Our Approach: Learning On the Body, Not Just About It
Bio+CS is built on embodied robotics — small, wearable robots that travel directly on a student's body or clothing and respond to their real, physical activity. Where a slide can only show the circulatory system, an on-body robot can move along a student's arm, show where blood is flowing right now, and let a student feel their own pulse change the lesson in real time.
The technology grows out of our team's existing embodied robot, Calico: a compact, two-wheeled, wirelessly controlled robot that travels along a lightweight track worn on the body, already tested with more than 100 elementary-aged students at science fairs and workshops. Kids could control it just by moving their arms or jumping — no instructions needed — and parents were often just as fascinated as their children.
Every design decision is made with teachers and students, not for them, through an ongoing co-design process — because a tool this new only works if it fits into a real classroom, not just a lab demo.
