Google has launched a hardware project dubbed ‘Project Bloks’ to help teach kids how to code. There are three components to the learning experience: Brain Board, Base Boards, and Pucks. The Brain Board features a processing unit that is based off of Raspberry Pi Zero, which controls and provides power to the rest of the connected components. It does also interact with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices. The Base Boards are connective units that let users design instruction flows.

https://projectbloks.withgoogle.com/

Google Research Blog:
Google announces Project Bloks, a new open hardware platform to make coding physical for kids, still in development — Posted by Steve Vranakis and Jayme Goldstein, Executive Creative Director and Project Lead, Google Creative Lab — At Google, we’re passionate about empowering children to create and explore with technology.

Project Bloks: Making code physical for kids
https://research.googleblog.com/2016/06/project-bloks-making-code-physical-for.html

At Google, we’re passionate about empowering children to create and explore with technology. We believe that when children learn to code, they’re not just learning how to program a computer—they’re learning a new language for creative expression and are developing computational thinking: a skillset for solving problems of all kinds. In fact, it’s a skillset whose importance is being recognised around the world—from President Obama’s CS4All program to the inclusion of Computer Science in the UK National Curriculum. We’ve long supported and advocated the furthering of CS education through programs and platforms such as Blockly, Scratch Blocks, CS First and Made w/ Code. Today, we’re happy to announce Project Bloks, a research collaboration between Google, Paulo Blikstein (Stanford University) and IDEO with the goal of creating an open hardware platform that researchers, developers and designers can use to build physical coding experiences. As a first step, we’ve created a system for tangible programming and built a working prototype with it. We’re sharing our progress before conducting more research over the summer to inform what comes next.

Introducing Project Bloks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuRTS35ouTs

Google launches ‘Project Bloks’ toys to teach kids to code
http://thenextweb.com/google/2016/06/27/google-launches-project-bloks-toys-teach-kids-code/#gref

Google wants to help teach kids how to code, so now it’s launching a hardware platform for kids (and curious) adults to learn the principles of code. It’s called Project Bloks.

There are three components to the experience.

The Brain Board houses a processing unit based off of Raspberry Pi Zero, both controlling and providing power to the rest of the connected units. It can also interact with WiFi and Bluetooth devices.

Meanwhile, the ‘Base Boards’ are connective units that let you design instruction flows.