No, you don’t need a screen to learn to code. Robot Turtles is how.

How a remarkable board game teaches programming, WITHOUT a computer

Part 1 of 2: Overview

[Go to Part 2: Puzzles]

Robot Turtles is an intro to programming curriculum in a box, disguised as a game that absolutely anybody can play. Here’s how it works, who it’s for, and why I recommend it.

This article originally ran in Robot Owl, a newsletter for parents and teachers who want to spark a passion in any child for curiosity and innovation. Subscribe here.

Fast facts on Robot Turtles:

Price: $25 at Amazon

Ages: 4–14 Can be used from Pre-K (with appropriate support) to 9th grade (with focus on advanced topics)

Number of players: 1–8. Can be played solo, in a small group, or can even be extended to an entire classroom

Time: 20–30 mins. Depends on puzzle complexity; players will usually play multiple 10-minute puzzles in a row

Curriculum alignment: see end of this article

An elegantly simple introduction to programming

Robot Turtles is an elegantly simple game where players navigate a robotic turtle character to its goal.

Players have a few dozen cards in several types. These cards move the turtle forward, or make it turn left or right:

Forward, left turn, and right turn cardsBut — and this is key — players aren’t allowed to move the turtle one card at a time. They have to write the entire sequence of steps — the robot’s “program” — and have it run from start to finish.

Setup

Colorful cardboard tokens represent the turtles, various obstacles, and the jewel goals.

To begin, an adult places a turtle and a goal jewel around the board’s grid:

What sequence of steps — forward, turn left, turn right — would get this robot turtle to the same space as the jewel?The adult can add obstacles as well, to make the puzzles more challenging:

There are three obstacle types:

• walls: turtles can’t move through walls. If they try, they just bump it and stay where they are.
• ice walls: like regular walls, but they can be melted with a laser blast (kids love blasting these!)
• boxes: movable! Pushing forward against these moves them forward, as long as there is space behind them. Several in a row can be pushed.

Gameplay

Now the children create their programs by assembling a sequence of cards.

One of my students composing a program

When the programs are ready, the adult plays the role of the “computer”, dutifully carrying out the sequence, step by step.

Even if an instruction doesn’t make sense, the “computer” must carry it out. If a turtle is facing a wall and the next card is a “forward” card, it should bump up against the wall and keep going with the rest of the program.

Cool malfunction!

When something goes wrong — and it almost always does — it’s a bug! The “computer” player returns the turtle to its starting position, the programmer adjusts the program, and the “computer” carries out the revised sequence.

One of my students revising his program

Players are encouraged to understand that this “debugging” is a normal, expected part of programming. Programs aren’t supposed to start out perfect; the fun is in finding problems and fixing them!

In fact, some of the biggest laughs I’ve gotten in my classroom have come when there’s a bug early in a student’s code — but I keep executing the program, no matter where it brings the turtle.

My class’s motto is “cool malfunction!” And I invoke it often while playing Robot Turtles. In fact, when we start playing, I tell students, “Let’s see how many malfunctions we can discover!”

Kids ask to do programming

The greatest achievement of Robot Turtles is that it teaches programming while looking attractive and feeling fun. Kids I’ve shown it to actually ask for it, and jump at the chance to play it again.

Kids scrambling to tackle “just one more” new puzzle

Iterative development

Robot Turtles lets kids discover, on their own, that coding means:

1. writing code;
2. testing it and seeing its bugs;
3. rewriting it and trying again.

This process is called iterative development; an “iteration” is a step in the right direction. Every programmer on earth uses iterative development, from video games to websites to the International Space Station.

Running into bugs and rewriting code doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong — it means you’re doing something right, learning and making your program stronger.

The child gets to be the boss

One of my students bossing around the “computer” — that is, me

Programmer and dad Dan Shapiro created Robot Turtles in 2013. He emphasizes how clearly it shows the gap between what we tell computers to do, and what we want them to do:

I started Robot Turtles as a game that I was playing with my kids… It was fun, and along the way it taught them some of the basics of computer programming.

…Things like debugging, like thinking of the computer as an infinitely patient but incredibly stupid servant who does whatever you tell it to do (but not necessarily what you want).

It teaches you about trying things out, and backing up and trying again if what you tried doesn’t work.

