Product Updates – Wonder Workshop https://www.makewonder.com/en Empowering educators. Inspiring Kids. Wed, 27 Aug 2025 01:05:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://www.makewonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/ww-favicon_64x64.png Product Updates – Wonder Workshop https://www.makewonder.com/en 32 32 Join our Python Pilot https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/join-our-python-pilot/ Tue, 26 Aug 2025 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=13043

🚀 Invitation to Join Our Blockly Pro Python Pilot!

Are your students ready to take their coding skills to the next level? We’re excited to invite educators to participate in a pilot program for our newest feature in Blockly Pro—Python coding!

Until now, Blockly Pro allowed students to toggle between block-based coding and JavaScript. With this pilot, students will be able to switch seamlessly between Blockly, JavaScript, and Python, giving them an authentic introduction to one of the world’s most widely used programming languages.

🧑‍🏫 Who Can Participate?

This opportunity is open to upper elementary and middle school classrooms that meet the following requirements:

  • An active Make Wonder Subscription

  • Dash Robots available for student use

  • Students who are already familiar with Blockly

  • Access to a Chrome Browser on student devices

đź“… Pilot Timeline

  • Pilot Window: September 15 – October 31, 2025

  • Feedback Due: November 4, 2025 (though we welcome input throughout the testing period)

📝 What’s Involved

As part of the pilot, you and your students will:

  • Explore the Beta version of Blockly Pro with Python

  • Test its features in your classroom with Dash

  • Share your feedback, ideas, and any issues you encounter

Your input will directly help us shape the future of Blockly Pro for classrooms everywhere.

đź“Ś How to Apply

If you meet the requirements and are excited to join, please fill out this form to express your interest. We’ll reach out to selected participants with next steps.

Apply here

We can’t wait to see your students coding in Python with Dash! 🎉

]]> Expanding Access: Blockly’s Make Wonder Content is Now Available in Spanish https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/expanding-access-blocklys-make-wonder-content-is-now-available-in-spanish/ Wed, 02 Apr 2025 14:40:20 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=12721

We’re excited to announce an important update: Blockly’s web and iOS apps now offer all student-facing content in Spanish, including premium content available with a Make Wonder subscription. This expanded language support empowers Spanish-speaking learners to fully immerse themselves in coding activities, math lessons, and science explorations without language barriers. It also opens up new possibilities for educators seeking to create bilingual or dual-language learning experiences in Spanish, and ensures students in these settings can discover the joy of coding.

Blockly Has Long Supported Multiple Languages in its Coding Interface

Blockly has long supported multiple languages—including English, French, German, Korean, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese—for its core interface, coding blocks, and puzzles. 

So What's Changed?

Premium lessons (unlocked with a Make Wonder subscription), such as Coding Pathways, Math Activities, and Science Activities, were previously only available in English. Now, all instructional materials, challenges, and guidance are available in Spanish, creating a fully immersive learning experience for Spanish-speaking students.

Many Coding Pathways lessons include instructional videos that explain key concepts. All instructional videos have been translated into Spanish as well. Here is a sample instructional video from Coding Pathway Level B.

Why This Matters for Your Classroom

For teachers working with Spanish-speaking students, this update ensures that:

  • Students can engage with Coding Pathways, Math Activities, and Science Activities in their native language, reducing barriers to understanding and increasing confidence.
  • STEM learning is available to all, including in bilingual and dual-language classrooms.

Teachers can seamlessly integrate coding and robotics into their curriculum, across science, math, and coding, knowing that instructional materials are accessible to a wider range of learners.

How to Access Spanish Content

Enabling Spanish in Blockly is simple:

Set the device language to Spanish. Blockly will automatically switch to Spanish when the iOS or web browser settings are adjusted.

For Apple iOS devices, go to Settings > General > Language & RegionFor Android devices, go to Settings > Language and Input.

For Chrome, go to chrome://settings/languages). Under Preferred languages, click Add languages and select Spanish. Click the three-dot menu next to the language and select Move to the top to set it as the primary language. Restart Chrome to apply the changes.

