
Root, a code-teaching robot - jonbaer
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/04/root-the-code-teaching-robot/
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rubidium
The "multi-level" programming (simple graphical, complex graphical, text) was
really neat to see.

It seems like an attempt to improve on Lego Mindstorm, since that's another
"teach programming using robots". So that brings to mind a question: has there
been any educational studies to see if mindstorms is a good program? Does it
actually deliver on having kids who are interested in STEM vs. schools that
don't have mindstorm? That seems to be a key study to determine if Root is
even solving a real problem vs. just speculative problem solving.

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davidwihl
The CEEO at Tufts does a lot of research in this specific area.
[http://ceeo.tufts.edu/research/](http://ceeo.tufts.edu/research/)

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rubidium
Thanks! I skimmed a few of their articles and it seemed more qualitative
review than quantitative outcomes... but helpful to see some of the work
that's been done. And maybe I missed the quantitative ones.

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aldanor
Not quite clear whether (and when, if at all) it will be released to the
general public.

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michaelmior
From the project homepage:

> The Wyss team is currently seeking the right curriculum and translation
> partners to help put Root coding robots in every classroom.

It's very vague but at least it looks like they're pushing for making it more
broadly available. I really hope that works out because this seems like a
fantastic teaching tool. The heavy focus on whiteboard usage is quite smart.

