Google has unveiled Project Bloks to provide a way for kids to partake in “tangible programming,” allowing them to learn computational skills without looking at a screen.

    Using a system with just three main components, children can customize and rearrange their blocks to create a set of instructions that will control any connected toys or devices.

    Project Bloks is a collaborative effort from Google, Paulo Blikstein of Stanford University, and Ideo, and taps into kids’ inherent learning techniques. It makes coding a physical experience so kids can work with their hands, learning through computational thinking while they play, the firm explains in a blog post.

    So far, the research team has created a reference device called the Coding Kit, with which kids can arrange the blocks to create instructions for devices, including a drawing robot, and Lego’s “Education WeDo2.0.”

    The system is made up of just three core components: the “Brain Board,” “Base Boards,” and “Pucks.”

    “One of the big things about teaching kids how to program is that they can express ideas that they wouldn’t be able to express otherwise,” Blikstein said.(SD-Agencies)