people told us that taking part in the Coolest Projects online showcase had a positive impact:

• 91% of young people and 87% of mentors agreed or strongly agreed that taking part in Coolest Projects online inspired them or their team to continue to participate in computing and technology
• 89% of young people and 86% of mentors agreed or strongly agreed that taking part in Coolest Projects online increased their or their team’s confidence in coding and digital making

Mentors told us that the community built by the online showcase gallery played an important role in making young people want to participate,  and improving their confidence. One mentor said that “[being part of the online showcase] motivates them actually to do something innovative and… [the] global community motivates them to think out of the box.”

They also reported that the online community inspired young people to solve real-world problems. One mentor said, “the wonderful thing is the kids create so many things which are solutions to world problems.” Others told us that young people feel a great deal of pride that their solutions are available for others to see online and that they get ideas from other projects on how to solve problems. One mentor from India told us about a young person who created a boat to clean rivers and then was inspired to learn to program micro:bit devices, having seen similar projects in the gallery.

Focus on ‘growth, not competition’

The phrase ‘growth, not competition’ came from the mentors in the focus group, and we love this description.

“[With] Coolest Projects… the only agenda is to grow. Grow with the coding, nurture your skills, creativity.” – Focus group attendee.

In the focus group, mentors told us they really valued the way the Coolest Projects online showcase allows all young people to participate, including those who were less experienced tech creators. One mentor told us that because everyone’s project is displayed in the gallery the “beauty is that everybody is encouraged individually… regarding the experience. … They can start with very small things. And they have [the] opportunity to upload it on the platform.”

One mentor who supports young people in remote locations in India spoke about the way Coolest Projects offers a level playing field where his students can be included and participate to the same extent as less remote places: “students never feel left behind.”

The in-person events also reflected the diversity of young people’s experience of digital making. Of those creators who answered surveys, 35% said it was their first time making this kind of project, while 37% said they had made similar projects before. This mix of experience was also reflected in the interviews, with some young people creating something for the first time and having only started learning coding recently, while others had been developing their projects for a long time. Many creators told us they felt inspired by the opportunity to show their projects to others, regardless of their experience level.

In-person events: Building a community of digital creators

Attendees at both Coolest Projects UK and Ireland commented on the sense of community and the excitement that was generated by being around other young people. One young person spoke about how much they enjoyed being “surrounded by people who like coding too”. They really valued seeing other creators’ projects and speaking with their peers.

The young people we spoke to reflected on the positive impact of this sense of community and belonging. They told us that seeing others’ projects inspired them to develop their ideas and learn new skills. One young person described how the in-person event allowed them to “get inspired and socialise.” A second said, “that’s why I’m here — to get inspired.”

Another clear theme was how much young people valued the opportunity to show their projects to others. This gave them confidence in their own ability to build things. One creator at Coolest Projects UK spoke about the sense of achievement they felt after building something themselves and then being able to present it to others.

Young people at both events spoke about their plans for what they wanted to do next, talking about trying new technology such as building games, learning Python, and creating mobile apps. At both events, creators described how they wanted to continue to develop and build on their existing ideas with the possibility of showcasing them again.

What we want to learn next

We are continuing to look for ways to improve the Coolest Projects experience for young people and their mentors. As part of this, we are conducting user experience research to understand how we can improve the registration process for the online Coolest Projects showcase.

We were delighted to hear from mentors in this year’s focus group how much they valued the online showcase gallery, and we want to understand the impact of this resource better as part of Coolest Projects 2025. If you want to find out more about Coolest Projects, we highly recommend taking a look at the amazing projects made by young people around the world. 

Dates for Coolest Projects 2025

We’re so pleased that so many young people around the world loved taking part in Coolest Projects this year. And we’re very excited that Coolest Projects will be back and bigger than ever before in 2025! 

The Coolest Projects online showcase is open to any young person up to age 18, based anywhere in the world. Registration opens 14 January, and we’ll host a celebratory livestream on 25 June.

Coolest Projects in-person events will also be popping up around the world. In-person events are open to everyone up to age 18 in the host country. Family and friends are very welcome to come along too. 