Start exploring! Students will now see all lessons, coding challenges, and activities in Spanish.

A Step Forward for Global, Multilingual Coding Education

This update reflects our ongoing mission to make coding and robotics education accessible to all learners, no matter where they are in the world. Whether you’re teaching in a bilingual classroom, supporting Spanish-speaking students in your school, or reaching young coders across Spain and Latin America, Blockly’s expanded language support ensures that every child can experience the joy of coding in their native language.

Happy coding! 🚀

]]> New NGSS Science Adventures: Blast Off with 20 K-5 Science Activities for Curious Coders https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/new-ngss-science-adventures-blast-off-with-20-k-5-science-activities-for-curious-coders/ Mon, 10 Mar 2025 17:10:47 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=12690

Blast Off with New Science Activities in Make Wonder

Are you ready to take your students on an out-of-this-world learning journey? We’re thrilled to announce our brand-new NGSS-aligned Science Activities! These 20 interactive K-5 activities combine Earth & Space, Life, and Physical Science concepts with fundamental coding skills—like sequencing, loops, events, and conditionals—so kids can learn by doing, discovering, and, most importantly, having fun.

Engaging, Real-World Storylines

Each activity starts with an exciting real-world scenario where Dash, our beloved robot, needs a helping hand. Along the way, students step into the shoes of explorers and problem-solvers, applying newly learned science ideas to guide Dash toward a creative solution. Whether investigating Earth’s natural resources, examining the life cycles of plants and animals, or delving into the mysteries of motion and energy, every challenge ties back to meaningful phenomena that spark curiosity and build enduring understanding.

Interactive, Hands-On Learning

As students help Dash navigate each activity, they’ll build and refine their coding skills. From simple sequences for younger learners to more advanced conditional statements for older kids, the activities are thoughtfully tailored to each grade level. By connecting coding challenges with science concepts, students quickly see that computational thinking is a great way to make sense of the world around them and solve authentic problems.

Comprehensive Teacher Resources

Each lesson is supported by robust wraparound teacher resources to ensure a seamless experience in the classroom. An in-depth guide breaks down the lesson flow step by step, offering clear explanations of the solutions for both the science questions and coding challenges. In addition, each lesson includes a customizable slide deck that teachers can adapt to their unique instructional style and student needs. To further support educators, detailed standards-alignment information is provided. All of these resources work in concert to help teachers confidently deliver each lesson, track student progress, and foster a deeper, more engaging learning environment.

Seamless Assessment Tools

To help teachers measure student growth and mastery, each activity includes a pre-assessment and questions along the way that add up to a post-assessment. As students move through the lessons, they answer targeted questions that reveal how well they’re grasping the core concepts. When they’re finished, you’ll have clear, actionable data to guide personalized instruction and share progress with parents and colleagues.

Empower the Next Generation of Innovators

We believe that blending coding with hands-on science sets kids up for a lifetime of curiosity, creativity, and confidence. By exploring everything from life cycles and ecosystems to energy transformations and space exploration, students develop an enduring passion for discovery. And by coding their way through each scenario, they develop problem-solving skills that will serve them in every area of learning.

Ready to launch your classroom into an exciting new dimension of STEM education? Get started with our 20 NGSS Science Activities and watch your students learn and code in ways you’ve never seen before. 

Together, let’s inspire the next generation of thinkers, explorers, and change makers.

Science activities are included in a paid Make Wonder subscription. To get started with Make Wonder, sign up for the Free Tier. To access the science activities, purchase a subscription to Make Wonder. 

Shop Make Wonder
]]> New Make Wonder Feature: Classroom Codes https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/new-make-wonder-feature-classroom-codes/ Thu, 08 Aug 2024 21:32:50 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=12065

We are excited to announce a new feature for the 2024-25 school year – Classroom Codes.

Classroom Codes simplify the Blockly login process for students by providing them with a Code that will take them directly to a listing of profiles inside of Blockly that correspond to their specific classroom, rather than all students in an teacher’s account. It makes it a lot easier and faster for students to find their own student profile avatar and get started coding right away!

