Tangible Coding Board: A Steping Stone to Computing and Fabrication for Children

Abstract

Computational thinking is increasingly important in today's world and teaching children this skill is important for their future. Teaching children programming is one way to develop computational thinking skills. HCI researchers have already explored different construction kits for teaching programming to different age groups. But, there is a trade-off between functionality and easy of use for newcomers. In this paper, we present the design of a Tangible Coding Board for children between the ages of 10 to 12 years which could help children to get into fabrication and minimal programming. With our toolkit, children can potentially program sensors and actuators in a tangible way to make their own interactive designs and fabricate personally meaningful artifacts.