To evangelize technology and encourage building techno savvy products, Google today launched “Project Bloks” – Blocks without the ‘c’. It wants to help kids learn how to code from a young age, the project is a collaborative efforts of kids and adults to learn the basics of coding.
The idea is to have kids play and learn by using their hands to build blocks and other stuff – making code physical so that they can play with it 🙂 – The Simplest of code started with building simple things.
There are three components to the building blocks
– Pucks
– Base Boards
– Brain Boards
Pucks are signs that are interactive signs shaped in the form of button, arrow, dials, switches etc. They help in turning things on and off, playing and switching off music.
Base Boards are boards that can read instructions from different pucks via sensors.
Brain Boards provide power and connectivity, they can connect multiple base boards via wifi or bluetooth. It is built on Raspberry Pi Zero.
All the above work seamlessly and / or in conjunction to each other at different levels to give the kids the overall building experience.
Project Blok is a great initiative by Google to get school kids involved in programming and coding, however the challenge will be to get it off the ground across schools and sustain the program.