Lesson 1: Introduction to the Raspberry Pi 5 and AI HAT+ Setup

Welcome to Month 3 of your STEM Quest! In this lesson, we’ll shift gears from microcontrollers to microcomputers as you unbox the full potential of the Raspberry Pi 5 and the AI HAT+.

What You’ll Learn Today:

Why Raspberry Pi is the perfect bridge to advanced AI and image recognition
The difference between a microcontroller (like Arduino) and a microcomputer
What kinds of powerful projects you’ll build this month (sneak peek included!)
How the AI HAT+ gives your Pi real-time vision capabilities
How to properly set up your Raspberry Pi 5 hardware (no coding yet—just prep!)

Why This Lesson Matters:

Think of Raspberry Pi as your personal supercomputer that fits in your hand. It brings AI, multitasking, and real-time video processing into your maker lab. This setup day ensures you're ready to hit the ground running next lesson with zero hiccups.

Today’s Checklist:

Flash your SD card with Raspberry Pi OS
Assemble your Pi, AI HAT+, and touchscreen
Power on and boot to the desktop
No code, no camera testing—yet!

📦 Kit Components Used Today:

Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB RAM)
Raspberry Pi AI HAT+
Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2
USB-C Power Supply
32GB SD Card
Heatsink
7" HDMI Touchscreen

📝 Homework:

Finish your Pi assembly and boot to desktop
Flash your SD card if not done already
Double-check that the AI HAT+ is securely connected

🚀 Up Next:

We’ll dive into our first real AI workload and see live object recognition in action. If you’ve ever wanted to build your own version of Alexa or a smart camera, you're in exactly the right place.

Happy building, and we’ll see you in Lesson 2!