sheen robotics · teacher training handbookask sheen — the AI coding tutor inside the sheenbot canvas

Open the canvas (a logged-in project or the free, no-account canvas at sheen.bot/canvas-try) and you'll find a round blue button pinned to the top-right corner — that's ask sheen. Nothing to install; it works on the laptops, tablets and phones your classroom already has.

Clicking the button opens a two-step entry: step 1 picks who is coding, step 2 picks what to do. The age choice is remembered on the device, so returning students land straight on step 2.

The three modes at a glance

The student states an idea (say, "tell us when the classroom gets too hot") and sheen advances through six stages — Idea → Sense → Do → When → Plan → Build — asking exactly one guiding question per stage. Which sensor, what threshold, what happens when: every decision belongs to the student.

After the six stages sheen recaps the whole plan in plain language and asks the student to confirm — the student owns the design before a single block is placed. Confirming also picks the delivery:

Your starting scaffold

This is a starting point — not the finished program. Your job is to fill the gaps below.

Your turn — fill these in

Fill in the "too hot" threshold

Think: at what temperature does your classroom feel too hot? Try a number between 28 and 32, then test it for real.

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Pick the alert colour

Which colour says "warning" best? Why?

Before you build — explain it

• Why does the "if" check live inside the "forever" loop?
• What would the program do if > became <?

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Add scaffold to a new project3

• 1Every gap comes with a real block picture and a hint that says what to think about, not what to type; tapping a block picture locates it on the canvas or in the toolbox;
• 2The "explain it" prompts are ready-made for pair-explaining or cold-calling — "you understand it when you can explain it";
• 3The scaffold always opens as a new project — it never overwrites the student's work. Before delivery sheen also test-runs the program in the simulator and silently rebuilds it once if it fails.

Classroom procedure

1. Have students describe the idea in one full sentence (board template: "I want to build a ____ that ____ when ____");
2. Students answer stage by stage — encourage reasons, not "right answers";
3. Pause at the Plan stage: each student reads their plan to a partner before tapping "Challenge";
4. Scaffold lands in a new project → fill the gaps → run on the board or simulator → answer the "explain it" prompts.

When a program doesn't behave, students pick this mode. sheen first asks them to describe in their own words what the program should do (often half the diagnosis right there), then helps in three escalating layers — one layer at a time, with the answer always last:

One tap turns the workspace into a step-by-step walkthrough: an overview first, then each step lights up exactly the blocks it covers — read aloud automatically for younger students. The walkthrough card floats at the bottom of the canvas, clear of the blocks.

sheen.bot — coding canvas

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Explain Step 3 / 5

Check whether it's too hot

This step compares the variable "temperature" with 30. Only when the temperature is above 30 does the block inside run — the onboard LED turns red. This is where your program makes a decision.

show on canvas

Prev Next

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• 1The blocks covered by the current step glow on the canvas (here, the "if" check and everything inside it); the spotlight follows as you change steps;
• 2Card buttons, left to right: read aloud, re-fetch the explanation (use after editing the program), minimize, close; Prev / Next move freely in both directions.

Four high-value uses

• Inheriting a project — when teams rotate or continue last term's build, a new member reads the code in minutes, not lessons;
• Learning from examples — open a class sample, hear it explained block by block, then remix it;
• Classroom review — project a student's build and let sheen narrate it to the whole class, blocks glowing in sync — far clearer than describing code out loud;
• Presentation rehearsal — before a demo or assessment, students hear their program explained once, then close the card and retell it themselves.

Voice: read-aloud, speak-to-answer, hands-free

• Read aloud — the speaker button next to every question reads it out; the younger band auto-plays it, so reading level is never a barrier;
• Speak your answer — tap the mic and talk; a live transcript fills the input box. Great for slow typists;
• Conversation mode — fully hands-free: sheen reads the question, auto-opens the mic ("Speaking…" / "Listening…"), and a pause submits the answer.

Session management

Block pictures and hardware awareness

• When sheen mentions a block it shows the real block picture (e.g. ) — tap it and the canvas locates the block, or guides the student to it in the toolbox;
• sheen knows the sheenbot∞ board: which modules are built in, which pins they occupy, which combinations conflict. A wiring plan that collides with an on-board module or the I²C bus gets flagged before the student hits run.

Feedback: help the AI get better

The one-liner for parents: ask sheen doesn't write code for your child — it's an always-available coding coach whose first question is "what do you think?" Nothing to install; it runs on the devices the school already has.