Gallery: Can You Teach Programming With Plywood?
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Primo is a $262 kit that consists of two main components—wooden robot called Cubetto and a plywood compiler board. *Photo: Primo*
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"Giving Cubetto a face was something we are proud of because it gives him a personality," says Primo managing director Filippo Yacob. "Children like him and that makes them want to help him find his way home." *Photo: Primo*
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Using a special area of the board, the sippy cup set can create a four-step function, like making Cubetto move in a circle, that can be invoked by placing a special green block. *Photo: Primo*
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Primo is staying true to its hackerspace roots. "We wanted Primo to feel like a toy, not like a tech gadget," says Yacob. *Photo: Primo*
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"Before we can teach children programming we need to teach them the logic behind it, so they can find the topic easy as they progress to further learning," says Yacob. *Photo: Primo*
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Programming with blocks isn't intrinsically exciting. Instead, the joy comes from helping kids balance an abstract set of directions with the very real contents of their living rooms. *Photo: Primo*
