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Move machine — First steps in coding

Ages 7 to 12 · about 8 minutes · 8by8verse Chess Lab

What it teaches

Sequencing instructions, repetition, and debugging — finding the one step that is wrong.

The story to tell first

In 1770 a machine called the Turk amazed the courts of Europe by playing chess — until people learned a human master was hidden inside. A real machine does only what its program says, one command at a time. Here you write the program.

Three questions to ask

• The rook did exactly what you wrote. Was that what you meant?
• How did “Forward ×5” save you commands? Where do we use the same idea in maths?
• When your program failed, how did you find the mistake?

Without a screen

One pupil is the robot, eyes closed. Another gives only three commands — forward, turn left, turn right — to reach the door.