Save the date for:

• Coolest Projects Ireland, 1 March 2025
• Coolest Projects USA, 5 April 2025
• Coolest Projects Belgium, 26 April 2025
• Coolest Projects UK, 17 May 2025
• Coolest Projects Ghana, date TBC
• Coolest Projects India, date TBC
• Coolest Projects Malaysia, date TBC
• Coolest Projects South Africa, date TBC

Keep an eye on the Coolest Projects website for more event dates and details coming soon.

It’s never too early to start making and saving digital projects to showcase next year. We can’t wait to see what the world’s young tech creators will make!

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Over the past few months, young people across Europe have run their computer programs on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Astro Pi, an ESA Education project run in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Astro Pi Mission Zero offers young people the chance to write a simple program that takes a reading from the colour and luminosity sensor on an Astro Pi computer on board the ISS, and uses it to set the background colour in a personalised image for the astronauts to see as they go about their daily tasks. In total, 16,039 teams and 24,663 young people participated in Mission Zero this year. This was a 3% increase in teams entering compared to last year.

Astro Pi Mission Space Lab offers teams of young people the chance to run scientific experiments on board the ISS. This year, 564 teams and 2,008 young people participated in Mission Space Lab. Compared with last year, there was a 4% increase in the number of teams who managed to achieve flight status and run their code in space.

To evaluate the projects, we encouraged mentors to complete surveys once their teams had submitted their computer programs. Overall, 135 Mission Zero mentors (11% of mentors) and 56 Mission Space Lab mentors (15% of mentors) completed surveys. We also ran focus groups with mentors from both projects to understand their experiences and the impact of these projects on young people.

Impact on young people

Understanding how technology is changing the world

The mentors we spoke to told us how valuable Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab are because these experiences connect young people to real technology. Mentors felt that Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab bridge the gap between theoretical coding and tangible outcomes, giving young people the confidence to engage with technology.

“Participating in Mission Space Lab offers students a great opportunity to work with the International Space Station, to see the Earth from above, to challenge them to overcome the terrestrial limits. It’s very important.” — Mission Space Lab mentor

“We want students to use their digital skills as superpowers to make the world a better place and this competition really aligns with that because regardless of your race, your ethnicity, your gender, you can write some code that actually runs in space. And if you can do that, then you can make medical tech, or you can solve the big problem that the adults of the world are still grappling with, so it’s the opening up [of] opportunities.” — Mission Zero mentor

Mentors observed that the project inspired children to consider careers they previously thought were out of reach. Space exploration was no longer a far away and theoretical idea for the children, but something connected to their everyday lives and their own learning.

“Some of the people that I was teaching this to felt like becoming an astronaut was really difficult to learn… now it’s not necessarily a distant thing to study.” — Mission Zero mentor

Mentors also described how the young people gained confidence in their ability to engage with technologies. One mentor described the “self-esteem” and “pride” younger pupils gained from participation. Others talked about the confidence that came with achieving something like having their code run in space and receiving certificates proving they were “space scientists”.

Our mentors

None of this would be possible without the hard work and dedication of our mentors. So, as part of our evaluation, we wanted to understand how we can best support them. For Mission Space Lab, that took the form of assessing the new guidance that we published this year and that sits alongside the project. When we spoke to mentors, they told us this guide provided clear, step-by-step guidance that enabled the young people to work through the project, and the majority of survey respondents agreed: 89% rated the Mission Space Lab project guide as somewhat or very understandable. 

We also heard from mentors about the ways they are using Mission Zero in a wider context. Some told us that their schools ran the project as part of space-themed weeks where they used Mission Zero in conversations about space exploration, the Hubble telescope, and learning the names of the stars. Others used Mission Zero across multiple subjects by designing images and holding art competitions based on the design, as well as learning about pixels and animations. 

Additionally, it was a pleasure to hear about young people who had participated in Mission Zero in previous years gaining leadership skills by supporting other young people to complete Mission Zero this year.

Next steps

Thank you to all the mentors who provided constructive feedback through surveys and focus groups. We have read and considered every comment and will continue to consider how to improve the experience for mentors and young people. 

We will publish an in-depth report with the findings of our evaluation later in the year; however, we’ve already made some changes to the programme that will be launching for the 2024/25 Astro Pi challenge and wanted to share these updates with you now.

