The push to teach coding in U.S. schools has been growing: Thanks to initiatives like the White House’s CS for All program, computer science is now recognized as a core skill for today’s students. A new study by Gallup and Google revealed that 90 percent of parents want their child to learn CS, yet only 40 percent of K-12 school districts offer some kind of CS course. Teacher recruitment and training efforts are beginning to solve the problem at the high-school level, but in K-8 schools (where very few schools offer CS and many teachers are generalists) the challenges are different. Many teachers without much coding experience understandably feel anxious about integrating this new literacy into their classrooms.

Our team at Harvard University is hoping to change that with Root. Root is a new kind of robot that colors outside the lines of the educational robotics category by providing unique capabilities along with a programming interface that grows with its user, bringing coding to life for all ages. After nearly three years of development, Root and its companion app, Root Square, have emerged as a solution to ease teachers’ anxiety about adding coding to the lessons that they teach.

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