My favorite part of the game is that the parent is the computer: the parent plays the infinitely patient robot and the child gets to boss them around.

I see lots of students having fun with these dynamics of control and coding intention — making random sequences of cards, or a dozen of the same card in a row, or randomly inserting an extra card in a working program to see what happens.

This might seem like misbehavior, but it’s actually crucial. By testing the limits of a system, we explore its constraints and better understand its rules.

Adding obstacle types

As students get the hang of the game, you can steadily add more types of obstacle. Dan Shapiro calls this “unlocking” the obstacles, borrowing a term from the video game world.

Here’s a simple puzzle that introduces ice walls:

Each laser blast melts one ice wall that’s in front of the turtle, but has no effect on regular walls. We like to say that blasting the jewel will destroy it!

To melt ice walls, players will need to use the Laser Blast card:

Here’s a puzzle that introduces boxes:

Boxes may need to be pushed multiple times.

Creating puzzles

A weakness of Robot Turtles is that it does not come with pre-existing puzzles. Teachers must create their own, or use a small library of examples that the publisher has provided on their website.

Creating puzzles is not difficult, but it does require that teachers get familiar with the game before introducing it to students, so they have a sense of the level of complexity their initial puzzles should have.

Teachers of older and more experienced students may wish to spend some time designing and saving more complex puzzles (by snapping a photo of them).

In Part 2 of this article, I’ll show you a set of puzzles I’ve created that kids love.

Advanced puzzles

As players move from simple, 3-card programs to long and complex ones, the teacher can introduce an additional card: the “frog function” card. A function is a core computer science concept: it is a set of steps that can be run at any time by other parts of the program.

In Part 2 of this article, I’ll introduce you to the Function Frog card and provide a set of sample puzzles that teach students how to use it.

I’ll go into detail about Function Frog in Part 2.

Using human robots

The board isn’t necessary to write and run programs. Have the programs move people instead! Use linoleum squares, carpet squares, or masking tape on the floor as your grid. Students can move their teacher around the floor, or taking turns moving each other. (Robot voices are optional!)

I’ve used this approach with students from Pre-K to 5th grade across New York City, and it’s always been a big hit. I wrote about it for MAKE Magazine, if you want to learn more.

A few more thoughts

Right and left: Early on, students will have trouble understanding why the left turn and right turn cards don’t always produce the behavior they expect. This is a great opportunity to talk about how programmers need to think from the robot/computer’s point of view. Encourage them to stand up, face the way the robot turtle is facing, and try turning to their left or right.

Modding: the game can be “modded” with new tokens and new cards. What about a button that opens a door remotely? Battery packs required to fuel the lasers?

Video intro

There’s a good Robot Turtles intro video that demonstrates the basics:

Read Part 2: Puzzles

Did you know you can use Robot Turtles to explore concepts that many computer science students don’t encounter until college?

In Part 2 of this article, I will provide a set of puzzles I use in my classes, and go into detail about Function Frog, the most advanced programming element in Robot Turtles.

Robot Turtles curricular standards alignment

This section is just for the teachers. See more on the Robot Turtles website.

Computer Science concepts
Algorithmic thinking, testing and debugging, problem analysis and decomposition, fault isolation, functions and abstraction

Common Core State Standards for ELA/Literacy
Science and Technical Subjects (2010):

• RST.6–8.3 (precisely follow multi-step procedure)
• RST.6–8.7 (integration between verbal and visual solution)

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
Mathematical Practices (2010, Grades K-8):

• MP1 (make sense of problems, persevere in solving them)
• MP2 (reason abstractly and quantitatively)
• MP3 (construct arguments, critique reasoning)
• MP6 (attend to precision)
• MP7 (make use of structure)

Next Generation Science Standards
Engineering Design (2013):

• 3–5-ETS1–1, MS-ETS1–1 (defining design problems)
• 3–5-ETS1–2, MS-ETS1–2 (generating/evaluating solutions per problem constraints)
• 3–5-ETS1–3, MS-ETS1–3 (testing solutions to identify improvements, combinations)

This was lovingly written by Ben Wheeler in Brooklyn, NY. If you like it, please subscribe at robotowl.co to get Robot Owl in your inbox!