Improvements for next year:

Mission Zero

• We’re adding a save button to Mission Zero to allow young people to work on this across multiple sessions.
• We’re adding new code examples to the Mission Zero project guide. These have been selected from team submissions from the 2023/24 challenge.

Mission Space Lab

• We’re creating an online testing tool for Mission Space Lab so that it will be easier for teams to test whether or not their code works. It will feature new data and images captured from the ISS in spring 2024.

We hope that all the young people and mentors who participated in last year’s Astro Pi challenge enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot. With the exciting updates we’re working on for the 2024/25 Astro Pi challenge, we hope to see even more young people participate and share their creative projects next year.

Project launch dates

• 16 September 2024: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab launch
• 24 February 2025: Mission Space Lab submissions close
• 24 March 2025: Mission Zero submissions close
• April – May 2025: Programs run on the International Space Station
• June 2025: Teams receive certificates 

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• Code Club is a global network of after-school coding clubs for learners aged 9 to 13, where educators and other volunteers help young people learn about coding and digital making
• CoderDojo is a worldwide network of free, open, and community-based programming clubs for young people aged 7 to 17, where they get the opportunity to learn how to create fantastic new things with technology

The clubs network reaches young people in 126 countries across the globe, and we estimate that the 4,557 Code Clubs and 771 CoderDojos are attended by more than 200,000 young people globally. 

All these clubs are run by incredible volunteers and educators who help young people to learn computing and coding. Every year, we ask the volunteers to tell us about their experiences in our annual clubs survey. Below we share some highlights from this year’s survey results.

About the survey

We want to know more about volunteers in the network, how they run their clubs, and what impact the club sessions have for young people. Understanding this better helps us to improve the support we give to volunteers and young people around the world. This year we received over 300 responses, which has given us valuable insights and feedback.

What are the clubs like?

Improving gender balance in computing is part of our work to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all young people. Girls’ participation in the CodeDojo community has risen from 30% to 35% between 2023 and 2024, while 40% of Code Club attendees are girls.

Clubs are using a wide variety of technologies and tools to support young people with their coding. According to the survey, the most popular coding tool was Scratch, which nearly all of the volunteers said they used in their club. Over 60% of volunteers reported using micro:bits, and over 50% mentioned Python.

What impact is the clubs network having?

We asked volunteers to tell us what changes they had seen in young people as a result of being part of a club. Volunteers fed back to us about the positive community created by clubs where young people felt safe and included. This was evidenced by the way young people felt able to share their ideas and support other young people:

“The more experienced members are both capable and competent to demonstrate their skills to less experienced children. For example, they recently ran a full-day session for the whole school to complete the Astro Pi Mission Zero project.” – Code Club volunteer

Volunteers reported increases in young people’s skills and confidence in digital making and engaging with technology (see graph below). They also agreed that young people developed other skills, with nearly 90% noting improvements in problem solving, personal confidence, and creative thinking.

How are we supporting volunteers?

These positive outcomes are the result of the hard work and dedication of the club volunteers. Based on the survey, we estimate that at the time of the survey, there were over 6000 Code Club leaders and almost 3000 CoderDojo champions around the world. Many of the volunteers are motivated to volunteer by a love of teaching and a desire to pass on their skills.

These volunteers are part of a global network, and 80% of volunteers said that belonging to this global community of clubs was motivating for them. Volunteers particularly valued the access to resources and information being part of a global community offered, as well as opportunities to share ideas and problem solve.

The majority of Code Clubs are mostly or always using our digital making pathways and projects as part of their clubs. Volunteers value the projects’ step-by-step structure and how easy they are to follow.

“Great structure to allow the kids to self-learn whilst keeping a good amount of creativity for them.” – Code Club volunteer

We plan to do more to ensure that clubs around the world find these projects and pathways accessible and useful for their sessions with young people.

What’s next

The survey has helped us to identify a number of areas where we can support club volunteers even better. Volunteers identified help getting equipment and funding as the main things they needed support with, as well as recruitment of volunteers and young people. We are looking at the best ways we can lend a hand to the clubs network in these areas.

You can read the survey report to dive deeper into the findings.

