At the present, two emergent global trends in the toy industry are taking place: 1) breaking gender stereotypes between boys and girls in toys and play, and 2) training basic competences of computation in young children by teaching them to code in a specific programming language. Teaching computer programming as educational programs has the objective to empower children’s community with technology daring as competences for the future, having the problem of communicating kids with the mental processes for writing code and develop a computer program. Gender stereotypes in toys, shape in a biased manner cognitive, emotional and social abilities of kids, therefore augmenting the breach of social inequality through generating gendered professional competences and stereotyped career patterns needing innovative solutions that respond to this problem.
Beatwheel is the solution that opens design up to introduce and convey the basics of coding through empowering kids to compose their own sounds and music through a tangible interface and a user-friendly software design.Beatwheel is an easy-to-program musical instrument that conjures playful experiences and learning environments.
Beatwheel is a rechargeable device that takes the code out of the computer. It contains the syntax on physical pieces assigned with a code argument standing for a specific musical function that users arrange to write a program and create music. The software allows kids to visualize and access the source code of each piece and modify parameters through a colored block-based coding language. Beatwheel amplifies learning accesses for all kids with no gender distinction making coding and fresh music available for everybody while offering special agreements for schools and coding camps.