The theme of this week has been “Hello World!” We are introducing a new language to the Kindergarten age range, so we felt that this was the most apt analogy for teaching the basics of how our blocks work. The environment is dynamic, and changes as the child adds or takes blocks out of the work space. The work space will be mapped, so location of the blocks in the work space will be reflected in the virtual environment.

We tried to place as few restrictions as possible, so that the children are invited to explore and try different combinations of blocks. We do want to provide some context for relationships between the blocks, so relative math will be applied to determine whether two blocks are within range for reaction.

We will also provide basic templates that help explain the meaning of the blocks, and inspire the child to put together ideas from different templates. Part of what we hope to learn from our first play test is whether the templates are necessary. The children that frequent the museum have a good amount of savvy, and the Makeshop indicated that mimicking within the museum is very common.

The children will have the opportunity to use the following blocks:

• Show Me – Our analogy to the print function, which is required to display something on screen
• Object – Basic characters and objects that will be rendered in grayscale if used alone
• Color – A block that paints the objects based on its orientation with the object block
• Action – Looping animation