In the Make Wonder Platform for teachers, Classroom Codes can be found in the “Setup Classrooms” section and will be displayed next to each Classroom section that you have created.

They have the format: xxxxx-xxx.

Note that if you are using the Free Tier of Make Wonder, you are able to create just one classroom.

Students are prompted to enter a code, when they launch Blockly and tap on the Make Wonder icon.

Classroom Code Screenshot

Students enter the Classroom Code into the same field that they enter a Teacher Code. The hyphen will appear automatically as students type in the code.

If students have entered a teacher code, they will select their Classroom from the dropdown menu (if you have created more than 1 classroom), and then will use the gray scroll bar at the bottom to locate their student profile. They will then click on their Profile thumbnail to login and access any Assignments.

If students have entered a Classroom Code instead of a Teacher Code, they will be taken to their classroom immediately. See how much faster that is?

You asked. We listened!

New to Make Wonder?

Learn more about all of Make Wonder’s features, by visiting our Make Wonder page or by browsing Make Wonder options at our online store.

And find more resources for using Dash in the classroom on our Getting Started page.

]]> Blockly for Dash – On the Web https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/blockly-for-dash-on-the-web/ https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/blockly-for-dash-on-the-web/#respond Fri, 18 Aug 2023 13:50:42 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=11548

With the New Free Tier, Student Profiles Are Available to All Who Set Up a Classroom in Make Wonder (Class Connect).

You may have heard that we are rolling out a bunch of new features in what was called Class Connect – so many new features that we’re renaming it Make Wonder!

This article explains how you can leverage the free tier of Make Wonder to set up student accounts inside of Blockly, allowing them to save work and maintain progress.

This article also draws attention to the fact that Blockly is not only available for mobile devices. It can be accessed directly on the web (Chrome browser supported).

When kids launch Blockly on the web, they need to enter a teacher code to find their profile inside. When they complete puzzles, their progress is saved and the teacher can view that progress inside the Portal!

Ready to get started? Let’s go!

Step 1
Sign Up or Log In

The first step is to make sure that you, the teacher, are logged into the Make Wonder (Class Connect) portal. If you don’t have an account yet, get started by signing up. It’s free and new for this year, it doesn’t expire!

Proceed through the onboarding screens to get your account all set up.

Sign Up for the Free Tier of Make Wonder

Step 2
Set Up Your Classroom

The next step is to set up your classroom. For student names, enter only first names. Also choose a profile name that will be visible inside of Blockly (to students who use your Teacher Code). Kids look for their profile card and then click on it to load their activity and pick up where they left off.

Step 3
Launch Blockly & Enter Your Teacher Code

Your Teacher Code can be found just beneath the Navigation Bar in the portal. If you launch Blockly from inside the portal, your Teacher Code will be populated in the field automatically. Students can enter the code manually.

Launch Blockly

Click through the next screens until you arrive at the Profile Cards. Each student should find their own profile card and click on it to get started or resume. 

Step 4
Students Connect Dash

See that big orange + sign in the upper right hand corner? That’s the button kids push in order to connect Dash to Blockly so they can program the robot.

When accessing Blockly with a free Make Wonder (Class Connect) Teacher account, students need a physical Dash to program. The full Make Wonder license provides a Virtual Dash right inside of the Blockly App.

virtualrobot-scaled-pbtmnks7d1416wcgcyfv9dzzlech2sdiiwewoxbda4
A full Make Wonder license unlocks a Virtual Dash inside of Blockly.

Step 5
Students Start Solving the Puzzles

Now students can start their coding journey by tapping on the first icon. Each puzzle builds on the one before it and completing a puzzle unlocks the next one. You can watch your students’ progress through these puzzles in the Make Wonder dashboard!

Student view of the Puzzles
Teacher View of the Progress Tracker

Many additional features are adding to Blockly when you move from Make Wonder Basic, the free tier, to a full Make Wonder subscription.

