Impact of Additional Programming Constructs on a Tangible Programming Language for Robots

Introducing young children to robotics programming can be difficult. Children have to learn not only how to program but also how to use the components of a computer (e.g. keyboard and mouse). Tangible-based programming languages provide an alternate approach as children can focus directly on learning programming. However, there are no guidelines on how to produce tangible programming languages. This paper reports on our attempt to develop and evaluate such a language. Designing a tangible language requires a trade-off between completeness and complexity in the language, with designers aiming to reduce complexity while increasing completeness. Most participants agreed that using colour helped the language, but all other features had mixed results.