The invention of Białystok University of Technology students - Cube&Code - will teach children programming without using a computer. With colourful bricks and special rail children will be able to give commands to robots.
Cube&Code is an interactive system supporting the development of logical thinking in preschool children - told PAP one of the inventors Marcin Joka, a student at Białystok University of Technology.
"The system is designed for children who can not read yet, and do not use computer applications. Its purpose is to teach them how programming works" - said Joka. He added that the invention is a response to the lack of programs that would teach programming to children, and its innovation lies in the fact that they do not need a tablet or computer.
Cube&Code is an introduction to learning programming. It consists of a special rail communicating with a robot and coloured bricks. The task of children is to control a robot according to instructions. By inserting bricks in the rail, where each brick has a different colour and symbol, and is responsible for different movement, children "animate" the robot. "This shows children that everything happens in the right order, as they lay the bricks. They see that it is up to them what the robot will do" - added the author of the project.
The designers want their invention to communicate with different kinds of robots for children, which are available on the market. First, however, preschoolers will "teach" movements to the robot Photon, which is also an invention of Białystok University of Technology students.
Photon - according to its creators - is the world\'s first interactive robot that "grows with the child", through fun and rivalry helps the youngest learn logical thinking, the basics of programming, but also the so-called soft skills. The robot is integrated with a smartphone or tablet. Children solve problems and win special points, so that later they can unlock new functions of the robot, and improve others. This way, Photon grows with the child.
Photon is expected to enter the market - as Joka announced - in April 2016. Cube&Code will be available about three months later.
Cube&Code won this year\'s edition of the "Technotalent 2015" competition of innovative projects of young inventors from the Podlasie province in two categories (Business and Social Challenge).
More about the project at www.meetphoton.com
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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