These additional features make it even easier to teach coding by providing student-facing, multimedia coding lessons, the Virtual Dash, coding challenges that are aligned to Math standards, standards-aligned Challenge Cards and more. To see how these features fit into a Make Wonder subscription, click around inside of the Basic subscription and preview them. 

For more tips and tricks, join our Global Educator Community on Facebook!

Or sign up to attend one of our webinars!

]]> https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/blockly-for-dash-on-the-web/feed/ 0 Class Connect is Becoming Make Wonder https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/class-connect-is-becoming-make-wonder/ https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/class-connect-is-becoming-make-wonder/#respond Wed, 16 Aug 2023 01:07:15 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=11505

We are excited to announce that our Class Connect platform is bigger and better than ever.

So big, we’re renaming it.

Introducing Make Wonder, your comprehensive solution for teaching coding and robotics in grades K-8. Make Wonder makes it easier than ever to jump into teaching STEM and coding, even if you have limited experience. And Make Wonder makes learning to code more engaging than ever for all students, as they move toward coding literacy while collaborating, thinking critically, and tapping into their own creativity.

(Read on to learn about our new free version too).

This year, Make Wonder will include the following new features:

  • A Chrome web-app that powers Dash with text-based coding, so kids can transition to JavaScript. We call it Blockly Pro.
  • Coding Pathways lessons for grades 1-3 (levels A-C of code.org standards
  • Additional Read Aloud Support in Blockly to make it accessible to all

Features still included:

  • A virtual robot enabling a software-only coding & robotics solution
  • Coding Pathways for grades 3-5 (levels D-F of code.org)
  • Individual Account Creation and Progress Tracking
  • 72 Digital Challenge Cards
  • 60 Math (Coding) Activities
  • Participation in the Wonder League Robotics Competition
  • Online Professional Development Course
  • Access to our Premium Cross Curricular Lesson Library
  • + More!

Also new for this year, a TOTALLY FREE, NO-EXPIRATION-DATE “MAKE WONDER BASIC” SUBSCRIPTION OPTION that enables all teachers to create individual student accounts and track student progress through the Blockly Puzzles.

While we are in the process of transitioning the name, all of these features are already available. It will take a few weeks to finalize the transition, but know that Class Connect subscriptions will automatically become Make Wonder subscriptions, and all of the features are included going forward.

This is your year to Make Wonder.

Get Started for Free
]]> https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/class-connect-is-becoming-make-wonder/feed/ 0 New Features In the Works at Wonder Workshop https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/new-features-at-wonder-workshop/ https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/new-features-at-wonder-workshop/#respond Tue, 02 May 2023 16:00:43 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=10949
Watch Keynote on Demand

At the Opening Keynote of our Spring International STEAM Summit, we were thrilled to have our very own Bryan Miller, Senior Director Global Strategic Outreach, announce several exciting new developments that have been in the works at Wonder Workshop.

We have been working hard to bring you new, innovative features that will meet your needs and enhance your ability to teach students important lessons in coding, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.

In case you missed it, here’s what Bryan announced!

  • We are excited to introduce Blockly Pro to Class Connect subscribers! We are releasing this Blockly Pro web-app in BETA in the next few weeks. Blockly Pro will enable students to program Dash using text-based coding so that students can transition from Blockly to Javascript. If you are familiar with the Cue app, many of the features of Blockly Pro will be familiar to you.

Are you a Class Connect subscriber interested in experiencing Blockly Pro for yourself? Share your interest here: https://forms.gle/bG78CW59HtwPTe8A7