We take impact seriously and are always looking to understand how we can improve and increase the impact we have on the lives of children and young people. To find out more about our approach to impact, you can read about our recently updated theory of change, which supports how we evaluate what we do. 

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Evaluating the impact of the training 

In the partnerships we used a ‘train the trainer’ model, which focuses on equipping our partners with the knowledge and skills to train and support educators and learners. This meant that we trained a group of educators from each partner, enabling them to then run their own training sessions for other educators so they can set up coding clubs and run coding sessions. These coding sessions aim to increase young people’s skills and confidence in computing and programming.

We also conducted an evaluation of the impact of our work in these partnerships. We shared two surveys with educators (one shortly after they completed their initial training, a second for when they were running coding sessions), and another survey for young people to fill in during their coding sessions. In two of the partnerships, we also conducted interviews and focus groups with educators and young people. 

Although we received lots of valuable feedback, only a low proportion of participants responded to our surveys, so the data may not be representative of the experience of all participating educators. 

New opportunities to learn to code

Following our training, our partners themselves trained 332 educators across Kenya and South Africa to work directly in schools and communities running coding sessions. This led to the setup of nearly 250 Code Clubs and CoderDojos and additional coding sessions in schools and communities, reaching more than 11,500 young people.

As a result, access to coding and programming has increased in areas where this provision would otherwise not be available. One educator told us:

“We found it extremely beneficial, because a lot of our children come from areas in the community where they barely know how to read and write, let alone know how to use a computer… [It provides] the foundation, creating a fun way of approaching the computer as opposed to it being daunting.”

Curiosity, excitement and increased confidence

We found encouraging signs of the impact of this work on young people.

Nearly 90% of educators reported seeing an increase in young people’s computing skills, with over half of educators reporting that this increase was large. Over three quarters of young people who filled in our survey reported feeling confident in coding and computer programming.

The young people spoke enthusiastically about what they had learned and the programs they had created. They told us they felt inspired to keep learning, linking their interests to what they wanted to do in coding sessions. Interests included making dolls, games, cartoons, robots, cars, and stories. 

When we spoke with educators and young people, a key theme that emerged was the enthusiasm and curiosity of the young people to learn more. Educators described how motivated they felt by the excitement of the young people. Young people particularly enjoyed finding out the role of programming in the world around them, from understanding traffic lights to knowing more about the games they play on their phones.

One educator told us:

“…students who knew nothing about technology are getting empowered.” 

This confidence is particularly encouraging given that educators reported a low level of computer literacy among young people at the start of the coding sessions. One educator described how coding sessions provided an engaging hook to support teaching basic IT skills, such as mouse skills and computer-related terms, alongside coding. 

Addressing real-world problems

One educator gave an example of young people using what they are learning in their coding club to solve real-world problems, saying:

“It’s life-changing because some of those kids and the youths that you are teaching… they’re using them to automate things in their houses.” 

Many of these young people live in informal settlements where there are frequent fires, and have started using skills they learned in the coding sessions to automate things in their homes, reducing the risk of fires. For example, they are programming a device that controls fans so that they switch on when the temperature gets too high, and ways to switch appliances such as light bulbs on and off by clapping.

Continuing to improve our support

From the gathered feedback, we also learned some useful lessons to help improve the quality of our offer and support to our partners. For example, educators faced challenges including lack of devices for young people, and low internet connectivity. As we continue to develop these partnerships, we will work with partners to make use of our unplugged activities that work offline, removing the barriers created by low connectivity.

We are continuing to develop the training we offer and making sure that educators are able to access our other training and resources. We are also using the feedback they have given us to consider where additional training and support may be needed. Future evaluations will further strengthen our evidence and provide us with the insights we need to continue developing our work and support more educators and young people.

Our thanks to our partners at Coder:LevelUp, Blue Roof, Oasis Mathare, and Tech Kidz Africa for sharing our mission to enable young people to realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies. As we continue to build partnerships to support Code Clubs and CoderDojos across South Africa and Kenya, it is heartening to hear first-hand accounts of the positive impact this work has on young people.

If your organisation would like to partner with us to bring computing education to young people you support, please send us a message with the subject ‘Partnerships’.

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