CuddleCode: A Customizable, Programmable Stuffed Animal to Provide Girls with an Emotional Connection to Programming

CuddleCode is a maker kit that enables girls ages 6-10 to design, build, and program their own stuffed animals. The kit consists of a main body powered by the BBC micro:bit along with various interchangeable body parts embedded with sensors and outputs. CuddleCode’s body parts can be Velcroed to its exterior and programmed using the block-based programming environment, MakeCode.
Through assembling their own stuffed animal, girls build an emotional relationship with CuddleCode. This emotional relationship provides a foundation upon which they learn to combine inputs, outputs, and logic to create computational systems. In providing this emotional connection between the physical and the digital, CuddleCode serves as a “transitional object,” (Eisenberg, 2003) enabling the transition of reasoning from physical to formal environments.

This showcase comprises a demonstration of the assembly and programming of CuddleCode followed by a discussion of the design considerations and learning outcomes.

For more information, please visit www.cuddlecode.com.