6We Design a Robot

Fawzooz took the two children to a little corner of the shared workspace, with lots of other little ones around them. On the table stood a real robot with two wheels and a small eye that could see colours. Fawzooz said, “Today we’ll learn the basics of programming, and design a simple AI model.”

The little girl asked, “Do we need lots of maths? I’m scared of my times tables!” He answered, “Maths is important, but don’t worry; we’ll start with easy basics. We’ll use a programming language for children called Scratch.” The little boy said, “I know it! I used it at school.”

Fawzooz explained, “In Scratch we use coloured blocks to write instructions. We’ll start with a block that moves the robot forward.” The children dragged the blocks into place; programming was like a building puzzle. On the first try, the robot rolled forward until it nearly fell off the edge of the table, and Fawzooz caught it at the very last moment.

“Today, a robot that stops at red; and tomorrow, in sha Allah, ideas that serve the whole village.”

Then Fawzooz drew a road on the floor and put down two cards, a red one and a green one, and said, “Now let’s give the robot some intelligence: when it sees red it stops, and when it sees green it moves.” The little boy said, “We need an ‘if’ block!”

The children got it wrong once, then twice, and on the third try they got it right. The little girl held up the red card and the robot stopped; then she showed it the green one, and off it went.

The little boy shouted, “We did it!” And the little girl said, “I’m proud of what we made.” Fawzooz said, “Masha Allah! You’ve programmed a simple model that sees and decides. With every try, you’ll learn something new.”

Then Fawzooz looked at the children around the table and said to himself, “Today, a robot that stops at red; and tomorrow, in sha Allah, ideas that serve the whole village.”