Google Project Bloks Is A Physical Coding System For Children

Pucks also have no active electronic components and are therefore very affordable to make. Project Bloks, a research collaboration between Google, Paulo Blikstein (Stanford University) and IDEO with the goal of creating an open hardware platform that researchers, developers and designers can use to build physical coding experiences.

“Kids naturally play and learn by using their hands, building stuff and doing things together”, Google said in an introduction on the Project Bloks website.

A brain board based on the budget Raspberry Pi microcomputer provide power and connectivity, then each individual puck can be programmed with different instructions, for example, turn on and off, move left or play music. It has its own API to connect with any other device that has an API over a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection.

As a first step, Google created a system for tangible programming and built a working prototype with it. Google is sharing our progress before conducting more research over the summer to inform what comes next.

Base Boards read a Puck’s instruction through a capacitive sensor. Apple announced Swift Playgrounds at WWDC earlier this month, that teaches kids to use their programming language via an iPad app. Now, Google has announced Project Bloks – sounds similar to ‘Phonebloks’ which is now “Project Ara”.

Still, there’s no doubt that Google will help bring more attention to the growing trend of physical computing toys and, most importantly, introduce tons of children to the challenge and joy of programming computers before they are old enough to even conceive of a line of code, much less write one. You can than add multiple Base Boards and complementary Pucks to the Brain Board. Google is tapping into the natural ways children learn by making code physical – something they can touch and manipulate collectively rather than a string of code on a screen to be worked with in issolation. Base Boards are modular and can be connected in sequence and in different orientations to create different programming flows and experiences. The Base Board directly interfaces with the Brain Board (and other Base Boards), while the Puck sits atop each Base Board. They can also take the shape of different forms – things such as switches, dials or buttons. According to Google, this will “remove the technical barriers that get in their way: so they can focus on innovating, experimenting, and creating new ways to help kids develop computational thinking”.