Be First to Access Blockly Pro
  • Coding Pathways, our online, multimedia coding lessons, will add levels A-C of the code.org standards. We currently offer Coding Pathways for levels D-F, so this addition will complete the program.
  • In time for Back-to-School, we will introduce a new FREE tier of Class Connect, called Class Connect Basic. It will provide all teachers access to Class Connect so that a teacher can create and manage a classroom of up to 35 students who maintain their own progress through the Blockly Puzzles that teachers can monitor. Other features of Class Connect will be available with a paid subscription.
  • Read Aloud support, which is already available for Blockly Puzzles, is coming to Coding Pathways, as well as all Math activities in Class Connect. Now, pre-readers will have the support they need to take advantage of all of the learning tools inside of Class Connect, by clicking on a Read-Aloud toggle when they need it.
  • Our suite of online professional courses will be updated and improved in time for Back to School. The upgraded courses will include all of the new features we are introducing in Class Connect and Blockly.
]]> https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/new-features-at-wonder-workshop/feed/ 0 Class Connect Just Got Better! https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/class-connect-just-got-better/ https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/class-connect-just-got-better/#respond Fri, 27 Aug 2021 18:45:23 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=8072
Class Connect

We've turbocharged Dash and Class Connect to challenge kids with new, standards-aligned Math Activities.

New view. New content. The same robot you know and love.

What is Class Connect?

Class Connect is comprised of three main features:

  • Classroom management of student profiles in the Blockly App
  • A virtual robot in a 3D environment called Dash’s Neighborhood
  • Standards-aligned activities for teachers to assign and track

Who Can Benefit From the New Math Activities?

We created standards-aligned math activities for teachers who want to extend or reinforce learning in math with exciting, story-based challenges! Students demonstrate understanding using coding and robotics. Assign the activities for students to find inside of the Blockly app. Monitor how well they rise to the challenges!

Try Out Class Connect

What Are the New Math Activities?

Class Connect Math Activities are standard-aligned math assignments to support supplemental math skill fluency. The activities are assignable by the teacher for independent student completion. Wonder Workshop provides the alignment of math standards with coding challenges for you in a low-prep, engaging way. 

Use these activities as supplemental math reinforcement or enrichment all year long.

Class Connect provides the activity dashboard while Blockly (web or iOS) provides the assignment and coding environment to complete the assigned activity. Students get to use Dash’s Neighborhood and the coding environment to complete assignments and teachers can use the Dashboard to track and monitor progress.

Exciting stories immerse students in math coding activities that require subject-matter understanding, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

Why Did Wonder Workshop Create These Activities?

We created these math activities to support students mastering grade-level math skills and teachers looking for new ways to engage kids around math fluency. Whether you use these in your core math classroom or in the technology lab, you are providing an opportunity for students to reinforcing and enriching their understanding. We know that integrating coding into the core curriculum can be challenging and we wanted to offer a supplemental option that is low-prep for teachers and engaging for students. 

How to Dive In and Get Started

If this is your first time creating an account in the portal, you will be prompted to start a free trial of Class Connect. An activation token will be sent to you via email and that will unlock all of the features in the Class Connect Dashboard.

Once inside:

  • Browse math activities and filter them by domain and grade level. 
  • Hover over a lesson to reveal its associated standard and a summary of what students will do. 
  • Save lessons to your folder for quick reference and assign lessons to individuals, groups or entire classrooms of students. 
  • Access the full activity and view objectives, scripts, discussion questions and more. 
  • Click on the preview icon to see how the activity will appear to students viewing it inside of Blockly. 
Try Out Class Connect
Learn More

Need Help?

We’ve got you covered. Reach out to our Customer Success Team today!

Tiffany Louie
Customer Success Manager

Schedule a Meeting

AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, HI, ID, IL, IA, KS, MN, MT, NV, NM, ND, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY

Wendy Wells
Customer Success Manager

Schedule a Meeting

ME, AL, CT, DE, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, MD, MA, MI, MS, MO, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WV, WI

]]> https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/class-connect-just-got-better/feed/ 0 Dash’s Neighborhood – Access Guide https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/dashs-neighborhood-access-guide/ https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/dashs-neighborhood-access-guide/#respond Mon, 24 Aug 2020 16:00:20 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=7361 https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/dashs-neighborhood-access-guide/feed/ 0 Dash’s Neighborhood https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/dashs-neighborhood/ https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/dashs-neighborhood/#respond Wed, 20 May 2020 09:30:53 +0000 https://www.makewonder.com/?p=7348 https://www.makewonder.com/en/blog/dashs-neighborhood/feed/ 0