How the programme came about
Polly is an unplugged coding and educational robotics programme in which children learn to build and control sequences of movement before handing them to a robot, so ideas such as orientation, laterality and the order of instructions are met through the body and through group work before they become commands.
The first documented version was delivered with early years children, and the programme was later developed into new activities that include Blue-Bot, grids, drawing, pixel art and the building of scenery.
The starting problem
Polly has to cross a route to reach the flowers and arrive at her destination, but to manage it the children have to realise that the robot does not know where to go until somebody turns the route into a precise sequence of instructions.
The story gives a concrete reason to words such as forward, back, right and left, and creates a situation where finding your bearings and programming are not two separate activities.
Before the robot is programmed
The first robot is a child. A grid is built on the floor and one member of the group crosses the space while the others prepare, communicate and check the instructions, so the sequence is not yet an abstract idea on a screen but something walked through with the body and discussed together.
Once the group knows the route the actions are represented with symbols, so the arrows make it possible to stop before execution and ask whether that sequence will really take Polly where they want to go. The mistake becomes visible before any button is pressed and the group can change the route without experiencing the correction as a failure.
From the large grid to Blue-Bot
The route then moves onto a smaller surface and the children have to programme the Blue-Bot with the sequence they prepared, watch what happens and go back to the instructions when the result does not match the intention.
The technology therefore arrives after the problem is already understood, and it serves to check whether the group's reasoning actually works.
Working as a group
Children do not all have to take part in the same way at the same time, because they can rotate through roles such as Commander, Supervisor and Builder and also contribute through drawing, pixel art, building the scenery or checking the route.
The roles rotate across sessions so that the work does not come down to whoever presses the robot's buttons.
Why Blue-Bot
Blue-Bot is not used because doing robotics is the goal, but because it carries out exactly what the group programmed and makes immediately visible the difference between what the children expected and what the sequence actually produces.
When the route does not work the group can go back to its own instructions and discuss which change is needed.
Links across subjects
The programme connects orientation and movement through work on the grid, mathematics through sequences, space, directions and symmetry, art through drawing and pixel art, language through explaining decisions, and technology through turning instructions into programmed behaviour.
What is left at the end
The output does not need to be a single final product, because what remains are routes, arrows, drawings, grids, maps, sequences and small scenery pieces that document how the group reached its solution and can also be used to tell families or teachers about the process.
What was observed
During the documented experience we observed a greater ability to handle sequences of several commands, a growing familiarity with laterality and progress in the group's design and cooperative skills. These are observations about that specific context, not an experimental evaluation of the method.
How it can be adapted
The programme can be simplified down to body, arrows and Blue-Bot alone, or extended with pixel art, drawing, scenery building and narrative work, while with older children the routes can become more complex, constraints can be introduced and the paths can be linked to geometric shapes or more structured problems.
