Meet Root, The Robot That Helps Students Understand Programming

The Robot That Helps Students Understand Programming

It’s the common adage around modern education. And of course it would be great if all kids learned a programming language or two before they graduated high school, but there’s a steep learning curve you have to break through before you can really get a solid grasp on coding.

SEE ALSO: 8 ways you can empower girls to learn coding

Root is a robot that smooths out that curve, allowing anyone who’s new to coding to make sense of the often-unintuitive nature of programming languages. Designed by the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, the magnetic robot glides along metal-backed whiteboards or any horizontal surface, drawing and erasing lines, scanning colors, playing musical notes and displaying different color lights — all of which you control with a unique programming app.

You control Root with Square (Square, Root, get it?), an iOS tablet app that has multiple proficiency levels to help people learn the principles of programming.

The first level of proficiency uses graphical drag-and-drop boxes to show what Root will do if you place in a certain event, like "turn left." Level two uses drag-and-drop boxes with programming language to give an idea of how these different events appear in coding. Level three, the highest level, is traditional text coding.

Zivthan Dubrovsky, a bio-inspired robotics team lead at Harvard University, told Mashable you can switch between the different levels whenever you want.

"So a program you made in level one, you can convert to level two, and than you can convert that to JavaScript [level three]," he said.

By sliding between each proficiency level, Square allows you to clearly see how lines of code make Root perform different tasks.

"So when somebody's coding in JavaScript, they now have a visual mindframe of what loops, sequences, functions, priorities and variables are," Dubrovsky said.

There are many ways to learn programming and work your way up from writing simple addition programs to creating gravitationally accurate solar system simulations. Drag-and-drop programming applications exist, like GameSalad, but they don't allow you to see any actual script. There are beginner languages that use simplified script, like Karel, but that could still prove difficult for elementary-level students to wrap their heads around.

Root and Square put these ideas together into a single system, allowing students to learn the ins and outs of coding without switching between different software and languages.

At level one, Root sticks to pretty basic object-oriented programming and is very similar to Karel, which is often students' introduction to coding languages like JavaScript or Python. This kind of programming is a good starting point for beginners, and being able to translate from drag-and-drop coding to text coding is a smart way to show kids how code

What Root can do

In the first proficiency level, Root can do some simple but fun things based on what you program it to do. You can have it spell your name, for example, which may not be as simple as you think.

"How would you code the robot to draw an 'M' on the board?" Dubrovsky said. "The students have to think through: when are they going to drop the pen, when are they going to lift the pen, what are the angles the robot has to turn, visualizing and projecting in their mind where the robot will be in space at what time."

Dubrovsky said you can also draw a racetrack on a whiteboard that Root can follow. You can program the robot to use its color sensors to stay within two lines.

Root can run programs from Square that are practical too, like erasing the whiteboard at the end of class time.

When you're coding in levels two or three, the possibilities are essentially limitless. Dubrovsky said you can play your own version of Angry Birds on the board with Root by drawing a marker line of varying length, having Root read that line and gather trajectory angle and speed variables from that line, which it can convert into its own movement path.
Bringing Root to the classroom

The team behind Square and Root is working on bringing its product to classrooms, Dubrovsky said. The first part of that plan is building awareness, and the next part is to reach out to superintendents and policymakers to find pilot schools to try this out with.

The team is looking to make Square and Root a national standard, and want to make current code-learning platforms like Code.org and Tynker be compatible with Root.

Dubrovksy said the team is currently looking for partners and investors to help bring Square and Root to the world. You can reserve your own Root for $199 and join the mailing list to stay up to date on launch dates and news.